House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's letter to her caucus signaling a shift to favoring impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump and her plans for key meetings with party lawmakers are "critical" developments, Sen. Mazie Hirono said Tuesday.
"What's different is Nancy Pelosi sending the letter that she did to her caucus saying they're at the point where when the White House withholding information from the whistleblower that should come to our committees, when we hear about what the president supposedly said to the leader of the Ukraine, him holding back almost $300 million or $400 million in aid to Ukraine, these all add up," the Hawaii Democrat told CNN's "New Day."
Hirono said she has called for an impeachment inquiry in the Senate, which is different from a full-out impeachment.
"First you have to get the evidence, and then you decide whether or not you're going to go ahead with impeachment proceedings after that," she said.
Meanwhile, news reports stating that Trump told acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to withhold nearly $3 million in defense aid about a week before speaking with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky are further evidence that needs to be investigated, said Hirono.
"Even if the president didn't say, 'hey, by the way, leader of the Ukraine, you know, I'm holding back money so I'll release it if you investigate Biden,' you know, you don't have to have the president actually saying that," said Hirono. "The president knows that his conversations are monitored, but one should be able to connect the dots, and I think there is evidence."