Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Sen. Amy Klobuchar over her role in the prosecution of a 16-year-old black boy who received a life sentence after a new report claimed he might not be guilty.
Klobuchar, 59, has received calls to suspend her campaign from several black activist groups in her home state of Minnesota after a report found that a case she oversaw as Hennepin County prosecutor may have wrongly placed Myon Burrell, who was 16 at the time, behind bars for life over the murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards.
An investigation from the Associated Press found that much of the evidence that tied Burrell to the crime was gathered from witnesses who were either paid by authorities to testify or from individuals in prison who testified to get a reduced sentence.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace asked Klobuchar if she knew about the potentially compromised evidence when she was prosecuting the case. The Minnesota senator dodged the question by diving into the details about Edwards’s horrific death.
Wallace cut her off, saying, “We know it was a bad case. The question is whether this young man did it. And this AP investigation indicates that other people who were there said he didn’t do it and that some of the witnesses that were relied on were very questionable. You were the head prosecutor. Did you know, and if you didn’t, shouldn’t you have known?”
Klobuchar dodged the question a second time by explaining that she supports new evidence coming forward in any case, adding, “The job of a prosecutor is to do justice, and that means, to me, convict the guilty, protect the innocent. Do your job without fear of failing.”
Wallace responded, “Senator, you’re not answering my question. Did you know about the fact that there was this questionable evidence that the police were coming up with?”
“I didn’t know about this new evidence. No, I didn’t know about this new evidence until I saw this report. I couldn’t have. I haven’t been in the office for 12 years,” Klobuchar replied.
Sen Amy Klobuchar responds to new evidence in a murder case she prosecuted years ago as well as to criticism that her tough-on-crime record is alienating some black voters. #FNS #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/fz9D2sKV4K
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) February 2, 2020
Wallace again demanded that she answer the question and noted that Klobuchar would need to build her support among black voters to win the Democratic nomination. Klobuchar responded, “It’s on me to go across the country and make the case for my agenda.”
According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Klobuchar sits in fifth place in Iowa with 9.6% support. She trails Iowa front-runners Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
