“Iowa caucuses, folks, Iowa caucuses are this next Monday evening,” Ernst told reporters in the Capitol. “And I’m really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus-goers. Will they be supporting Vice President Biden at this point? Not certain about that.”

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives last month and now faces potential removal from office by the Senate for pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open investigations into domestic political rivals including the Bidens, and allegedly withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid until Zelensky announced those probes.

In pushing for Shokin’s ouster, Biden was advancing the interests of official U.S. foreign policy, other Western nations and anti-corruption advocates who unanimously viewed Shokin as corrupt. Shokin’s investigation of Burisma was also reportedly long dormant by the time he was forced from his post in Kiev, and there is no evidence that Joe or Hunter Biden perpetrated any wrongdoing with regard to Ukraine.

Biden remains competitive in Iowa just six days from the caucuses, but is battling the ascendant Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a handful of other Democratic White House hopefuls for a first-place finish in the inaugural nominating contest.

Ernst received swift blowback for her remarks from Democratic lawmakers and critics on social media, who accused her of transparently attempting to smear Biden and undercutting the legitimacy of the White House’s impeachment defense.

“I think it’s unfortunate that it’s reached that point,” Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber’s second-highest ranking Democrat, told CNN on Tuesday when asked about Ernst.

“I don’t think we should be measuring the impeachment articles and their veracity, their truth and whether they should be taken seriously on the impact it’s going to have on an Iowa caucus voter,” he said.

Ernst’s comments also drew comparisons to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s boast in 2015 that the work of the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi had diminished Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s standing in public polling. That assessment by McCarthy, now the House minority leader, was widely viewed to have thwarted his bid to replace retiring Speaker John Boehner.