Michigan Republican Amash doubles down on calls for Trump impeachment

By Sonia Khaleel

May 29, 2019 at 2:09 pm

Audio By Carbonatix

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Michigan Republican Amash doubles down on calls for Trump impeachment

Courtesy photo

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) reiterated calls for Trump’s impeachment on Twitter on Tuesday, and was greeted with a standing ovation at a town hall in his conservative district later that evening.

Amash, a self-described lowercase "L" libertarian, further discussed his belief that Attorney General William Barr, the Republican Party, and the Trump White House were misrepresenting the results of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report in a round of 25 tweets on Tuesday. The report is the result of investigations into allegations of Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election, as well allegations of collusion and obstruction of justice by the president.

"Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller's report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president's false narrative about the investigation," Amash tweeted.

Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller’s report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president’s false narrative about the investigation.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019

"In truth, Mueller's report describes concerning contacts between members of Trump's campaign and people in or connected to the Russian government," Amash tweeted.

He also tweeted that he thought Barr has been propagating what Amash indicated is Trump’s spinning of the truth.

"Barr has so far successfully used his position to sell the President's false narrative to the American people,” Amash said via Twitter. “This will continue if those who have read the report do not start pushing back on his misrepresentations and share the truth.”

While speaking to a crowd of more than 700 people at the town hall at Grand Rapids Christian High School on Tuesday evening, Amash expanded upon the idea that there should be consequences for leaders who violate the public trust.

"Clearly, things that violate the public trust are impeachable,” Amash said. "I think it's really important that we do our job as Congress. That we would not allow misconduct to go undeterred."

Amash went on to tell the crowd that he supports Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she were to move forward with the impeachment process.

"We have a job to do, and I think we owe it to the American people to represent them to ensure that the people we have in office are doing the right thing, are of good character, aren't violating the public trust,” Amash said.

On May 18, Amash, previously became the first Republican member of Congress to call President Donald Trump’s conduct “impeachable” after he finished reading and analyzing the 400-page report. He remains the only Republican who has made this call.

Rep. Justin Amash becomes first Republican lawmaker to call Trump's conduct 'impeachable'

Amash has, as yet, not signed impeachment resolutions created by Democrats, despite a recent tweet by Detroit Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who has long called for Trump's impeachment, inviting him to do so.

You are putting country first, and that is to be commended. We both took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Please let me know if you are interested signing on to the resolution to begin the investigation into impeachment. https://t.co/f5CT3uB81d
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) May 18, 2019

Tlaib also reiterated her call for an impeachment inquiry on Wednesday afternoon.

My takeaway from Mueller’s statement: Congress needs to bring finality to the Mueller report with an impeachment inquiry. More below. pic.twitter.com/R6oRcxIII3
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) May 29, 2019

At the town hall, Amash reiterated his ideals by saying, “In any case, you should always do what's right."

This is not the first time Amash has not fallen along party lines, as he has also disagreed with his party in the past when it came to certain foreign policy and surveillance issues.

His call to impeach Trump and his prompting for other Republicans in Congress to join him is easily his biggest break from party ranks yet. In response, the DeVos family, a powerful entity in Conservative politics, announced it would stop supporting Amash. State legislator Rep. Jim Lower announced he would challenge Amash in the 2020 primary.

On Wednesday, Mueller appeared at a press conference to make his first public remarks about his investigation before resigning, saying that charging Trump was never an option because of department guidelines that federal prosecutors could not charge a sitting president with a crime — although he encouraged Congress to do so.

Shortly after, Amash took to Twitter to once again double down on his calls for impeachment. "The ball is in our court, Congress," he tweeted.