So far, Republicans in Congress have backed Donald Trump’s “no collusion, no obstruction” narrative despite over 400 pages of the Mueller report that says exactly the opposite. Special Counsel Robert Mueller stated in no uncertain terms that his investigation did not exonerate the president, and nearly every GOP politicians and pundit who insists that it did also say they’ve never read it.
Justin Amash (R-MI) did finally read it. He concluded that not only did obstruction of justice clearly occur but that the Trump campaign’s willingness to work with Russia is deeply concerning whether or not they were ever able to make a formal connection with the hostile foreign power.
Here are my principal conclusions:
1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report.
2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.
3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances.
4. Few members of Congress have read the report.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 18, 2019
Trump’s accusations that Amash “opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies” translates into nothing more than “he won’t just fall in line and pretend that the Mueller report says things that it doesn’t. Amash holds that whether or not the “collusion” (which is not a legal term, the crime for which Trump was investigated was “criminal conspiracy”) actually occurred is irrelevant. Trump’s actions were, at the very least, impeachable and, at the very worst, clearly criminal.
The U.S. Constitution, which Trump claims to love more than anyone else ever, clearly lays out the process for executive oversight, a responsibility that lies with Congress and not a special prosecutor or anyone else. That is why Mueller stated that the adjudication of Trump’s crimes did not lie with him, but with Congress. It’s far past time that Trump was held accountable for his actions.
Twitter was not buying Trump’s insults. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license