Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) plowed through the 450-page Mueller Report. After that, he tweeted that he thought that Trump obstructed justice. Plus, he believed Attorney General William Barr intentionally misled Americans in both his press conference immediately prior to the release of the report and in Barr’s own summary. Then, he set off some firsts.
The Republican was the first of his party to call for Donald Trump’s impeachment. Of course, Trump Twitter attacked him. Amash used the Mueller report and simply outlined exactly where he felt the Republicans were wrong about Trump and the Mueller report in a series of tweets. He may be the first to give Trump a serious run in the 2020 presidential elections.
Amash told reporters, according to CNN::
‘It’s a process. It’s not like the resolution is just brought up overnight; it’s a process. And you have to come to the right conclusions on how to draft something.’
As Trump made his way to the Pennsylvania rally, he spoke about Amash:
‘(He has) been against Trump from the beginning (and has) been a loser for a long time. Personally. I think he’s not much.’
A far-right Michigan state representative Jim Lower (R) immediately stepped up to run against Amash. The U.S. representative under fire said:
‘People are free to make up their minds about things and make their own opinions.’
Amash was not concerned with Lower’s challenge:
‘(I)t’s not serious. I feel very confident in my district.’
Lower spoke to Michigan’s The Daily News:
‘I helped with his campaign. Hell, I voted for Amash in ’10, ’12 and ’14. At the time, I believed in what he was doing, but now I don’t. I’ve just been very disenchanted.’
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared on Fox News and claimed that Amash was just seeking attention:
‘It’s a question whether he’s even in our Republican conference as a whole. What he wants is attention in this process. He never supported the president, and I think he’s just looking for attention.’
The Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said:
‘The only people still fixated on the Russia collusion hoax are political foes of President Trump hoping to defeat him in 2020 by any desperate means possible.’
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked him about a 2020 presidential run as an independent in March, and Amash said:
‘I would never rule anything out.That’s not on my radar right now, but I think that it is important that we have someone in there who is presenting a vision for America that is different from what these two parties are presenting.’
In a separate CNN interview, Amash said:
‘I never stop thinking about these sorts of things. It’s not because I have any immediate plans or anything like that, but I never stop thinking about those things because there is a big problem with the current two-party system we have, and someone has to shake it up. Now, is it possible for anyone to shake it up and make a difference? I don’t know.’
Amash was the first Republican to call for an independent Russian and Trump campaign investigation in 2016. He was also the first in his party to say that firing former FBI Director James Comey could be impeachable, especially if the Special Counsel Robert Mueller found evidence of obstruction of justice, which he did.
When Amash questioned Michael Cohen, he was the first Republican representative to do so. Now, he has stepped up to be the first Republican to call for Trump’s impeachment.
