Evizda

Trump critics on Monday pointed to what they said was the latest evidence that congressional Democrats must begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump: the fact that the move now has the support of at least one Republican.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) became the first Republican to publicly call for the House to draw up articles of impeachment against Trump in a Twitter thread on Saturday, arguing that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the president’s campaign offers ample evidence that Trump obstructed justice.

“Plenty of liberals are asking why there aren’t more Republican members of Congress with the guts, eloquence, or honesty to say what Amash has said. It’s a good question. But a better, more relevant question is this: Why aren’t there more Democrats willing to say the same?”                                                           —Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept

His position puts Amash at odds with many members of his own party—and resulted in a threat from one state representative who vowed to challenge Amash in a primary in 2020—and also with top Democrats who have claimed that pursuing impeachment would be a futile exercise despite mounting evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing.

“Plenty of liberals are asking why there aren’t more Republican members of Congress with the guts, eloquence, or honesty to say what Amash has said,” wrote Mehdi Hasan at The Intercept on Monday. “It’s a good question. But a better, more relevant question is this: Why aren’t there more Democrats willing to say the same?” 

In his Twitter thread on Saturday, Amash wrote that any member of Congress who has thoroughly read the Mueller report should have come to the same conclusion he did after reading the 448-page document.

Despite Attorney General William Barr’s claim that the report suggested Trump could not have obstructed justice because he didn’t commit an underlying crime, Mueller’s investigation uncovered at least 10 instances in which the president may have obstructed justice—instances which the special counsel left to Congress to investigate. 

Barr “deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report,” Amash concluded after reading the document—which, he suggested, few members of Congress had actually read.

“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal,” Amash wrote, “Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.”

On Monday, Amash doubled down on his call for drawing up articles of impeachment, expanding on his view that Congress has reason to impeach the president even if Trump did not personally commit an underlying crime by colluding with Russia.