Republican Rep. Justin Amash earned himself a primary challenge after he became the first from his party to call for President Trump’s impeachment.
Amash published a twitter thread that came to various conclusions on the Russia collusion investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, chief among them that “President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.”
Republican Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower announced he will mount a challenge to Amash’s seat, which he has held since 2011, specifically citing those comments.
“Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump’s impeachment show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents,” Lower said. “He must be replaced and I am going to do it.”
GOP Rep. Justin Amash (MI-03) draws a primary challenge after announcing support for impeachment — State Rep. Jim Lower (MI-70), in radio interview this AM: “Today, we’re announcing that I am going to challenge Congressman Amash in the Republican primary” https://t.co/F8zzf09t0E
— David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) May 20, 2019
Trump hammered Amash as just another “lightweight” looking for attention off of his name.
Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy. If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, “composed” by 18 Angry Dems who hated Trump,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019
Amash’s Case For Impeachment
The former Tea Party star pieced together interpretations and ‘implied context’ to lower the threshold for impeachment from ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ to actions that “violate(s) the public trust.”
If that’s the bar for such a drastic constitutional move, then Trump’s predecessor should have been the subject of impeachment hearings on multiple occasions.
Impeachment, which is a special form of indictment, does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 18, 2019
The call for impeachment was so extreme that even wishy-washy Mitt Romney refused to jump on board. Though he did call Amash “courageous” and suggested his own reasons against the move were more a political calculation than an admission that the President hasn’t committed any impeachable offenses.
“My own view is that Justin Amash has reached a different conclusion than I have. I respect him, I think it’s a courageous statement,” Romney said during a CNN interview with Jake Tapper.
“The American people just aren’t there,” he pointed out. “The Senate is certainly not there, either.”
Neither is the law, as noted by the Attorney General’s conclusions and the report itself.
Amash’s Political Leanings
Amash appears to have taken the mantle of libertarian to the furthest extreme of late, sending him almost completely back around to the left with his recent actions.
In fact, he has yet to rule out running as the Libertarian Party candidate against President Trump in 2020.
The tepid Republican sided with Democrats earlier this year by claiming the President’s national emergency declaration to secure funding for the border wall was unconstitutional.
In March, he bizarrely voted with the opposition party in support of allowing illegal immigrants the right to vote.
A lawmaker who views voting as a right for illegals has no understanding of, and no business lecturing about, the Constitution.