Trump’s conduct is impeachable: MP
Michigan Representative Justin Amash- a staunch libertarian on the right of the Republican Party- has described Donald Trump’s conduct as “impeachable”, to which the US president retorted by calling the lawmaker “lightweight.”
Amash said in a string of tweets on Saturday that any other person would have been prosecuted over Trump’s multiple attempts to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
On Sunday, Trump said in a tweet: “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.” He said that if Amish “actually read the biased Mueller Report... he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION...”
Trump called Amash “a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents’ hands!”
Amash, who has broken with his party before, said Mueller had identified “multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice.”
“Undoubtedly,” Amash added, “any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.”
Since Mueller issued his voluminous report, Trump has repeatedly attacked its authors as partisans even while insisting it exonerates him of allegations of collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. But Democrats note that the report lists around 140 contacts between Trump’s inner circle and various Russians and that it exhaustively details evidence of at least 10 cases where Trump appeared to be interfering with the probe.
Amash has often been a lone voice in his party, and so his stance carried less impact than if it had come from a party mainstay. A much higher-profile Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, spoke out on Sunday against impeachment even while praising Amash.
“I respect him,” the Republicans’ 2012 presidential nominee and occasional fierce Trump critic, told Fox News Sunday of Amash. “I think it’s a courageous statement. But I believe to make a case for obstruction of justice, you just don’t have the elements.”
Democrats have been divided on impeachment but support appears to be growing with the Trump administration resisting numerous congressional requests for witnesses or information. AGENCIES