Trump lashes out at GOP lawmaker
Michigan rep said Mueller report met threshold for impeachment
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday blasted the lone congressional Republican who has suggested the president has committed impeachable offenses, as party members — even sometime critics — closed ranks around the White House, denying that the evidence in the special counsel’s report suggests Trump acted to obstruct justice.
The president, who spent a sunny but humid Sunday at his Virginia golf course, branded Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., a “loser” for becoming the first member of his party to say that behavior laid out in Robert S. Mueller’s report met the “threshold” for impeachment. Amash stopped short, however, of calling for impeachment proceedings to begin.
On Twitter, the president derided the Michigan lawmaker as “a total lightweight” and suggesting that Amash, a libertarian who frequently breaks with Republican congressional leaders, was merely courting publicity — something that Trump, of course, provided him.
“Never a fan,” Trump wrote, calling Amash “a loser who sadly plays right into” the hands of Democrats.
There was little indication Sunday that any Republican would join Amash in seriously faulting the conduct of either Trump or his attorney general, William Barr.
Barr released a redacted version of the report after publicly summarizing its findings in a manner that Democrats widely described as a whitewash.