Trump: Amash a ‘total lightweight,’ ‘loser’
Michigan Republican is first from his party to tout impeachment
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at Rep. Justin Amash, calling him a “total lightweight” and “loser” one day after the Michigan Republican said Trump’s conduct meets the threshold for impeachment.
Amash is the first Republican member of Congress to say the president “engaged in impeachable conduct.”
In morning tweets, Trump said he was “never a fan” of Amash, “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.”
The president argued that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election was “biased” but that it was “nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION.”
Mueller found 10 “episodes” of potential obstruction of justice by Trump but ultimately concluded that it was not his decision to determine whether the president broke the law.
Attorney General William Barr said he had reviewed the evidence and found it insufficient to support an obstruction charge.
In the report, Mueller’s team also wrote that while the investigation established that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from” information stolen in Russiabacked efforts, it “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
“Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!” Trump said. Amash’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican leaders on Sunday joined Trump in criticizing Amash. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called Amash’s comments “very disturbing,” arguing that the lawmaker is “not a criminal attorney. He’s never met Mueller. He’s never met Barr.”
During one February hearing alone, Amash asked several questions of former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, including, “What is the truth President Trump is most afraid of people knowing?”And despite McCarthy’s claim about Amash’s voting record, the Michigan Republican has a 68 percent conservative rating, according to 2015 rankings by the Almanac of American Politics.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Sunday that he respects Amash and believes he made a “courageous statement” about his views on impeachment. But Romney noted that he had come to a different conclusion.
Amash, a libertarian, considers himself a strict constitutionalist and is often the lone Trump dissenter on his side of the House aisle.
After reviewing the Mueller report, he shared his conclusions in a lengthy Twitter thread on Saturday.
Amash wrote that after reading the 448-page report, he had concluded that not only did Mueller’s team show that Trump had attempted to obstruct justice but that Barr had “deliberately misrepresented” the findings. Amash added that “few members of Congress even read Mueller’s report.”
“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” Amash said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, also praised Amash, saying he has shown “more courage than any other Republican in the House or Senate.”