Justin Amash just made his political bed and it will end his career. He, in a stubborn move, doubled down in his earlier call to impeach Trump.
He listed his reasons in a series of tweets and before he could even finish his rant he got the worst kind of bad news for a political hack like Amash.
From The Hill: Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Monday doubled down on his critical remarks of President Trump, detailing in a series of tweets why he thinks the case can be made that Trump should be impeached for obstruction of justice.
“People who say there were no underlying crimes and therefore the president could not have intended to illegally obstruct the investigation—and therefore cannot be impeached—are resting their argument on several falsehoods,” Amash tweeted.
In a series of subsequent tweets, Amash sought to shoot down a number of prominent defenses of the president’s behavior illustrated in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Amash argued that it would be inaccurate to say “there were no underlying crimes” revealed by Mueller’s investigation; that obstruction of justice requires an underlying crime; that the president should be allowed to use any means to end a so-called frivolous investigation; and that the threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors” requires actual criminal charges.
Amash Tweeted out: “People who say there were no underlying crimes and therefore the president could not have intended to illegally obstruct the investigation—and therefore cannot be impeached—are resting their argument on several falsehoods. In fact, there were many crimes revealed by the investigation, some of which were charged, and some of which were not but are nonetheless described in Mueller’s report.
In fact, obstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that. Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely *because* obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution.
In fact, “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” is not defined in the Constitution and does not require corresponding statutory charges. The context implies conduct that violates the public trust—and that view is echoed by the Framers of the Constitution and early American scholars.”
Before the ink was dry on his tweets Amash got the bad news – he will be primaried by a Trump supporter. In a district that favors Trump, this is a career ender for the soon to be Democrat Amash.
From The Hill: A Michigan state lawmaker on Monday announced he will mount a primary challenge to Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) after the congressman tweeted that he believed President Trump had committed impeachable offenses, according to the Detroit Free Press.
State Rep. Jim Lower (R) said he would challenge Amash in the Republican primary for his western Michigan seat rather than seek a third term in the state legislature.
Lower said he had been planning to run before Amash’s remarks but fast-tracked his announcement after the tweets this weekend despite originally planning to make it closer to July 4.
Amash drew fire from Trump on Sunday for tweeting that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report detailed “impeachable conduct” and that Attorney General William Barr had misrepresented Mueller’s findings.
“Mueller’s report identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence,” Amash said.
Trump fired back, calling Amash a “total lightweight” and accusing him of making the comments “for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy.”
Lower has seized on the back and forth.
“Congressman Justin Amash’s 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, according to the newspaper. “He must be replaced and I am going to do it.”
