President Trump on Sunday ripped Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) for saying that the president had reached the “threshold for impeachment,” accusing the conservative lawmaker of leveling the charge “for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy.”
“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,” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump added that Amash would see that he was misguided if he “actually read the biased” report put together by special counsel Robert Mueller.
{mosads}”He would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION,” Trump said. “Anyway, how do you Obstruct when there is no crime and, in fact, the crimes were committed by the other side? Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!”
Amash, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, on Saturday became the first GOP lawmaker to say that the president’s conduct was “impeachable.”
The lawmaker made the accusation in a series of tweets that laid out his thoughts on Mueller’s investigation and report. Amash argued that the report identified “multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice.”
He also criticized Attorney General William Barr, saying that he “deliberately” misrepresented Mueller’s finding when he sent a four-page memo about the investigation to Congress earlier this year.
“Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” Amash said at one point.
The GOP lawmaker also criticized the partisanship in Congress, saying that it has “eroded our system of checks and balances.”
Amash has frequently criticized the president throughout his term in the White House. He previously said that he would not rule out seeking the Libertarian nomination for president in 2020.
His remarks break with many of the arguments members of the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers have made since Mueller’s 22-month investigation ended.
The Mueller report revealed that the special counsel did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that a conspiracy took place between Moscow and the Trump campaign. But the report said that Mueller was unable to make a conclusive determination on obstruction.
In addition to Trump, the Republican National Committee (RNC) denounced Amash over his accusation.
“It’s sad to see Congressman Amash parroting the Democrats’ talking points on Russia. The only people still fixated on the Russia collusion hoax are political foes of President Trump hoping to defeat him in 2020 by any desperate means possible,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel.
UPDATED 10:26 a.m.