House

Amash calls McCarthy incompetent, dishonest after ’60 Minutes’ interview

by Chris Mills Rodrigo 09/29/19 10:42 PM ET

Independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) on Sunday hit Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) over an interview the Republican House leader did about the impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

“Kevin McCarthy again displays his unique brand of incompetence and dishonesty,” Amash tweeted along with a video of the interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

{mosads}In the interview, McCarthy was pressed by host Scott Pelley on the July 25 phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, according to a partial transcript released by the White House.

Pelley repeatedly pressed McCarthy on whether soliciting foreign assistance to undermine a political opponent was appropriate, but McCarthy did not respond, instead bringing up the weight of votes on sending troops to war.

The California lawmaker also appeared surprised when Pelley read a direct quote from the partial transcript of the call between Trump and Zelensky released by the White House, initially implying that Pelley had altered the quote.

Amash left the Republican Party on July 4 after coming out in support of impeachment following the release of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mueller laid out 10 potential cases of obstruction of justice by Trump, and Amash determined that at least some of them reached the threshold for impeachment.