Justin Amash not backing down from criticism of Trump administration
Republican Rep. Justin Amash — the first and thus far only Republican to say the president has committed impeachable offenses — isn't backing down. And he doesn't seem to care if the whole world knows it.
Amash raised plenty of eyebrows earlier this month when he described Mr. Trump's actions outlined in special counsel Robert Mueller's report as meeting the threshold for impeachment. On Tuesday, the Michigan Republican unleashed a new 25-tweet thread criticizing Attorney General William Barr's handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's report and testimony before Congress.
"Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller's report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president's false narrative about the investigation," Amash tweeted. "After receiving Mueller's report, Barr wrote and released a letter on March 24 describing Barr's own decision not to indict the president for obstruction of justice. That letter selectively quotes and summarizes points in Mueller's report in misleading ways."
Amash went on to highlight apparent inconsistencies between Barr's portrayal of Mueller's report, and Mueller's report.
"Barr says the White House 'fully cooperated' with the investigation and that Mueller 'never sought' or 'pushed' to get more from the president, but the report says Mueller unsuccessfully sought an interview with the president for over a year," Amash tweeted.
Amash, who is known on Capitol Hill for his aversion to interviews, has said little publicly since his tweets on impeachment. In recent days, Amash has also tweeted criticism of the president's approval of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and his use of his pardon power. But Amash, a Republican with consistent libertarian tendencies, has always been an independent voice in Congress. Other Republicans are unlikely to follow Amash's lead in suggesting the president committed impeachable offenses.
Mr. Trump declared Amash, who first won his current House seat in 2010, a "loser." Amash already has a primary challenger for 2020: state Rep. Jim Lower, who entered the race sooner than he'd planned after Amash called the president's actions impeachable offenses.
