Justin Amash Says Impeach, And We Always Agree With Justin Amash

Mitt Romney, Jeff Flake certain to tut-tut very seriously now.

On Saturday, Michigan Congressman Justin Amash became the first Republican in Congress to call for impeachment, or at the very least to say Donald Trump had "engaged in impeachable conduct." Amash, a hyperconservative libertarian and occasional Steve Carell impersonator, said in a Twitter thread he came to this conclusion after reading the entire redacted Mueller Report, which he said most members of Congress hadn't because they are lazy and partisan and probably criticize Ayn Rand without even reading her either.

While we aren't about to be sending his reelection campaign any contributions, it was nice to see a Tea Party Republican talking sense for once, at least for a moment.

Here are my principal conclusions: 1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report. 2. Pr… https://t.co/hGdDk1qgtW

— Justin Amash (@Justin Amash) 1558207823.0 

Amash also came to the astonishing conclusion -- for a Republican, at least -- thatTrump defenseAttorney General William Barr had deliberately misled the public about the contents of the Mueller Report in the near month between its completion and its release, noting that Barr had fed Americans a load of carefully cultivated bullshit.

Barr’s misrepresentations are significant but often subtle, frequently taking the form of sleight-of-hand qualifica… https: //t.co/IJhXSSu6OI

— Justin Amash (@Justin Amash) 1558207824.0 

We do so like it when someone notices subtlety and logical fallacies! And when they notice subtle stuff like the fact that under the Constitution, impeachment "does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct." And by gosh, Amash found plenty of that in the Mueller Report:

In fact, Mueller’s report identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of jus… https: //t.co/a4GivBtCbv

— Justin Amash (@Justin Amash) 1558207825.0 

Amash was only a corporate attorney for his family's business before entering politics, so he won't be signing that letter by a million prosecutors pointing out that anyone other than a president would already be indicted, but looks like he's done his homework. He went on to acknowledge that while impeachment is such a constitutional BFG 9000 that some worry it may get used too easily, the real risk, he says , is that "Congress will employ it so rarely that it cannot deter misconduct."

Donald Trump was quick to proclaim Amash a dirty loser who's giving aid and comfort to the enemies of America:

....he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION...Anyway, how do y… https: //t.co/7Pi0Jf6uZl

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1558274107.0 

And GOP chair Ronna "Please forget my uncle Mitt Romney" McDaniel said in a statement,

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.

FACT CHECK: Amash only discussed the obstruction portion of the Mueller Report, though Crom knows the Russia part certainly indicated plenty of bad behavior and noted that Trumpworld obstruction made a full investigation impossible. So that's what you'd have to call one of those sleight-of-hand logical phalluses right there. Nicely done!

Thank goodness McDaniel's uncle Mitt came riding to the blandness, praising Amash for his "courageous statement" and immediately adding that gosh golly gee there's just nothing to be done, so sad:

Mitt Romney: “I don’t think a prosecutor would actually look at this and say, ‘Okay we have here all the elements t… https://t.co/doTcTlnWWr

— Keith Boykin (@Keith Boykin) 1558284320.0 

Obstruction of justice? Look, the report only laid out all the instances where Trump and his minions had all the elements of such a case, and isn't it enough to say it's very distressing? MITT ROMNEY IS DISTRESSED, and you should all be happy with that.

Back home in Michigan, a Trump-humping state representative, Jim Lower, tweeted that he intends to primary Amash, to save America from Amash's scurrilous support for the rule of law:

This cannot go unchallenged! I support @realDonaldTrump, I support West Michigan values, I support our party's valu… https: //t.co/Cthycq7Bka

— Jim Lower (@Jim Lower) 1558224533.0 

So hooray to Justin Amash, we always like to provide positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior. We hope he enjoys his cookie before he decides again to oppose federal aid for the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or votes against funding suicide prevention because the Constitution says we're all on our own.

And get ready for a replay of his 2014 reelection bid, when the fact that his family is of Arab Christian descent brings out the crazies, like when Devin Nunes called Amash "Al Qaeda's best friend in Congress." We figure the only reason Trump hasn't already started calling Amash "Ahab the Ay-rab" is that nobody has yet pointed out the guy's ethnicity. Trump probably figures "Amash" means he has a long beard, drives a horse and buggy, and doesn't use buttons.

[ Justin Amash on Twitter / NYT / Politico ]

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