On May 18th, former attorney and now U.S. Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) became the first, and still only, Republican member of Congress to call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. The five-term Republican put his political career at risk by doing this. He said he became convinced of doing it after reading the 448-page Special Counsel Robert Mueller report about his investigation of President Trump and possible Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.
Ever since, Amash has been doing a lot of Twitter tweeting in response to his critics. He has laid out substantial reasoning for his position. Amash is a libertarian and avowed constitutionalist. He claims that due to the Mueller report, it is now the obligation of Congress to begin proceedings to impeach the president. Amash bases this assertion mostly on the ten incidents that Mueller lays out in his report about President Trump possibly obstructing justice. Amash says some of these incidents are clearly obstruction of justice. Weeks ago, a letter signed by over a thousand former federal prosecutors say the same thing. They also say that if Trump was not president, he certainly would be prosecuted for such crimes.
Mueller said in the report that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel guidelines restricted Mueller’s investigatory team from concluding that the president had committed a crime, which is what obstruction of justice is. Mueller subtly implies in the report that Congress should now consider his report and conclude whether or not to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. Mueller confirmed this today in a twenty-minute prepared speech at the Justice Department.
Two days ago, Justin Amash held his first town meeting–in his district of western Michigan–since he first made this pronouncement about impeaching the president. He said that because of the Constitution’s article about impeachment, and if Congress does not impeach President Trump, “I am worried that impeachment may never be used in any circumstances.” Indeed, it would give way to encouraging a president to commit all kinds of crimes with impunity. Amash added, “You have to have proceedings that deter this sort of conduct,” referring to Trump’s obstruction, and attempts at obstruction, of the Mueller investigation. Trump had constantly labeled it “a hoax” and “a witch hunt.”
Justin Amash’s parents are strong Orthodox Christians. His father is Palestinian and his mother is Syrian. After they married, they migrated to Michigan in the U.S., where Justin was born. The main city in his district is Grand Rapids. That is the main center in the U.S. for Christian book publishers. Eerdmans is located there. It is now the number one publisher of Christian theological books in the U.S. Baker Books is also there, and it is arguably now number two. And there are many others in Grand Rapids.
When I was competing on the Senior/Champions Tour, we had a tournament in Grand Rapids in which I always competed. When I did, I sometimes visited some of these publishers because I was an author of theological books.
The Amash town hall meeting was held at the DeVos Center for Arts and Worship at Grand Rapids High School. That is where Justin Amash attended high school. Amash said at this meeting that the Mueller report shows that President Trump has “reached the thresh hold of impeachment.”
The billionaire and Republican DeVos family is a big contributor of President Donald Trump. They are centered in Grand Rapids. After Amash held this town meeting Tuesday, they announced they would oppose Amash’s reelection in 2022. Betsy DeVos is the U.S. Secretary of Education, placed there by President Trump.
President Trump responded to Amash’ remarks at this town hall meeting by calling Amash “a total lightweight” trying to “get his name out there.” I disagree vehemently. Amash is a man of principle, and that is why he says he is doing this. The New York Times, today, says of this town hall meeting on Tuesday that Congressman Justin Amash has chosen “principle over party. . . . telling attendees, ‘You have to do the right thing, regardless.'” Trump and his Republican supporters will be coming hard against Congressman Justin Amash and try to get him ousted in the 2022 election.
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