Amash continues Trump's critics in a new tweetstorm

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After reading the Mueller report, Amash had tweeted his thoughts on the obstruction of justice last weekend, adding that he thought that Attorney General William Barr had intentionally misrepresented the findings of the court. special advocate Robert Mueller.

This prompted Jim Lower, a representative of the state of Michigan who had previously supported Amash, to announce Monday that he would attend the Republican primaries next year.

Lower said he planned to announce his candidacy in July, but announced the announcement after Amash 's comments.

Amash doubled his position Monday afternoon in another tweet wire, rejecting arguments that an underlying crime would be needed to impeach Trump for obstruction.
"I helped his campaign," Lower told The Daily News, a Michigan newspaper. "Good God, I voted for Amash in '10, '12 and '14."

"At the time, I believed in what he was doing, but now this is no longer the case," he said. "I have just been very disenchanted."

But Amash's remarks were a surprise to anyone who is following him closely.

Justin Amash is the Republic's most lonely Republican

He was the first Republican to support an independent investigation into the 2016 elections and Russia's interference. He was the first Republican to say in 2017 that the fact that Trump prevented justice from dismissing former FBI director James Comey could be an impenetrable offense. And more recently, he has attracted attention by being the only Republican to ask serious questions in order to reveal potential wrongdoing at a February hearing with Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Amash is now the first Republican to argue that Trump has committed unseizable offenses. His position triggered an avalanche of headlines and a charge laden with insults. reply Of the president.

He also drew the condemnations of the President of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel – "The only people who remain attached to the hoax of collusion with Russia are the political enemies of President Trump who hope to defeat him in 2020 by all means possible" , she said. Kevin McCarthy, who argued that Amash was simply trying to attract attention.

"The question is, is he even in the whole of our Republican conference.What he wants is the attention in this process," he said. McCarthy on Fox News. "He has never supported the president, and I think he's just trying to attract attention."

Mr. Amash and his staff have so far withstood a flood of requests for media interviews since his remarks this weekend.

The question now is what Amash will do next.

He has never been a traditional loyalist of the party of climbing. He is used to being isolated from the vast majority of his peers in Congress and is often the only "no" Republican voting otherwise. He regularly ran into political party leaders, shamelessly criticizing former speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan. And his strong libertarian conviction on issues such as surveillance and foreign policy, as well as his determination to continue an increasingly distant law-making lawmaking process, have always distinguished him from the GOP .
His decision to publicly share his thoughts on the impeachment – which even many Democrats are afraid to do – corrects the gap that separates him from himself and from the group of extremist conservatives that he helped found, the House Freedom Caucus, at the time of Trump.
Amash has in the past put an end to the efforts of the institutions to reverse it, but this primary is different. It would be almost a test to see if Republicans can really be independent of Trump and continue to be successful in the current political environment. In the first two years of Trump's term, Republicans in Congress rallied to the president as his top critics, such as retired Senator Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, declined.

In 2018, Amash was reelected with 54.4% of the vote, after a smooth beating in the GOP primary. It is clear that his run in 2020, when he chooses to run again, will not be that simple.

If there is something important to watch after Amash's remarks this weekend, it is to decide whether Amash, as a leading libertarian who commands the country's cult, could decide to launch a challenge to Trump in 2020, rather than running for his seat again.

Amash has created an independent brand since the beginning of his political career. He has long envisioned running for the presidency as a third party candidate or to separate completely from the Republican party.

"I would never dismiss anything," he told CNN's Jake Tapper in March when he was asked about his candidacy for the 2020 presidency. "This is not about my sense, but I think it's important that we have someone who presents a vision for America different from what these two parties present. "

In the already crowded 2020 field, an independent candidate benefiting from a pre-existing support base among conservative voters could complicate Trump's path to victory.

"I never stop thinking about this stuff," Amash told CNN in a follow-up interview. "It's not because I have any immediate projects or anything of the sort, but I never stop thinking about these things because there is a big problem with the current system to two parties we have, and someone has to move it. "

"Now, is it possible for anyone to make things happen and make a difference?" he added. "I do not know."

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