Justin Amash gets Republican primary challenger after Trump labels him a 'loser' and a 'lightweight' for saying Congress should impeach him

• e-mail

The first Republican in the U.S. Congress to say openly that President Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses drew a 2020 election challenge on Monday from within his own party.

He responded by doubling down, outlining his case for why the president should face America's ultimate political penalty.

In a case of swift political retribution, Representative Justin Amash, just two days after making his remarks about Trump, faced a Republican primary bid from Jim Lower, a Michigan state legislator who described himself as a 'pro-Trump, pro-life, pro-jobs, pro-Second Amendment, pro-family values Republican.'

Posting a photo of himself on Facebook in front of a 'Trump 2020' sign, Lower said: 'Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump´s impeachment show how out of touch he is ... He must be replaced and I am going to do it.'

Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, found himself with a GOP primary challenger on Monday just a few days after accusing President Donald Trump of impeachable conduct

President Donald Trump was cleared by a special counsel probe but Democrats, and now one Republican, have called for his removal anyway

Republican state Rep. James Lower of Cedar Lake, Michigan will challenge Amash for the nomination to keep his own seat in Congress

Another Republican, Army National Guard veteran Tom Norton, announced last month he is running. Amash was first elected in 2010 and overcame a 2014 primary challenge.

As his political future hung in the balance, Amash stuck to his guns.

On Twitter, Amash said Saturday that the Mueller report showed that Trump, a fellow Republican, has obstructed justice and added, 'President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.'

No other Republican member of Congress has made such statements. Democrats have been debating for months the possibility of starting proceedings to remove Trump from office. 

Robert Mueller  (pictured) found no criminal conspiracy between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia 

No U.S. president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of the U.S. Constitution's impeachment process.

Citing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report on Russian meddling in Trump's favor in the 2016 U.S. election, Amash tweeted that it 'identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice.'

Counter-punching on Sunday in his usual style, Trump called Amash 'a total lightweight' and 'a loser' on Twitter.

As word of Amash's new primary challenger spread, he returned to twitter.

To those who claim ' there were no underlying crimes' Trump could have obstructed, Amash replied: 'I n fact, there were many crimes revealed by the investigation, some of which were charged, and some of which were not but are nonetheless described in Mueller’s report.'

'[O]bstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that,' Amash continued. 'Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely *because* obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution.'

'If an underlying crime were required, then prosecutors could charge obstruction of justice only if it were unsuccessful in completely obstructing the investigation. This would make no sense.'

Amash also argued that the constitutional standard for impeachment – 'High crimes and misdemeanors' – means 'conduct that violates the public trust,' not necessarily a crime that could be prosecuted in court.

Amash laid out his beliefs Monday in a Twitter thread, saying Trump can be impeached because his 'high crime' was violating the public trust by obstructing the Russia probe

The long-time Trump critic is part of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction whose members normally defend the president. Amash has also signaled he would consider running as a libertarian against Trump in 2020.

The congressman accused Trump of engaging in 'impeachable conduct' stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's lengthy investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election

President Donald Trump slammed the first Republican lawmaker who called for his impeachment

Amash's remarks made calls in the U.S. Congress for Trump's impeachment bipartisan, though just barely, with most Republicans still backing the president. 

Amash has been in Congress since 2011. Since then, he has only had one serious primary challenge, in 2014. He beat that opponent by nearly 15 points.

Michigan voters helped put Trump in the White House in 2016 by a slim margin. Democrats gained ground in 2018's congressional and state elections, making the Midwestern state a key political battleground in 2020.

Amash, Trump wrote Saturday, is 'a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy.'

The congressman accused Trump of engaging in 'impeachable conduct' stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's lengthy investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election

President Trump unleashed his Twitter account at Amash on Sunday, saying he's 'a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents['] hands'

'If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, 'composed' by 18 Angry Dems who hated Trump, he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION...Anyway, how do you Obstruct when there is no crime and, in fact, the crimes were committed by the other side? Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!,' he concluded. 

Amash's libertarian views often put him conflict with members of his own party.

Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia , but left open the question of whether Trump acted in ways that were meant to obstruct the investigation.

Amash said he reached four conclusions after carefully reading the redacted version of Mueller's report, including that 'President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.'

'Contrary to Barr's portrayal, Mueller's report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,' the congressman tweeted.

He said the report 'identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.'