Published 5 hours ago on December 15, 2019
Ex-GOPer Amash under consideration by Democrats as Trump impeachment leader:
Democrats in the House wagering to make former GOP lawmaker Justin Amash (L-MI) one of the leads in the impeachment of Donald Trump.
Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), has asked House leaders to consider the libertarian, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, for the small group tasked with arguing its case for removing Trump in the upper chamber, according to several Democratic officials.”
“The thinking, according to these people, is that Amash would reach conservative voters in a way Democrats can’t, potentially bolstering their case to the public,” the report continued. “He also would provide Democrats cover from GOP accusations that they’re pursuing a partisan impeachment; Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House and a vocal Trump critic.”
According to Phillips, “To the extent that this can be bipartisan, it should, and I think including Representative Amash amongst the impeachment managers is a smart move both for the country, for the substance and for the optics,” before adding, Amash is “the first and only member of the Republican conference, when he was a Republican, to show courage.”
“There couldn’t be anyone perhaps in the entire U.S. House . . . whose general political views are as polar opposite from many of us in the Democratic Caucus, and that’s what makes it such a powerful statement: that on the issue of our responsibility to our Constitution, we are perfectly aligned,”