Justin Amash Accuses GOP’s McCarthy of ‘Incompetence and Dishonesty’ for Dismissing Ukraine Hoax

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - MAY 28: U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) holds a Town Hall Meeting on May
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Joshua Caplan

Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) attacked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for a Sunday interview in which he defended President Donald Trump against congressional Democrats’ impeachment inquiry over a phone call with the leader of Ukraine.

“Kevin McCarthy again displays his unique brand of incompetence and dishonesty,” Amash wrote on Twitter, attaching a video clip of McCarthy’s interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes.

McCarthy and host Scott Pelley sparred over the July 25th conversation in which President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed U.S. military aid and the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President and 2020 White House candidate Joe Biden. Their exchange — which is the subject of a so-called “whistleblower” complaint based on a partisan CIA officer’s interpretation of news reports and second-hand information — sparked House Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry last week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has attempted to justify the probe, saying President Trump was using taxpayer money to “shake down” Zelensky — a claim that both Ukraine’s president and Trump have vehemently denied. 

“I think you read everything. I think you read text. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be involved to democratic open elections, elections of USA. No, sure, we had I think good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I — so I think and you read it that nobody pushed me,” Zelensky, flanked by the president, told reporters at the United Nations in New York City last week. 

The White House released a transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call last Wednesday. Democrats — and CBS’s Pelley — accused the president of telling Zelensky that he had to perform a “favor” before Ukraine would receive defense funding. However, these operatives rip the phrase “I would like you to do us a favor” from its context — Trump asking for help getting to the bottom of what really happened in 2016 with Democrats’ emails and Russia — after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report gave little new information. The discussion of Biden comes a whole page later in the transcript — after several hundred more words on other topics.

Amash quit the Republican Party in July after announcing his support of impeachment in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

Meanwhile, President Trump and McCarthy appear none-too-worried about the impeachment probe, suggesting it will help the Republicans in the 2020 election.

“The left has officially lost their minds — they are so fixated on their imaginary impeachment that they are getting nothing else done,” McCarthy (R-CA) told Breitbart News last week. “266 days in power and what have Nancy Pelosi and the Socialist Democrats accomplished? Absolutely nothing.”

“America is too great to be led by a vision so small — I’m 100 percent confident Democrats obsession with impeachment will backfire on them in 2020,” he added.

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