Watch: Conservative congressman says 'it is our duty' to impeach Trump

Rep. Justin Amash, a conservative Republican-turned-independent from Michigan, called for the impeachment of Donald Trump during a Wednesday floor speech.

“I rise today in support of these articles of impeachment,” Amash said. “I come to this floor not as a Democrat, not as a Republican, but as an American who cares deeply about the Constitution, the rule of law, and the rights of the people.”

Amash said impeachment is about “maintaining the integrity of the office of the presidency, and ensuring that executive power is directed towards proper ends in accordance with the law.”

He then explained why Trump meets the bar for impeachment.

“President Donald J. Trump has abused and violated the public trust by using his high office to solicit the aid of a foreign power — not for the benefit of the United States of America, but instead for his personal and political gain,” Amash said. “His actions reflect precisely the type of conduct the framers of the Constitution intended to remedy through the power of impeachment. And it is our duty to impeach him.”

Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House, and one of the founders of the far-right Freedom Caucus. He was elected to Congress as a Republican in 2010 as part of the tea party wave.

Amash left the Republican Party over the summer, writing in a Washington Post op-ed that he had become “disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it.”

Throughout the debate over articles of impeachment, Republicans have repeatedly claimed that it is a strictly partisan effort. The support of Amash shows that members as liberal as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and conservative as Amash agree on the need to impeach Trump.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.