'It is our duty': Tea Party congressman Justin Amash quotes Hamilton as he joins Democrats to call for impeachment

On Wednesday, Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) rose to voice his support for the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, joining with Democrats to condemn the president's abuses of power.

"I rise today in support of these articles of impeachment," said Amash, a former Tea Party Republican and founding member of the House Freedom Caucus who left the GOP over his opposition to the president's conduct. "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."

"Under our system of government, impeachment is not about policy disagreements or ineffective governance, nor is it about criminality based on statutes that did not exist at the time our Constitution was written," continued Amash. "Impeachment is about maintaining the integrity of the office of the presidency, and ensuring that executive power is directed toward proper ends in accordance with the law. The Constitution grants the House the sole power of impeachment, and the Senate the sole power to try all impeachments. We in the House are empowered to charge impeachable conduct. The Constitution describes such conduct as high crimes and misdemeanors, but because it pertains to high office and relates to the misuse of that office, we need not rely on any other branch or body to endorse our determinations. We have the sole power of impeachment."

"In Federalist No. 65, Alexander Hamilton wrote that high crimes and misdemeanors 'are those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself,'" said Amash. "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."

"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," concluded Amash.

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