Senator Rand Paul does not agree with Representative Justin Amash’s calls for impeachment of Donald Trump.
Based on Amash’s reading of the redacted version of the Mueller report, the Michigan Congressman argued that there were numerous examples of obstruction of justice committed by the president and that these represented impeachable offenses.
However, the Kentucky Senator struck back against Amash, arguing that Amash was giving the U.S.’s corrupt intelligence agencies a pass.
Paul stated that “Libertarians like myself have for long time said that the intelligence community has too much power and that we’re very concerned that either CIA or FBI could be investigating Americans for political purposes.”
He then expressed dismay with Amash’s trust in relying upon information coming from intelligence agencies:
So I don’t understand a libertarian who would take this investigation and say we should pursue it and impeach the President. It goes against everything libertarians are for. We don’t like too much power. We don’t like the secret FISA court going after Americans.
Instead of trying to virtue signal to the Left, Rand Paul has tried working with the President on the issues that they agree upon:
I’ve been talking with the President. I spoke with him last night about how do we try to prevent this from happening to the next president or to the Americans at large? I think the President is open to trying to figure out a way, either legislatively or through executive order, we can try to prevent this abuse of power from happening again.
Paul ultimately called for the limiting “the power of government to spy on Americans.”
This latest episode represents two distinct libertarian approaches in the age of Trump.
Senator Paul offers a more reasonable strategy of trying to find common ground with the President and work on issues that can actually enhance freedom and end bad governing practices.
On the other hand, Amash’s strategy not only is a pointless form of virtue signaling, it also advances leftist narratives and agendas. Amash’s voting record is solid, but he should realize that the Left he tries pandering to does not care about liberty. Once in power, the left will have no qualms of using government power against libertarians.
Amash should stick to his libertarian voting record and not try to position himself as a representative that is attractive for leftist voters.
