"I don’t think impeachment is the right way to go," Sen. Mitt Romney said. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo Congress Romney: GOP congressman's call for impeachment 'a courageous statement'

Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday called a GOP congressman's call for impeaching President Donald Trump "a courageous statement" while maintaining that impeachment is not warranted based on the special counsel's report.

Speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," Romney said, "My own view is that Justin Amash has reached a different conclusion than I have.


"I respect him. I think it’s a courageous statement," the Utah Republican continued. "But I believe that to make a case for obstruction of justice, you just don’t have the elements that are evidenced in this document."

Amash, a Michigan Republican who has been one of the president's more vocal GOP critics in Congress, argued in a series of tweets Saturday that special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election documented that the president committed impeachable offenses.

“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” Amash tweeted, referencing Attorney General William Barr.

Amash is the first Republican lawmaker to call for Trump's impeachment.

Romney, who said in a statement last month he was "sickened" by the president's actions as laid out in the Mueller report, argued Sunday that the special counsel's probe failed to make a sufficient case for obstruction of justice that would warrant impeachment.

"I don’t think impeachment is the right way to go," Romney said.

"The American people just aren’t there," the Utah Republican said. "And I think those who are considering impeachment also have to look at the jury, which would be the Senate. The Senate is certainly not there either."

On Sunday morning, Trump mocked Amash’s tweets on Twitter: “Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy.“