U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth believes it is time to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

Yarmuth, chairman of the House Budget Committee, told CNN Tuesday morning that waiting until the fall would be "too late" to begin an impeachment inquiry.

"I think it's time," he said.

Yarmuth, Kentucky's only Democrat in Washington, has said previously that the House impeaching Trump was "inevitable."

The comments come after a closed-door meeting of Democratic leaders with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has cast the move as playing into the president's hands.

Yarmuth's comments are in direct contrast to another powerful Kentuckian in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who declared "case closed" in the Mueller investigation a few weeks ago.

"Mitch engages in a lot of wishful thinking, and he wishes the case were closed. It's not closed," Yarmuth said during an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday. "As a matter of fact, the Mueller report itself didn't close it. It basically said they couldn't prosecute President Trump on obstruction of justice charges."

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Some have suggested Democrats wait until further investigations finish digging into special counsel Robert Mueller's report, which concluded Trump and his campaign did not collaborate with the Russian government in the 2016 election. But Mueller outlined 10 potentially obstructive acts in his investigation, and noted that "while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

Attorney General Bill Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, however, did not charge the president with obstruction.

A Yarmuth spokesman told the Courier Journal that the congressman's statement to the cable network is in line with his previous comments.

"He still believes impeachment is inevitable and he himself is prepared to move on it, but understands leadership’s interest in seeing if the other investigations turn up issues for which the president should be held accountable," spokesman Chris Schuler said.

"That said, he believes the steps being taken by the Judiciary and Oversight Committees so far are in line with what the first steps of a formal impeachment inquiry might look like."

While Democrats are feverishly debating the prospect of impeaching the president, Republicans have been mostly united behind Trump.

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U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan became the first Republican member of Congress to call for Trump's impeachment in a series of tweets this week.

Amash challenged Republican talking points, including those made by Barr that because Mueller's report found no cooperation with Russian officials to interfere in the 2016 election, then the president could not have obstructed justice because there was no crime to cover up in the first place.

"In fact, obstruction of justice does not require the prosecution of an underlying crime, and there is a logical reason for that," Amash said in a tweet. "Prosecutors might not charge a crime precisely because obstruction of justice denied them timely access to evidence that could lead to a prosecution."

Trump responded by calling Amash a "loser" in a tweet of his own.

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Amash is a libertarian-leaning lawmaker who is founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He also is a close ally of Kentucky's Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, who have stood by the president.

Massie said in a statement that he does not agree with Amash's call for impeachment.

"The Mueller report showed the Russian collusion narrative to be completely false," Massie said. "Those at the FBI and DOJ who abused their positions of trust and power in an attempt to delegitimize this presidency should be investigated, now that the president has been cleared."

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/philb.