AUSTIN — A Dallas Republican lawmaker called Wednesday for the impeachment of President Donald Trump after he remarked Monday in Helsinki that he did not believe Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential elections — contradicting the assertions of top U.S. intelligence officials.

In an essay on The Texas Tribune's Trib Talk, outgoing Rep. Jason Villalba, said it was time to impeach Trump.

"If we do not stop this man now, today, over 500 days into his presidency, we will be equally culpable in what he has planned for our great nation," Villalba wrote. "President Trump thinks you are a fool. He believes you will never abandon him. And he believes that that there is almost nothing that he can do that would cause you to abandon supporting him."

Villalba, who lost his Republican primary to Lisa Luby Ryan in March and will not be returning to the state Legislature next year, said he was "one of the only Republican elected officials" to take on Trump, whom he called a "charlatan," before the election.

"For my transgressions, I was summarily unelected from the Texas Legislature," he wrote. "I have no regrets. I always do what I believe is right. That is not politically expedient, but it helps me sleep at night."

Ryan sent mailers to voters quoting Villalba's opposition to Trump during the election.

"I shall never stand with a bigoted, orange, buffoonish, ignorant ape," Villalba was quoted as saying. Underneath that, the mailer read: "Jason Villalba is just too liberal for us."

By contrast, Ryan's photo was plastered on her mailers with the message: "She will work for us, not against us."

Villalba also had other problems. He was painted as a moderate in a Republican Party where primary challengers lean hard to the right. After the election, he was featured on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee for his support of a bill banning discrimination against the LGBT community. The bill did not pass.

Villalba's call for impeachment comes after a torrent of criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over Trump's remarks in Finland. On Tuesday, the president walked back his statement, telling reporters he had misspoken. But on Wednesday, the president again contradicted intelligence officials by saying Russia was no longer targeting the United States.

Trump's comments were denounced by prominent Democrats and Republicans. But Texas Republicans in Congress by and large tried to avoid commenting on the issue.

Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, was an exception, saying that Trump had been "played by old KGB hands." Hurd's fellow congressman, Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, said Trump's actions merited impeachment.

But unlike those members of the Texas congressional delegation, who face an election in November, Villalba risked no political consequences for his comments.

"We are better than what this president suggests we are. We eschew ugliness and divisiveness. Donald J. Trump is no longer our leader. It is time to push him into the ash bin of history," Villalba wrote. "Today, I ask you to impeach Trump."

Other Dallas-area, Republican state lawmakers also railed against Trump's comments.

"Fellow Republicans — we cannot defend what happened in Helsinki today," said Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano. "We just can't. And we shouldn't try. If you have conviction, a voice and a platform, I encourage you to speak out. The truth will set us free."

Fellow Republicans - we cannot defend what happened in #Helsinki today. We just can’t. And we shouldn’t try. If you have conviction, a voice and a platform, I encourage you to speak out. The truth will set us free. — Jeff Leach (@leachfortexas) July 17, 2018

Rep. Matt Krause of Fort Worth, who like Leach is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said on Facebook that the president's actions were "a step backward for President Trump and American interests as a whole."

Krause, who said he knew he would "get some grief for expressing his opinion," said standing with the U.S. intelligence community's assessment over that of Putin "shouldn't even be a question."

"To stand there with Putin and equivocate on who he believes or who was more at fault was terrible," Krause wrote. "It seemed the complete opposite of Making America Great Again."

Krause also said that conservatives criticized former President Barack Obama for engaging in "moral equivalence with those who sought to do us harm."

"President Trump's apologies today sounded much the same," he said. "It was bad then and it is bad now."

But some Dallas-area lawmakers played down the incident.

"With Obama he said all the right things and do mostly wrong things[.] [W]ith Donald Trump[,] he says many things I don't like but does mostly what I agree with," said Rep. Ron Simmons of Carrollton. "I like doers more than talkers."