Attorney George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, declared Tuesday that a primary challenge by Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) against President Donald Trump in 2020 would be a “supreme act of patriotism.”
“This would be a supreme act of patriotism by Rep. Amash,” Conway, a frequent Trump critic, tweeted in response to an article shared by Reason editor Robby Soave about Libertarians and Never Trump Republicans urging Amash to run for the White House.
This would be a supreme act of patriotism by Rep. Amash. https://t.co/QevYInuUGA
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) May 21, 2019
Conway, once reportedly under consideration for a top job at the Department of Justice, became a Resistance hero on Twitter after questioning President Trump’s mental fitness and calling for his impeachment.
Amash, a libertarian-leaning congressman who has opposed key aspects of President Trump’s “Make America Great” agenda, is facing intense blowback from Republicans after accusing the president of committing “impeachable” offenses and claiming Attorney General William Barr misrepresented special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
“Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meets the threshold for impeachment,” Amash wrote on Twitter Saturday. He then said that Mueller’s findings “identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence.”
Contrary to the Michigan Republican’s statements, Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. Further, the attorney general stated Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether President Trump obstructed justice, stating that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that the president had not done so.
Top Republican lawmakers have hit back against Amash’s remarks, dismissing him as an attention seeker with a poor record to show for his four terms in Congress.
“You’ve got to understand Justin Amash. He’s been in Congress quite some time,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told the Fox News Channel on Sunday. “I think he’s asked one question in all the committees that he’s been in. He votes more with Nancy Pelosi than he ever votes with me. It’s a question whether he’s even in our Republican conference as a whole.”
The House Freedom Caucus on Monday evening voted to condemn Amash, one of the group’s founding members, over his recent remarks. House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), who previously served as chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said that all 30 members in attendance of the caucus’s weekly meeting voted for the measure. “It was every single person who totally disagrees with what he says,” Jordan told reporters. “What concerns me is Justin was viewed as a leader, right, on protecting privacy rights first to First Amendment rights.”
President Trump has even joined in blasting the congressman, calling him a “loser” and a “lightweight” in a pair of searing tweets. “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, the president tweeted on Sunday. “Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents [sic] hands!”
On Monday, Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower (R) announced he will mount a primary challenge to Amash. He was expected to officially launch his campaign around July 4th, but moved up the announcement in the wake of Amash’s remarks.
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