Washington — Aides to President Donald Trump clapped back at U. S. Rep. Justin Amash on Wednesday, dismissing the West Michigan congressman as inconsequential after he…
Washington — Aides to President Donald Trump clapped back at U. S. Rep. Justin Amash on Wednesday, dismissing the West Michigan congressman as inconsequential after he called on House leaders to launch impeachment proceedings over Trump’s conduct.
“I don’t think Congressman Amash is worth the time of the White House,“ Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters outside the West Wing.
Amash, a libertarian Republican from Cascade Township, this month became the first GOP lawmaker in Congress to break with the president on the outcome of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, saying his conduct met the „threshold of impeachment.“
Amash was met with standing applause and, at times, angry Trump supporters Tuesday evening during his first town hall since his impeachment remarks, which prompted the president to label Amash a “loser” and GOP leaders to denounce him.
„It’s appropriate for the speaker to proceed to an inquiry,” Amash said of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the town hall.
“I think it’s really important that we do our job as a Congress, that we not allow misconduct to go undeterred,” Amash said. Doing nothing could signal “that someone can violate the public trust and that there are no consequences to it.“
Asked about Amash potentially running for president as an independent or Libertarian Party nominee — which he hasn’t ruled out — Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway said, “Amash can do what he wants.”
„We know that director Mueller and his team had all the latitude and no interference, no obstruction from this president, from this place,” Conway told reporters.
“We certainly haven’t talked about somebody who wants to go get single digits in the presidential race.”
Amash was asked during the town hall about a potential White House run and said, „If I were trying to roll out something like that, this is not how I’d do it.
