by Evie Fordham
The conservative House Freedom Caucus condemned member Republican Michigan Rep. Justin Amash Monday after his Saturday comments that President Donald Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct.”
Every caucus member at the meeting Monday opposed Amash’s impeachment stance, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said, according to Politico. Amash was not at the meeting and has shown up for virtually no meetings the entire year, sources told Politico.
“It was every single person who totally disagrees with what he says,” Jordan said after the meeting, according to Politico.
Jordan also said he had talked to Amash Saturday night to ask, “What are you doing?”
But Amash is still set to keep his membership in the Freedom Caucus even though he threatened to leave in 2018 after Trump went on the warpath against former Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, reported Politico. Sanford is an ex-member of the caucus.
The Freedom Caucus vote could be just the beginning of Amash’s troubles. Republican state Rep. Jim Lower will challenge Amash for the seat in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, Lower told the Detroit Free Press Monday.
Amash broke with his party to criticize Trump’s conduct and accuse Attorney General William Barr of “deliberately” misrepresenting special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report in Barr’s summary.
Trump hit back against Amash on Twitter Sunday.
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. If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, “composed” by 18 Angry Dems who hated Trump,….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019
“Never a fan of Justin Amash, 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,” Trump wrote Sunday.
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Evie Fordham is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Evie on Twitter.
