Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash announced Monday evening he is leaving the influential conservative House Freedom Caucus, just weeks after he attracted the ire of his colleagues by arguing in Twitter posts that President Trump had committed impeachable offenses, Fox News has learned.
Amash, speaking at a Freedom Caucus board meeting, insisted his departure was voluntary. Amash said he did not want to continue to be a “further distraction” for the caucus, which is chaired by North Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Meadows.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the Freedom Caucus, told Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle” Monday evening that Meadows and Amash mutually came to the decision after several conversations.
Jordan said the Republican members of the group still consider Amash a friend, but that their disagreements were “sharp” and significant.
“Some of the president’s actions were inherently corrupt,” Amash, who said Trump had “engaged in impeachable conduct,” tweeted in May. “Other actions were corrupt — and therefore impeachable — because the president took them to serve his own interests.”
Judge with intimate ties to Dem Party’s key Russia Hoax players behind latest anti-Trump decision
Watch Closely: Jill Biden Makes Telling Slip-Up During ‘Morning Joe’ Interview
Iran Significantly Escalates Fighting Overnight ‘In Response to a Series of US Military Attacks’
GOP leverages ICE funding package to make Trump’s controversial $2B fund ‘never exist’
Auburn University student disappears in Japan as parents join search: ‘In our own living hell’
Nancy Guthrie sheriff defends pace of investigation more than 4 months into search
Jeffries declines to back Wasserman Schultz as Black leaders revolt over district switch
U.S. Military Kills Two in Latest Suspected Pacific Drug-Smuggling Intercept
Matthew Perry’s Final Days Reconstructed: A Timeline of His Last Hours and Weeks
WATCH: Dem scolds Homeland Security chief to ‘calm down’ after hearing derails over alleged ‘pattern’
Bill Pulte takes the helm of an intelligence community marred by infighting
Mexican Consulates Worry That Trump Admin Review Could Lead To Closure
Hilton, Becerra, Steyer in early lead in California governor’s race as vote count continues
California 22nd Congressional district primary results: Rep. David Valadao advances to runoff
Hilton, Becerra, in the lead with votes still being counted in battle for California governor
Amash also accused Attorney General Bill Barr of intentionally misrepresenting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report through lawyerly sleights of hand.
President Trump responded by writing that Amash was a “loser” and a “lightweight” seeking to gain national name recognition.
At a town hall in Grand Rapids, Mich., late last month, some of Amash’s constituents excoriated him for pushing for impeachment, while several others commended him for breaking ranks with his party and standing on principle.
“You talk about the Constitution and how important that is, but yet nothing that Mueller came out within this report, nothing that has been said about him and President Trump is constitutional — it’s been a smear tactic, because that’s how the Democrats work,” one Trump supporter told Amash.
“How can you become a Democrat when we voted for you as a Republican?” the attendee continued. “Because you’ve just drank the same Kool-Aid as all the Democrats.”
Judge with intimate ties to Dem Party’s key Russia Hoax players behind latest anti-Trump decision
Watch Closely: Jill Biden Makes Telling Slip-Up During ‘Morning Joe’ Interview
Iran Significantly Escalates Fighting Overnight ‘In Response to a Series of US Military Attacks’
GOP leverages ICE funding package to make Trump’s controversial $2B fund ‘never exist’
Auburn University student disappears in Japan as parents join search: ‘In our own living hell’
Nancy Guthrie sheriff defends pace of investigation more than 4 months into search
Jeffries declines to back Wasserman Schultz as Black leaders revolt over district switch
U.S. Military Kills Two in Latest Suspected Pacific Drug-Smuggling Intercept
Matthew Perry’s Final Days Reconstructed: A Timeline of His Last Hours and Weeks
WATCH: Dem scolds Homeland Security chief to ‘calm down’ after hearing derails over alleged ‘pattern’
Bill Pulte takes the helm of an intelligence community marred by infighting
Mexican Consulates Worry That Trump Admin Review Could Lead To Closure
Hilton, Becerra, Steyer in early lead in California governor’s race as vote count continues
California 22nd Congressional district primary results: Rep. David Valadao advances to runoff
Hilton, Becerra, in the lead with votes still being counted in battle for California governor
Amash then defended his record in Congress, telling the town hall attendees he has “one of the most constitutionally conservative and fiscally conservative” voting records of all sitting lawmakers and that he’s at the top “of nearly all the scorecards” of conservative groups.
Amash had a high 88 rating from the American Conservative Union (ACU) in 2018, up from 78 in 2017. Jordan scored 100 for both years, while Meadows notched 91 and 100, respectively. The group’s Federal Legislative Ratings scores members of Congress based on how they vote in line with conservative principles. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., by contrast, had a 4 rating in 2018.
Another woman at the town hall, Anna Timmer, criticized Amash for “grandstanding” and trying to raise his “national profile,” while arguing that an impeachment inquiry would “tear this country apart.”
