Radio personality Glenn Beck over the weekend lavished praise on Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), expressing hope that the libertarian congressman runs for president in 2024 in the wake of his remarks about President Donald Trump and impeachment.
“@justinamash is the man we on the right have waited for my whole life. He has the best conservative voting record in Congress,” Beck wrote on Twitter early Sunday morning. “He does what he says he will do, AND never hides from voters. I hope he runs in 2024. He takes his oath seriously. Thank you JA.”
His comments come in response to a tweet in which the libertarian-leaning lawmaker said: “I swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not an oath to do the bidding of one man or one political party. We have a constitutional republic to uphold liberty and the Rule of Law, not a direct democracy to serve some at the expense of others.”
Beck, once a prominent Never Trumper, saw his popularity among conservatives plummet after he endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the 2016 presidential election and contributed to National Review’s “Against Trump” special issue. Since President Trump’s election, Beck’s media company, TheBlaze — which recently merged with CRTV — has suffered from dwindling ad revenue, declining web traffic, and several rounds of layoffs. In recent months, the radio personality has warmed to the president, going as far as telling Fox News Channel that “we are officially at the end of the country as we know it” if the Republican Party fails to win in 2020.
Last month, Amash became the first sitting Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
Amash, whose district includes Grand Rapids, shared four “principal conclusions,” including one claiming President Trump engaged in impeachable conduct, after reading special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into now-debunked collusion and obstruction by the 2016 Trump campaign in relation to Russian interference in the presidential election. Further, he accused Attorney General William Barr of “deliberately” misrepresenting the special counsel’s report in his summary, while stating he believes partisanship has “eroded our system of checks and balances” and that few other members of Congress have read the report.
Barr released a 4-page summary of Mueller’s 400-page report in March, which stated the investigation found neither President Trump nor any of his aides conspired or coordinated with the Russian government during the election, bud did not find evidence to exonerate the president of obstructing justice.
Top Republicans, including President Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) struck back at Amash, calling him a “lightweight” and an attention-seeker.
At a town hall last week, Amash was assailed by several supporters of President Trump, including one African-American voter who criticized the congressman’s “demonizing” calls to begin impeachment proceedings.
“From what I’m seeing, for the black community and minorities, is that Trump is good for America,” the voter said. “And I’m wondering why the Republicans and Democrats are fighting him so much when he’s doing such a good job?”
“You’re demonizing him on something that you know is not true,” he added. “It’s just bewildering to me that you can treat the president of the United States in this way, especially when he’s doing such a good job for minorities and black people.”
Amash responded to the unidentified man, stating that many people “disagree” with his position and claimed “nobody’s demonizing” President Trump.
“The person who demonizes people every day is Donald Trump,” Amash claimed. “He goes on Twitter and calls people names and says the most egregious things about people.”
On top of facing rebuke from his colleagues and constituents, Amash’s remarks have earned him a primary challenge.
Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower (R) announced last month he will mount a primary challenge to Amash. Lower was expected to officially launch his campaign around July 4th but moved up the announcement after the congressman’s comment.
“Congressman Justin Amash tweets yesterday calling for President Trump’s impeachment show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents,” said Lower. “He must be replaced and I am going to do it.”
The UPI contributed to this report.