Republican Justin Amash Says He Is Not Ruling Out Third Party Bid In 2020
In an interview broadcast Sunday, Republican Representative Justin Amash of Michigan said that he is not ruling out seeking a third-party bid for the presidency, The Hill reports.
Amash went on CNN’s State of the Union to discuss the 2020 presidential election and the current state of American politics with journalist Jake Tapper. According to the libertarian-leaning Republican, neither of the two parties in Congress has offered the American people a real vision.
The United States Congress, according to Amash, is “broken” due to partisanship, and lawmakers are presently unable to debate important issues.
“Right now we have a wild amount of partisan rhetoric on both sides and Congress is totally broken. We can’t debate things in a clear way anymore,” he said.
Asked whether he is ruling out running for president as a Libertarian, Amash responded: “I never rule out anything.”
The American people, he said, need a president who is presenting a different “vision.” However, Amash noted that running for president is not currently on his mind.
“That’s not on my radar right now, but I think that it is important that we have someone in there that is presenting a vision for America that is different from what these two parties are presenting,” the lawmaker said.
It comes as no surprise that Amash is seemingly exploring a third party bid since the Republican lawmaker has become known for criticizing President Donald Trump. Being that he is one of the few Republicans who dares to do so regularly, Amash has garnered quite a bit of attention.
As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, the Michigan representative recently pushed back against Trump’s declaration of national emergency, describing the order as an “usurpation” of legislative powers.
Trump declared a national emergency in order to bypass Congress, which had refused to provide funding for a wall on the southern border.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul says he will vote for measure blocking Trump’s emergency declaration, paving way for passage https://t.co/6vUJFtcBHj
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 3, 2019
The lawmaker pointed out the hypocrisy among Congress Republicans who often criticized President Obama for abusing his executive powers.
Representative Justin Amash not only slammed the president for declaring a national emergency in order to allocate funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the lawmaker was also the only House Republican to sign a resolution meant to block Trump’s declaration.
Libertarian-leaning Kentucky Senator Rand Paul announced today that he will vote in support of the resolution as well. Paul’s vote will give the GOP-controlled Senate the necessary majority to block Donald Trump’s order, according to Axios.
President Donald Trump has already vowed to veto the resolution, however.
