House Republican calls Justin Amash "Al-Qaeda's best friend in Congress"

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) doesn’t like Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), something he made perfectly clear yesterday when he told Politico that “[Amash is] Al Qaeda’s best friend in the Congress.”

Nunes — and a bloc of other Michigan representatives and donors — recently gave $5,000 to Amash’s primary challenger, Brian Ellis, though he hasn’t met or spoken to Ellis before.

Establishment Republicans cutting off Justin Amash

The California representative critiqued Amash’s stance on NSA surveillance programs in his interview with Politico.

“He’s been leading the charge and not telling the truth about [NSA surveillance policies],” Nunes said. “He’s been fanning the flames, and it gets to the point where my assessment is this is a guy willing to work with San Francisco Democrats to protect bait fish, and at the same time he’s Al Qaeda’s best friend in the Congress.”

He added that Amash is not a “serious member of Congress” and accused him of “playing games, and trying to be on the opposite side of Republicans.”

Karl Rove recently made similar comments, saying that the “most liberal Republican is Justin Amash of Michigan.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WoFfx7ddbT8

“There’s this tension today between the kind of libertarianism we’re seeing here today and the last six, eight, nine months and a healthy future for the party,” Rove said.

He continued, “What we’ve got right now is we got most libertarians who say ‘If I don’t have 100 percent perfect answer I’m voting no …. unless I’m 100 percent certain I’m voting with the bad guys.'”

Amash is one of the few Republicans with a 100 percent rating from grassroots conservative groups FreedomWorks and Club for Growth.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) piled on Amash in the same Politico article.

“Once you get to know [Amash], and I know that district from being around Michigan for long enough, he’s completely out of line with these people,” Rogers said. “He votes more with the Democrats than with the Republicans, and that’s not out of principle, that’s out of him branding himself as something different.”

Rogers has donated $225,000 since the 2012 election cycle from his Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans fund. None of that has gone to Amash, a Republican.

Amash defended his voting record in a statement, taking umbrage at Nunes’ “unbecoming” remarks.

“Because my vote explanations shine a spotlight on Congress, I’ve upset people who are used to operating in the dark,” he said. “I vote less often with Nancy Pelosi, the real San Francisco Democrat, than any member of Congress. I opposed Nunes’ water bill on constitutional grounds, and his comments are unbecoming of a representative.”

“I follow the Constitution,” Amash stated on a seperate occasion. “Some people like that, some people don’t. That’s fine.”

Despite the smear tactics and lack of donations from establishment types — Amash hasn’t received one penny from a Michigan congressional Republican — the incumbent Amash continues to receive support of grassroots donors and holds a $841,000-$413,000 campaign account advantage over Brian Ellis.