Justin Amash in Interviews during 2017-2019
On Abortion:
Pro-life: works through discussion, not legislation
I'm pro-life, 100 percent pro-life. I know that there's a split, even within the Libertarian party, on that issue. I've always said that the best way to advance it is through society, through methods of engagement, and discussion,
conversation, and activism. I've been involved in pro-life organizations that try to change it from the outside, not through the legislative process, but try to change hearts and minds and explain the issue to people.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Budget & Economy:
Relief payments should go to people, not corporations
During the coronavirus pandemic, Amash has castigated federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration, first for botching containment efforts and then for asserting monopoly control over testing.
He was one of a mere handful of no votes on the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, arguing that all relief payments should go directly to individuals and households rather than corporations, nonprofits, or government agencies.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Civil Rights:
The Fourteenth Amendment is my favorite amendment
The federal government has an important role in remedying discrimination. The Fourteenth Amendment talks about due process and equal protection. And, at the core of liberty and libertarianism is this idea of the rule of law.
I think that there is a major role for the federal government to play in protecting individual rights. It is my favorite Amendment to the Constitution because I think it really embodies the idea of liberty the best of any of the Amendments.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Crime:
Take accusations seriously, but follow due process
I think it's important that everyone have due process. If an accusation is made, you can't just say the person is guilty without a trial and a proper venue and all that. You can't just rush the judgment on it. Because accusations can be made that are
false and we should be willing to acknowledge that. At the same time, we should respect people who are making the accusation and give them the full opportunity to make their case and to present evidence and have that evidence corroborated.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Education:
Education key to fixing wealth gap, leave it at state level
I think there is a gap between the rich and the poor that is widening, and you can see it in businesses. You can see that people who have professional skills are often advancing while people with blue-collar skills are being left behind.
I think this starts with the education system. And these are mostly state-level issues, not federal issues. But finding ways for adults who are in difficult circumstances to get education and training in new fields, I think, is really important.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Energy & Oil:
Loves wind, solar, and nuclear, via private companies
I believe climate change is happening. I believe it's very important. I believe that humans do affect it, and that we should take action with respect to climate change. But we have to be smart about the actions we take. And some of the things we can do,
for example, would be to look into further nuclear power, and finding ways to get nuclear power in this country because it is a relatively safe form of production and very low emissions compared to other forms of energy.I love the idea of wind power
and solar power and other things. I think that private actors need to get more involved and companies need to make it more of a priority. Companies themselves can get together and present their own metrics and present that to the public.
There's no reason companies, for example, couldn't show off all the time about how environmentally friendly they are with their products. And then the people who like that can go buy that product.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Foreign Policy:
We need to be engaged with the world
We need to be engaged with the world, but that doesn't mean we have to be at war throughout the world. It would be a mistake for the US to retreat from the world in the sense of not talking or engaging with other countries.
If we don't have that engagement, if we don't have trade with other countries as well, you will have countries like China come in and take advantage of the situation and potentially present a threat to us down the road.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Health Care:
Private market with government backstop at state level
I think you can have some sort of government backstop, but it should be handled at the state level, not at the federal level. So you mostly want to have a private market and then you want to have some kind of backstop for people who don't have
proper coverage. And that might be some kind of expansion of a Medicaid-style system or something like that, that's handled at the state level and gives people the assurance that when they need healthcare, there will be someone to cover it.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Immigration:
Fix system so that people can immigrate to US lawfully
I support immigration and I think we need to fix our immigration system so that people can come here lawfully. Right now what we have is a system where millions of people come here unlawfully. And you'll probably have the same number of people arriving
in the United States, it's just that they would be lawful and that would be a benefit to our country. Because then instead of hiding, many of these people would go and integrate into society in a way that is beneficial to all of us.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Principles & Values:
Don't need same rules from community to community
I want to live in a country where people feel they have freedom to make decisions for their own lives and where people live respectfully with one another. If someone has a difference of opinion, someone has a different perspective on how things might
work, we can all live together, and we don't all have to have the same exact rules from community to community. That's why we have a system of federalism: different people can live in different places and make different choices about their lives.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Principles & Values:
Pushed libertarian ideas into Republican Party
I've been a libertarian my whole life, a small l libertarian. And I brought that to Congress and served in Congress as a small l libertarian for more than nine years and was able to bring those principles to the table and to fight for libertarian
principles. I thought genuinely that I could make the Republican party a more libertarian party, because they espoused some principles, at least on paper, that were closer to libertarianism than what we see today.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Principles & Values:
Blessing to be born here; this is the best country on Earth
My parents are both immigrants and they were welcomed here to the United States. My dad was welcomed as a refugee, and that, I'm sure, made a big difference in his life and a big difference in my mom's life, in how they integrated and how they felt
about America as a country. And that was instilled in me as a child where I understood what a blessing it was to be born in this country, and how much better off we have it than so many other countries in the world. This is the best country on earth.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On War & Peace:
Make Congress authorize wars or else withdraw troops
As for wars and having our troops everywhere, those things have to be authorized. I would look at these wars and if I don't think the war has an authorization, I would say to Congress, "Give me an authorization for this conflict within 90 days.
If you don't do that, we're bringing the troops home." And force their hand on it. And then if the American people support engagement in that war, then they can authorize their representatives and senators to vote for that engagement.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
On Budget & Economy:
Would support universal monthly cash relief for everyone
Part of the reason they make the system so convoluted is so that they can each get pats on the back from their respective constituencies. 'Thank you for the thing you did specifically for farmers. Thank you for the thing that you specifically did for
airline workers. Thank you for the thing that you specifically did for truckers.' If they did something like, let's just send everyone some money, universal monthly cash relief, there's only one constituency for that. That's the entire public.
Source: Politico e-zine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 30, 2020
On Principles & Values:
Most people are libertarian, not superpartisan & superangry
What you see on Twitter and Facebook is not America. Most people are actually pretty kind, compassionate, they are not superpartisan. They're not superangry about people who have different views. They don't have a lot of choices right now because
they're stuck with these two parties. And we've let a small group in each party control the entire system and tell us who's going to be our president, who are going to be our elected officials. And we have to challenge that.
Most Americans are fairly libertarian. They understand that the government that works best is the one that's closest to home. You might think of your family as a sort of government and everyone recognizes that their family is a government that works
better than a government that involves all of your neighbors, which works better than a government that involves your city or county, which works better than state, which works better than federal, which works better than the U.N. Everyone gets that.
Source: Politico e-zine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 30, 2020
On Government Reform:
For limited government, not total Presidential authority
Amash took to Twitter to express his opposition to Trump's assertion that he had "total authority" as president to reopen the American economy on whatever timetable he wished: @justinamash: Americans who believe in limited government deserve
another option.
Donald Trump: "When somebody's president of the United States, the authority is total, and that's the way it's gotta be."
Source: Slate.com e-zine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 14, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Proposed amendment to curb warrantless surveillance
He has been a far more consistent advocate for civil liberties than many on the left, particularly as it relates to surveillance. Most recently, Amash's bipartisan amendment to curb warrantless surveillance failed in the
House, thanks in part to the many Democrats who are unwilling to spend any political capital to make sure Americans are not spied on by their own government.
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 29, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Real threat to marriage & religion is government, not gays
To his credit, Amash has shown the ability to evolve. In 2010, he was in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act; by 2013 he had come out in support of the much more anarchist-libertarian solution of getting government out of marriage all together,
tweeting that the "real threat to traditional marriage & religious liberty is government, not gay couples who love each other & want to spend lives together."
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 29, 2019
On Crime:
Introduced legislation to end federal death penalty
He announced on Twitter that he was introducing legislation to prohibit the federal death penalty, after the Department of Justice announced that it would end an unofficial moratorium on
federal executions that had been in place for two decades.
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 29, 2019
On Homeland Security:
Wants to close Guantanamo prison
Amash has always been something of a wild man compared to the Republican status quo, and a "close, but not perfect" kind of libertarian ally. Not yet 40, he is the son of Palestinan father and a Syrian mother, both Christian. It's almost impressive that
he hasn't fielded more tinfoil-hatted accusations of being a secret backer of Sharia law--though he has been accused of being in the tank for Al Qaeda for wanting to close Gitmo.
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 29, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Partisanship undercutting our constitutional basis
Amash announced that he was leaving the Republican Party, his political home of the last ten years. Amash framed his decision as a classic pox-on-both-houses jeremiad, with the headline declaring: "Our politics is in a partisan death spiral.
That's why I'm leaving the GOP." In his Post op-ed, Amash wrote that devotion to party over principle had undermined "the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism, and the rule of law."
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 29, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Father immigrated as Palestinian refugee
When my dad was 16, America welcomed him as a Palestinian refugee. It wasn't easy moving to a new country, but it was the greatest blessing of his life.Throughout my childhood, my dad would remind my brothers and me of the challenges he faced
before coming here and how fortunate we were to be Americans. In this country, he told us, everyone has an opportunity to succeed regardless of background.
My parents, both immigrants, were Republicans. I supported Republican candidates throughout my early adult life and then successfully ran for office as a Republican. The Republican Party,
I believed, stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty--principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family.
Source: Washington Post OpEd by 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 4, 2019
On Principles & Values:
I've disenchanted and frightened by hyperpartisanship
In recent years, though, I've become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.True to George Washington's fears,
Americans have allowed government officials, under assertions of expediency and party unity, to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law. The result has been the consolidation of
political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy.
In this hyperpartisan environment, congressional leaders use every tool to compel party members to stick with the team, dangling chairmanships, committee assignments,
bill sponsorships, endorsements and campaign resources. As donors recognize the growing power of party leaders, they supply these officials with ever-increasing funds, which, in turn, further tightens their grip on power.
Source: Washington Post OpEd by 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 4, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Leaving the Republican Party to avoid partisan death spiral
Modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape. Most Americans are not rigidly partisan and do not feel well represented by either of the two major parties. These same independent-minded Americans, however, tend to be
less politically engaged than Red Team and Blue Team activists.But we owe it to future generations to stand up for our constitutional republic so that Americans may continue to live free for centuries to come.
Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we'll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.
Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your
circumstance, I'm asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I'm asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system--and to work toward it.
Source: Washington Post OpEd by 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 4, 2019
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021