Amash defends running for president as a third-party candidate

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Michigan Rep. Justin Amash shocked America when he announced on Tuesday that he was going to launch an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination.
• Amash is a former Republican who left the GOP last year after voting for President Trump’s impeachment.
• The congressman denied that he would play a “spoiler role” and tip the 2020 election to Trump.

Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan on Sunday defended his decision to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination and run as a third-party candidate in the 2020 election.

Last year, Amash left the Republican party after he supported President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

On Tuesday, he announced he was going to launch an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination. 

On Sunday, he appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and told Jake Tapper that he is running to “win this election for the American people.” The congressman also denied that he would play a “spoiler role” and tip the November election to Trump.

“We don’t know how the additional candidate changes a race. It’s too impossible to figure out. There’s too many calculations involved,” Amash added.

“The most important thing is we have a ballot. If you want to vote for someone, you vote for that person,” he continued. 

Amash said that he left the Republican Party because “for too long we’ve had the same system, where these two parties go at each other and Washington is totally dysfunctional.”

The Congressman said the country needs a president who “respects our Constitution, defend our rights and fix our representative system of government so people will actually feel represented at home.”

He already seemed like campaigning when he promised that he would be open to “all the ideas that the legislature might present” when he becomes president.

“The job of the president is to execute the law. I want the legislative process to work. I want people in Congress to actually represent their constituents, and then I’ll make a decision about whether I want to sign a bill or not,” Amash concluded.

Source: The HILL