Correction: An earlier version of this story attributed the tweet to President Donald Trump. The Tweet Meadows was referencing came from a Hill staffer.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows called a staffer’s tweet arguing for possible primary challengers for members inappropriate in a Thursday interview with Politico’s Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer.
Shortly after the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act failed in the House, President Donald Trump asserted that Republicans needed to fall in line when it comes to passing bills in the future, before calling for primary fights for those that don’t “get on the team.”
“The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast,” Trump tweeted in March. “We must fight them, and Dems, in 2018.”
White House Staffer Dan Scavino Jr. personally called out Freedom Caucus member Rep. Justin Amash a few days after Trump’s tweet, calling the Republican a “big liability.”
.@realDonaldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. @justinamash is a big liability.#TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.
— Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) April 1, 2017
Sherman asked House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Justin Amash if he felt threatened by the threat of a primary, and Amash responded that his voters elected him for a reason, and as long as he was doing what he promised, he was prepared to take on any primary.
“He’s not going to say this,” Meadows interrupted, but that tweet was inappropriate, it was just inappropriate.”
“It’s one thing for the president to say something like that,” Meadows continued, “but it was inappropriate for a member of his staff to make that comment.”
Rep. Jim Jordan added that any member of the Freedom Caucus was prepared to campaign on behalf of a member facing a primary challenger, adding that it was very likely other Republicans would campaign for members of the Freedom Caucus as well.
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