Republican Congressman Mark Amodei sits down for a chat at the Nevada Appeal office Thursday.
Rep. Mark Amodei says despite the nominee’s continuing gaffs, he’s still on board for Donald Trump.
But he said Trump has a few things to learn if he’s going to win the presidency, first of all that, as the party’s nominee, he’ll be “microscoped to the ninth degree.”
“That’s the reality which you live with as a Republican, Donald, and you’d better learn to deal with it,” he said.
At this point, Amodei said he’s a team player and sticking with his endorsement of Trump; his detractors, including Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin need to deal with the fact Trump won the nomination.
“Do I agree with everything he (Trump) does? No. Do I want eight more years of this? (referring to the Obama administration). Even more no.”
“The reason Donald is the nominee is because there are a lot of people who don’t think things are OK,” he said. “The reason Bernie Sanders got so close is because there are a lot of people on that side who don’t think things are OK.”
He pointed to Trump’s handling of criticism from the Kahn family saying: “Donald, you fumbled the whole Kahn thing. With all due respect, being mean to that guy or his parents?”
Amodei, during a meeting with the Nevada Appeal late last week, said that’s just one of the recent incidents that have put the focus on Trump’s temperament.
“In the last two weeks, you’ve gotten a pretty good dose of what Donald Trump’s imperfections are,” he said.
Amodei said what people want is for the Congress to get some things done.
He said an example is the battle over immigration reform which, Amodei said, was near a deal when he first got to Congress nearly five years ago. There has never been a vote because leadership and the White House said the votes aren’t there, according to Amodei.
“Sometimes you need to put it out there to put people on the record,” he said. “With all due respect, Paul Ryan, put some of those damned bills on the floor. Not doing anything is politically stupid.”
The same with healthcare reform, fixing Obamacare and other issues.
“Do we need to insure the uninsured? Yeah. Is this the answer? I don’t think so,” he said.
Amodei said the inability to bring some issues to the floor for a vote or even get a hearing has frustrated a lot of House members.
“When you can’t get a hearing, people tend to chafe a little,” he said.
With the August recess, upcoming elections and the holidays, he said Congress will only be in session about 30 days between now and year’s end but he still has hope of getting a few things through including lands bills for Pershing, Washoe and Douglas counties. He’s also hopeful he can move the “small tracts” bill that would make it a lot easier for the federal government to release control of small pieces of land that are inside or around communities like Carson City. He said that bill is in the Senate, supported by both the administration and the Forest Service but hasn’t been voted on yet.
Amodei said he’s hopeful California Rep. Tom McClintock can move his $45 million Lake Tahoe bill which Amodei said is “sitting there waiting to be invited across the finish line.”
As for his re-election campaign, Amodei said he hopes the voters in his western and northern Nevada district will judge that he has done a good job of representing their interests and return him to the House of Representatives.