Justin Amash appears in four episodes of The Bob Zadek Show, always as a name introduced by someone else rather than as a guest. The excerpts present him in three distinct roles: as a rare member of Congress who openly objects to the internal power structure of the House, as a sponsor of legislation on meat inspection and on qualified immunity, and as an example of a candidate who runs on freedom. None of the excerpts supplies biographical particulars such as his district, his state, or the dates of his service.
A member who complains about the structure
In a June 2019 episode on the “deep state,” Bob Zadek raised Amash in the middle of a discussion with Jeffrey Bergner about how legislative power has moved upward from individual members to committee chairs and then to party leadership. Bergner had argued that on the important votes members follow their leaders, and that the only times they take stands against their party are when it does not matter. Bob interrupted to name an exception: “The only exception perhaps in the whole Congress is perhaps just one of my idols, Justin Amash, who has no difficulty complaining long and hard about the very power structure you’ve described.” Bob added that Amash had been punished by leadership without being deterred from complaining openly and in his district about how dysfunctional Congress is. He then put the claim at its sharpest: “So, the only one who even is aware of and objects to the very structure that you’ve described. So, one out of 435.” Redefining the “Deep State” (2019)
Bergner did not fully accept the claim. He said there were a number of other members who fall into that category, perhaps not so pointedly: for example, a young and capable member from Wisconsin named Mike Gallagher, who had bucked the leadership on a number of votes and was interested in reforming Congress. Bergner also said that he and Gallagher had done a conversation together at the Hudson Institute, and that a number of other House members, generally the younger ones, shared the concern. Redefining the “Deep State” (2019) The disagreement is left standing in the excerpt: Bob’s “one out of 435” is his own framing, and Bergner’s qualification is his.
Sponsorship of the PRIME Act
Amash’s name returns in an April 2020 episode on the PRIME Act, where Thomas Massie was the guest. Bob had asked Massie who he had in mind when he described the bill’s support as coming from “Democrats, Republicans, and independent,” aside from Bernie Sanders in the Senate. Massie answered that the lead sponsor in the Senate is Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and that in the House, Amash is a sponsor. Massie then supplied the partisan detail: Amash “was an independent; he recently switched to the Libertarian Party.” From that, Massie said he had four categories of supporters: independents, Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats. Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020)
The bill itself is discussed at length in the episode, but the excerpt’s contribution on Amash is narrow: he is a House sponsor, and at the time of the conversation he had recently moved from independent to Libertarian. The excerpt does not describe the contents of the bill or say when Amash became a sponsor.
Qualified immunity legislation
In a June 2020 episode, Clark Neily of the Cato Institute described the campaign to eliminate qualified immunity. He said that he and his Cato colleagues had declared on March 1st, 2018 that it was their mission to eliminate the doctrine, and that they had since orchestrated a cross-ideological amicus campaign, with organizations ranging from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU to Reason, Cato, and Alliance Defending Freedom submitting briefs asking the Supreme Court to reverse its precedents. He noted that eight qualified immunity cases had been taken up at the previous Thursday’s conference. An Unprecedented Opportunity to Revisit Unqualified Immunity (2020)
Neily then turned to the legislative route. Because qualified immunity is not a constitutional doctrine but purports to be a statutory interpretation, he said, Congress could fix the problem by amending Section 1983 to make clear that there is no qualified immunity defense. He then named Amash: “Representative Justin Amash has introduced a bill that does precisely that,” adding that a raft of similar legislation would follow and that he could say so with 100% certainty. An Unprecedented Opportunity to Revisit Unqualified Immunity (2020) The excerpt does not give the bill’s number or title, and it does not say what became of it. Neily’s own preference, stated just before, was that the Supreme Court accept review rather than have the issue handed to Congress.
Running on freedom
Amash appears a third time, briefly, in an August 2022 episode on Freedom in the 50 States, co-edited by William Ruger and Jason Sorens. Toward the end of the hour, Bob said that voters affect change only by foot voting or ballot voting, and complained that no candidate he had ever seen—“except perhaps Justin Amash or Thomas Massie”—runs on a platform of standing for freedom, taking a position on any bill based on its effect upon freedom. He asked Ruger how listeners could use their ballot vote most effectively. Ruger, noting that he works at a 501(c)(3) organization, said he could not speak to particular legislation or back candidates; he said that individuals should think about freedom as a variable in everything they do, and that as a political scientist he would say working on campaigns is often a more scalable way to contribute to the democratic process than even voting. Ranking Freedom in the 50 States (2022)
The exchange is the only one in the excerpts in which Amash is named by Bob as a model candidate rather than as an exception inside the legislature. Ruger does not take up the name.
Across episodes: the same question in different settings
The recurring question across the episodes is what a single member of Congress can do against the prevailing structure, and the treatment changes with the setting rather than developing an argument. In June 2019 the claim is maximal and contested: Bob calls Amash the only one of 435 who objects to the power structure, and Bergner immediately names Mike Gallagher and other younger members as counterexamples. Redefining the “Deep State” (2019) In April 2020 the frame is legislative coalition: Massie lists Amash among the PRIME Act’s House sponsors and places him in the Libertarian category alongside Angus King’s independence. Prime time for the PRIME Act (2020) In June 2020 the frame is a specific bill: Neily cites Amash’s measure to remove the qualified immunity defense from Section 1983. An Unprecedented Opportunity to Revisit Unqualified Immunity (2020) In August 2022 the frame is electoral: Bob names Amash, with Thomas Massie, as a candidate who runs on freedom. Ranking Freedom in the 50 States (2022) No excerpt shows Bob or any guest revising an earlier assessment; each episode uses Amash for the point at hand.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts never state Amash’s district, his state, the dates of his service, or the circumstances of his departure from the Republican Party beyond Massie’s remark that he was an independent and recently switched to the Libertarian Party. They do not give the name, number, or fate of the qualified immunity bill Neily attributes to him, nor the contents of the PRIME Act. Bergner’s claim that other members share Amash’s concerns is reported only as Bergner’s view, and Bob’s “one out of 435” only as Bob’s. None of the four episodes features Amash as a guest, so nothing in the article rests on his own words.