Tag: Rep. Kinzinger

Republican lashes out at ‘capitulation’ of GOP to Trump — and says Lauren Boebert clearly knew about Jan. 6

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran, always assumed that there would be a “career-ending” vote he would have to take. But according to a New York Times profile, Kinzinger assumed it would be about Social Security instead. After the attack on the U.S Capitol Jan. 6, it became clear what he would have to do.

“I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote,” he told the Times. “But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

He explained that things have changed because there is so much mistrust, and since Jan. 6 not many other Republicans have joined him. Continue reading.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the Moral Failure of Republicans and the Big Lie

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Since the horrifying events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has been a consistent, if lonely, Republican voice speaking out against the big lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. After the sidelining of Representative Liz Cheney from leadership, Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran who was first elected to the House in 2010, was further entrenched as one of the most influential sitting Republican politicians willing to regularly and publicly denounce that dangerous fiction. Inhabiting that position is just about the last thing Kinzinger ever imagined his job would entail. “I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote,” says Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the attempted insurrection. “But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

How does it feel to have your job these days? I could imagine there’s an even greater sense of purpose. I could also imagine it being demoralizing. You pretty much nailed it. The job has changed because there is so much mistrust. Both within the party and between parties. But yes, there is a sense of aggressive purpose. On the one hand, it’s important for me to do what I’m doing and to speak out. On the other hand, you look around since the election and not many more people have joined me in speaking out about the big lie, and that is a little discouraging.

Republican Congressman can’t understand why Trump supporters went to ‘worship a loser’ at Ohio rally

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Former President Donald Trump’s Ohio rally is being mocked by many for being a celebration of a “loser.” Now Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is joining in on the mockery.

Speaking to CNN Sunday, Kinzinger called the rally, eight months after the election, “a rally for a loser.”

“There are a lot of people that I’ve talked to that are mad at me for just telling the truth, which used to be a pretty basic low bar,” he told CNN host Pamela Brown. “That really truly believes that Donald Trump was elected president again. What you saw yesterday was a recycling of all his old talking points. It was a rally of a loser president. He’s the first president to lose re-election in decades. And I don’t know why these folks would go there and just short of worship a loser. They did. The interesting thing is he didn’t talk much about the candidate running against Anthony Gonzalez, who is a fantastic person, Anthony is. The guy running against him, at one point, Trump made it sound like he negotiated world peace in North Korea. The guy worked advance, which is really an entry-level position, not to put it down, but not negotiating with world leaders. And then he went into old recycled talking points. The problem is people believe this. They really do. And there are enough people that, frighteningly, believe he’ll be president again in August.” Continue reading.

‘White Supremacy Caucus’: GOP lawmaker torches ‘America First Caucus’ as he offers his take on lawmakers joining it

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) did not mince words when he shared his opinion of the right-wing America First Caucus. The Republican lawmaker also criticized his colleagues interested in joining the caucus as he stressed that there should be consequences for such actions. 

On Friday, April 16, Kinzinger took to Twitter with a series of tweets about the formation of the new caucus. According to Mediaite, the caucus was founded by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), both of whom recently attended a white nationalist conference and served as keynote speakers. The publication reports that the two lawmakers have been working to recruit a number of other Republican lawmakers including Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Although the America First Caucus claims it places an emphasis on “common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions,” Kinzinger argues otherwise. The Illinois lawmaker insists the caucus is nothing more than a white supremacy caucus. Continue reading.

Kinzinger is first GOP lawmaker to call on Gaetz to resign

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GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) on Thursday night called for Rep. Matt Gaetz(R-Fla.) to resign amid allegations that Gaetz had sex with a minor and violated sex trafficking laws. 

In a short tweet, the Illinois Republican wrote, “Matt Gaetz needs to resign.”

The tweet included a link to an article from The Daily Beast reporting that Gaetz used Venmo to pay an accused sex trafficker $900 in May of 2018. The Beast reports that the man, Joel Greenberg, then sent the same amount of money to teenaged girls. Continue reading.

First GOP lawmaker calls for invoking 25th Amendment to remove Trump

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Thursday became the first GOP lawmaker to call for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office.

It came a day after a pro-Trump mob stormed and ransacked the U.S. Capitol in a futile bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Kinzinger, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who continues to serve in the Air Force, lay blame for the insurrection at the feet of the president himself, who had urged his supporters to march on the Capitol. 

“Here’s the truth. The president caused this. The president is unfit and the president is unwell. And the president now must relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily,” Kinzinger, a centrist Republican and frequent Trump critic, said in a video message posted on Twitter. Continue reading.

GOP congressman blasts Trump for quoting evangelical pastor’s ‘civil war’ threat: ‘This is beyond repugnant’

AlterNet logoAppearing on Fox News on Sunday, Robert Jeffress — one of President Donald Trump’s far-right white evangelical sycophants — asserted that Trump’s impeachment could cause “a Civil War-like fracture” in the United States. Trump repeated Jeffress’ assertion on Twitter — and got an angry response from a fellow Republican: Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Jeffress, pastor at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, is a prominent figure on the Christian Right. And during his Sunday appearance on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” Jeffress insisted to co-hosts Pete Hegseth and Jedediah Bila that Trump has done nothing to deserve impeachment and attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for supporting an impeachment inquiry — stressing, “I do want to make this prediction this morning: if the Democrats are successful in removing the president from office, I’m afraid it will cause a Civil War-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal.”

On Twitter, Trump quoted Jeffress and zeroed right in on the Civil War part:

View the complete September 30 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.