Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R. Ill), who along with Rep. Liz Cheney (R. WY), was censured by Republican leadership for participating on the mostly Democrat House Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riots on the US Capitol, recently suggested that every fellow Republican will have to say whether they actually believe the events of that day was “legitimate political discourse,” as the GOP claims in their official statement on the committee’s work.
Earlier this month, at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City the Republican National Committee accused Kinzinger and Cheney “of participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
Speaking to “Face the Nation,” over the weekend, Kinzinger responded to the censure:
“This is a moment where every Republican, I don’t care if you’re running for City Council all the way up to Congress, Senate, etc., every Republican has to be clear and forceful on the record: Do they think Jan. 6 was legitimate political discourse. Don’t let them avoid it, don’t let them hem haw, don’t let them transition to some other subject they’d rather talk about. This is an answer every one of them have to give, and then we can move on once they’re clear and on the record.”
Kinzinger said he wants to hear from more of his fellow lawmakers, after noting that he was pleased by remarks regarding Jan. 6 by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Mike Pence:
“I have lost faith in some of the courage of my colleagues. I thought that every person, when they swore an oath, had some version of a red line they would never cross.”
Last Thursday, Kinzinger also told ABC’s The View that he was concerned that the current division in American politics could be bad enough to lead to an armed civil war:
”We’re identifying now by our race, by our ethnic group, we’re separating ourselves and we live in different realities…And I think we have to warn and talk about it so that we can recognize that and fight hard against it and put our country over our parties, because our survival actually matters.”
He continued on The View:
”In the past, I’ve said, oh, we don’t want to talk about it, because I don’t want to make it likely. Well, let’s look at where we are. It’s going to be armed groups against armed groups, targeted assassination and violence. That’s what a 21st and 20th century Civil War is.”
And concluded:
“A once great party, a party that stood for something, stood for principles, whether you agree with those principles or not, is now a party that stands for loyalty to one man, that was clear in the RNC censure, and that’s what makes me sad more than anything.”
