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.
Kinzinger explained that the GOP leadership hasn’t said a word to him about his rabid opposition to the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol and Donald Trump’s urging-on of his supporters.
“Kevin gave a great speech the week after that, and then he went to Mar-a-Lago and charged the paddles and brought Trump back to life,” he said of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “That’s the moment when I realized, Oh, man, this is a problem. You come to understand that when the party and party leaders talk about unity, and in the same breath, say that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, what they’re talking about isn’t unity. They’re talking about capitulation. When under the guise of unity, you act like Jan. 6 was just whatever you want to make of it, that is capitulating to a false narrative and to a dangerous attack on democracy. I will certainly talk to Kevin if he wants to. But I don’t see how we’re ever going to come eye-to-eye on this until there is a recognition that we can’t be the party of insurrection.”