Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger slammed Kevin McCarthy on Thursday, using a common slur to attack the newly-minted Speaker of the House while observing he will say anything he needs to to stay in power.
“Kevin’s a piece of shit,” Kinzinger, who represented Illinois for 12 years, told Charlie Sykes in The Bulwark Podcast. “And let’s just be honest about this, because he will say whatever he needs to say to stay in power.”
He added, “I’m not even saying that gratuitously to be mean to him. It’s just a fact.”
Kinzinger was one of two Republicans who served on the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. He decided to not run for re-election.
“All the terror club, the freedom club,” he said, speaking about the House Freedom Caucus members who held the Speaker vote hostage last week, “is extracting all this, and the moderates have so much power that they’re never willing to use.”
He added that “one of the more frustrating” things to watch was “the normals be completely unwilling to do anything to stop this from happening.”
“Normals” are the reality-based non-extremists.
“If you’re willing to shoot a hostage you’ll win,” Kinzinger, again referring to the extremists in the House, told Sykes.
Saying he should “know when to shut the fuck up,” Sykes criticized freshman U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who went after Kinzinger on Twitter on Wednesday.
Santos had vowed, “I will not resign!” to which Kinzinger tweeted, “Resign now.” The New York congressman, who has lied about countless aspects of his background, responded by telling Kinzinger to “Go on CNN and cry about it.”
Sykes also lamented that House Republicans are “not going to do anything” about Santos, given McCarthy’s slim four-seat majority.
Listen to a short clip below or at this link, and the full podcast here.