Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Wednesday that the vast majority of his Republican colleagues don’t believe ex-President Donald Trump’s election lies, even though they may continue to peddle them in public.
“Save one or two maybe out here, nobody ― and I think it’s very important to repeat ― nobody actually believes the election was stolen from Donald Trump, but a lot of them are happy to go out and say it was,” Kinzinger told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Blitzer asked Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the nine-member House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot, if any of his fellow GOP lawmakers had “actually privately said to you, ‘Good work, I support you.’”
“Yes, oh yeah, yeah,” responded Kinzinger, who has become one of his party’s fiercest critics of its twice-impeached former president.
“Is it just one or two? Is it a handful? Give me a ballpark number,” the CNN anchor pressed.
“There’s a lot of people, you know. And they come up and say it,” replied Kinzinger. “It’s not any of the ones that go on TV and spout the big lie and then say it. It’s the ones that are staying more quiet that I think appreciate the stand. But it’s a lot.”
Blitzer asked Kinzinger if he’d thought of switching parties.
“No. Look, I’m a Republican at heart, right?” he replied. “I was a Republican way before Donald Trump, since I was 6 years old. I believe in the values I’m fighting for and I believe that a party of such a great rich history deserves to have people, even if it’s only a couple of us at the moment, in there fighting to restore the soul of it. So I’m gonna fight hard for that.”
"You at least owe them your attention," says Rep. Adam Kinzinger of reports that neither Rep. Kevin McCarthy nor Sen. Mitch McConnell viewed the Jan. 6 committee hearing.
"I'd be happy to send them a Beta or VHS copy of it so they can sit in their office and do that." pic.twitter.com/1d3Rjza20k — The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) July 28, 2021
Yeeslander on July 29th, 2021 at 11:53 UTC »
This is most infuriating part--they're knowingly misleading their constituency because it keeps them politically relevant in Trumpland. Rather than quell the insanity and face a few temporary losses, they choose to placate the crazies to stay in the short game and fuck the whole system sideways.
This is an occasion where "losing the battle to win the war" would be a very appropriate strategy.
GhettoChemist on July 29th, 2021 at 11:24 UTC »
Trump voters do because their elected officials tell them it was stolen. Weird how that work huh?
DBE113301 on July 29th, 2021 at 11:20 UTC »
Trump's voters do. They're the ones that need convincing.