Adam Kinzinger hammers Kevin McCarthy over RNC censure: 'Weakest leader that has ever existed'
February 07, 2022
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) ripped House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for giving up the Republican Party to Donald Trump without a fight.
The Illinois Republican and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the only two Republicans on the House select committee, were formally censured last week by the Republican National Committee in a resolution that declared the Jan. 6 insurrection was "legitimate political discourse," and Kinzinger reacted to the move on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"It's a defining moment for the party and I think it's a defining moment for every member of the House or the Senate or any Republican leader," Kinzinger said. "Kevin McCarthy, obviously, who I think asked about this in response, he just went after Liz and I, goes to show he is the weakest leader that has ever, frankly, existed in that position. So I think every member of the media, every citizen, every person out there needs to pin down every Republican and say do you side with what the RNC did or do you condemn what they did and don't let them -- trust me, politicians are really good at skirting around that answer."
"Don't let them on this one," he added. "It's so defining."
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Kinzinger was shocked that the RNC resolution explicitly approved the violence carried out by Donald Trump supporters against law enforcement as they tried to overturn the election.
"That was obviously a huge surprise to me," Kinzinger said. "I expected that maybe this censure thing was going to happen. The amazing thing about it is as [RNC chair] Rona McDaniel is out saying that's not what we really meant. This whole thing is coming from the Jan. 6 committee, which we're doing because of the violence. We would not be having a Jan. 6 committee if it was all peaceful and legitimate discourse."
That violent action keeps Republicans from speaking out against the former president's wishes, according to Kinzinger.
"You know there are members on that committee that disagreed with this that were too scared to speak up and stop that from happening," Kinzinger said. "There are members of the Republican Party probably who have been there for 30 years that are scared to death of the mob excluding them that they won't even speak up. The RNC deserves every aspect of backlash that is going to come down on it ,and this is a defining moment in American politics and in the RNC's future."
"Are you for authoritarianism," he added, "or are you for democracy and are you going to come back to democracy again?"
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