'Disgusted': Ex-GOP rep slams 'desperate' Newsom after chummy chat with Bannon

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) took issue with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) normalizing people who advocate anti-democracy sentiment.

Newsom began a podcast last week in which he speaks with far-right ideologues about issues they agree on. On Thursday, he spoke with Steve Bannon, former counselor to President Donald Trump during his first term and a brief campaign manager in 2016.

Kinzinger was one of many lawmakers who experienced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which Bannon and his allies played a significant role in via their involvement in the "Stop the Steal" effort to overturn the election results.

Platforming Bannon didn't sit well with Kinzinger.

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"I was disgusted. Not surprised, perhaps, but disgusted nonetheless," Kinzinger wrote on Substack. "He had already had Charlie Kirk on, Bannon Junior for the gen z’ers. It’s like he’s desperate to be liked by MAGA."

He said that Bannon isn't merely a “provocative conservative” or someone who has a “different viewpoint.”

"He is an unapologetic, convicted criminal who defied a congressional subpoena during the January 6th investigation," Kinzinger wrote. "He has spent his career poisoning American democracy with conspiracy theories and encouraging lawlessness. He was at the center of Trump’s 'Stop the Steal' lies and called for the destruction of the very institutions that uphold our republic."

Kinzinger agreed that bipartisanship is essential in politics and policy but Newsom's act legitimizes "a man who has spent years working to undermine democracy itself." Bipartisanship, he said, doesn't "mean legitimizing anti-democratic extremists."

He closed saying that giving oxygen to those who want to end democracy is not something to "play politics with when it suits your ambitions."

Read the full column here.