Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) has admitted that President Donald Trump has defeated him in their battle for the Republican Party.
Kinzinger, one of two Republicans to sit on the Democrats’ anti-Trump Jan. 6 Committee, revealed during a new interview that he assumed other GOP lawmakers would join him.
“Yes, yeah, he won,” Kinzinger told Chicago news station WGN-TV.
“In the short term, at least.
“There’s no use in pretending somehow I scored some major victory and saved the party.
“Maybe there wasn’t going to be a tidal wave of people to come over, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be alone.
“We talk about democracy — Republicans like to talk about the Constitution — and yet we’re openly violating it now.”
“When they’re spending donor money to promote these candidates that don’t believe in democracy and then come and tell me ‘Where have all the good Republicans gone?’ that does get a little frustrating, I’ll tell you,” Kinzinger added.
In an exclusive on Chicago’s @WGNNews, reporter @BenBradleyTV asks @RepKinzinger, “When you leave Congress here in just a few months, in the Trump vs. Kinzinger war, has Trump won?” Kinzinger replies, “Yes, yeah. He won. In the short term at least.” pic.twitter.com/z7RS2NSwTE
— Mark Vargas (@MarkAVargas) August 12, 2022
According to The Hill:
Kinzinger also criticized Democrats for the steps some in the party have taken to undermine moderate Republicans who oppose Trump.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent millions of dollars on ads promoting Trump-backed candidates in swing districts as the primaries for the 2022 midterm elections proceed.
The committee has hoped the Trump-backed candidates will be easier for Democratic nominees to defeat in November.
Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), who also voted to impeach Trump, lost his primary for reelection earlier this month. Democrats ran ads supporting John Gibbs, his Trump-backed challenger.
From WGN:
Kinzinger met with WGN News’ Ben Bradley in a hanger at the Morris, Illinois airport where he keeps the small plane he still uses to fly himself around his largely rural congressional district. Kinzinger’s plane, like his political career, has been temporarily grounded (supply chain issues have led to a long wait for a replacement part).
But to carry the analogy forward, his political wings are by no means permanently clipped.
And that could mean a run for President of the United States one day.
“If people wake up there may be an opportunity to come back. If they don’t I know I’ve done what I can do,” Kinzinger said.
