Rep. Adam Kinzinger.Photo: Susan Walsh/AP/Shutterstock
Rep.Adam Kinzingersays that, while he voted forDonald Trumpin the 2020 presidential election, he did so begrudgingly — and only to satisfy his base. Despite losing the election, Kinzinger says the former president continues to “spread' through the Republican Party like a “cancer.”
In an interview withThe Washington Post, Kinzinger said he did not vote for Trump in 2016, instead getting “super drunk” on election night and wondering, “Trump’s president, how do we deal with this?”
By 2020, though, Kinzinger could see that Trump had something of an iron grip on the party. So, he said, he voted for him in order to have “credit with the base.”
“That way I can say with a straight face I voted for him,” Kinzinger told thePost. “I know he is not going to win, but I can say I did it. And so I have credit with the base.”
Now two years later, he said he regrets the decision.
“It’s not something I can square away in my soul fully,” he told the outlet.
These days, though, Kinzinger continues to criticize Trump, serving on the committee investigating theJan. 6 Capitol riots, which took place when a crowd of violent Trump supporters breached the Capitol building, forcing the evacuation of lawmakers as they certified the presidential election forJoe Biden.
Speaking to thePost, Kinzinger compared Trump to “cancer,” arguing that lawmakers “need to stand up” to the former president and those who mimic him.
“Trump is now secondary to the cancer. Trump is like a cancer of the liver. Now we have cancer in the whole body, and the next person that can mimic Trump can still pull his magic tricks,” he told thePost. “We’ve got to stand up against this.”
Earlier this month, in an interview onCBS News’FacetheNation, the Illinois representative said that since the hearings began last month, “the amount of information we’re getting has just rapidly accelerated,” adding that they “may have more hearings in the future, and the investigation is still ongoing.”
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Kinzinger faced criticism and death threats of his own since coming out against Trump, taking to social media to sharethreatening lettersandvoicemail messagesaddressed to him, his wife, Sofia Boza-Holman — a former communications staffer for then-Vice PresidentMike Pence— and referencing the couple’s 5-month-old son, Christian.
“I hold nothing against them, but I have zero desire or feel the need to reach out and repair that,” Kinzinger told the paper. “That is 100 percent on them to reach out and repair, and quite honestly, I don’t care if they do or not.”
He continued: “The party’s sick right now. It’s one thing if the party was accepting of different views, but it’s become this massive litmus test on everything.”
source: people.com
