Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. — who opposes abortions except in cases of rape, incest, the life of the mother or before 15 weeks — said this on Sunday regarding GOP moves to end all exceptions: “Somehow, in the Republican Party, the crueler you are, the more likely you are to win a primary.”
Kinzinger, a member of the Jan. 6 committee probing the Capitol attack and former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, discussed the panel’s next steps, the FBI seizure of classified records at Trump’s Florida estate and more on NBC’s “Meet the Press” hosted by Chuck Todd.
On Trump keeping presidential documents that are public property, some classified, and protests from some Republicans over the FBI Mar-a-Lago raid: “I mean, the hypocrisy of folks in my party that spent years chanting ‘Lock her up’ about Hillary Clinton... because of some deleted e-mails, or, quote/unquote ‘wiping a server,’ are now out there defending a man who very clearly did not take the national security of the United States to heart. And it will be up to DOJ whether or not that reaches the level of indictment. But this is disgusting, in my mind. And — and, look, no president should act this way, obviously.”
On what’s next for the Jan. 6 committee: During a June hearing, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a panel member, said Trump “used these false claims of election fraud to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters who were told their donations were for the legal fight in the courts. But the Trump campaign didn’t use the money for that. The ‘Big Lie’ was also a big ripoff.”
Kinzinger told Todd, “I think one of the more intriguing things is going to be some of the financing, right, some of the fundraising, the fact that, you know, a vast majority of this money was raised under, quote/unquote ‘Stop the steal,’ with no intention of doing anything to so called stop a steal. It was all about just raising money.”
On whether abortion is a winning issue for Democrats heading into the November midterms in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down abortion rights: “I think it’s definitely changed the complexion of the midterms some. I don’t know how big,” Kinzinger noted as he labeled GOP moves to ban exceptions cruel moves to win primaries.
Kinzinger said he is very open to backing “left wing” Democrats who believe in democracy over “anti-democracy” Republicans: Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the other Republican on the Jan. 6 panel — who lost her primary reelection bid — said after her defeat she may help Democrats defeat GOP election deniers.
Kinzinger — who did not run for reelection — was asked by Todd, “Do you feel that`s what you’re going to be doing over the next couple of years or so?”
Kinzinger, who launched his “Country First” political movement after the Jan. 6 attack, said, “Yes... I mean, look, the biggest issue — not everybody agrees with me, certainly in my party and even Democrats that like to say things like, ‘Well, but you’re still a conservative.’ Yeah, I’m a conservative.
“But the bottom line is the biggest threat right now to our country is democracy. And if you have Republicans that are running against even left-wing Democrats that believe in democracy and believe in voting, that person should be elected over somebody who basically would overthrow the will of the people and ultimately destroy this country.
Said Kinzinger, “This country cannot survive outside of democracy. It will turn into a power struggle between groups of different races, of different ethnicities, of different religions. Because the thing that holds us together is this belief that we can self-govern. Take that away, this country is a mess. And so Republicans that are for that have no place in office.”
