Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) proclaimed members of his own party and President Donald Trump on Sunday for refusing to acknowledge that Trump had lost the election, and warned of possible violence if Republicans continue their “rousing scam” to invoke the results. fight.
With a number of the president’s allies in the House and Senate indicating they will disrupt Jan. 6 certification of the Electoral College’s vote in a last-ditch effort to steal the election, Kinzinger took to Twitter this weekend to punish Trump and the “congressional grifters.”
“My God. Trying to set fire to the place on the way out because you can’t deal with losses. No proof, nothing but your tantrum and crazy conspiracies. Embarrassing,” the Illinois congressman tweeted in response to Trump applauding the effort.
Kinzinger interview on CNNs State of the Union On Sunday, guest host Dana Bash brought up the planned attempt to contest President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory, noting that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence recently met with some of the Republicans behind the effort.
“I expect there will be a little chaos”, Kinzinger responded. “However, this is a scam.”
Kinzinger pointed out that Team Trump’s lawsuits claiming the “election was stolen” had no legs, adding that there is “no incentive to overthrow the election, even if you wanted to” in Congress. .
“All that’s being done is that certain members of Congress, the president and ‘opinion leaders’ on Twitter are getting retweets, getting followers and raising money for this scam,” Kinzinger said. “It’s a scam and it will disappoint those who think this election has been stolen, who think this is an opportunity to change it.”
The Illinois congressman went on to say that “instead of being disappointed with the people who led them to this devious scam,” Trump supporters will end up blaming “RINOs in Congress” for preventing Trump from remaining in office. instead of “the constitution that prevents this. from happening.”
When he brought up Trump’s recent pardon on his corrupt associates and friends, such as Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, Bash added that “we have heard and seen a lot of crazy things in recent weeks” from the president.
“We’ve seen and heard about martial law declarations, unfounded allegations of a stolen election you just spoke about, mixed signals about military funding and COVID aid,” she continued. But the president has more time in office. Are you really concerned about what else he and the people who support him might do? “
While Kinzinger said he wasn’t sure he was “concerned,” he was at least “concerned” about how the January 6 gamble would play out in the more unhinged portion of Trump’s base that believes in the dangerous conspiracy theory QAnon.
“If you convince people that, you know, Congress can change a legitimate election and that everything is stolen, then there is a deep state / QAnon theory driving this that Satanist pedophiles run the government,” he said. “You can see people being driven to violence, so I worry about that.”
Kinzinger, who is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard, further stated that he was confident the Pentagon would not enter martial law to rerun the election, as former national security adviser Michael Flynn has suggested .
“The concern I have now, and why I am so forthright, is that I grew up as a Republican because I believe in a smaller government and strong national defense, and it is currently being destroyed by conspiracies. And anger, ”he concluded. “And I’m really worried about the future of my party.”