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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump earlier this month, has been railing against his party’s extreme right-wing on social media over the past few weeks.
He’s called out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for flying to meet former President Trump; Matt Gaetz for trying to have Rep. Liz Cheney removed from her leadership role for voting to impeach Trump; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her extreme views; and others as well.
During an appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, Kinzinger announced a new political action committee (PAC) to challenge the GOP wing that supports former President Donald Trump.
“The Republican party has lost its way,” Kinzinger said in a six-minute video announcing his Country 1st PAC. “Today’s Republican Party is not the one I joined. The GOP I signed up for was built on a foundation of principle.”
“But in recent years, we’ve forgotten our principles,” Kinzinger continued. “They’ve been replaced by poisonous conspiracies and lies. This is not the Republican road, and now we know exactly where this new and dangerous road leads: to insurrection and an armed attack on Congress.”
In announcing his PAC this morning, Kinzinger said, “The reality is this: This is a time to choose. . . . And my goal in launching Country1st.com . . . is just to say, ‘Look, let’s take a look at the last four years, how far we have come in a bad way, how backwards-looking we are, how much we peddle darkness and division,…and that’s not the party I ever signed up for. And I think most Republicans didn’t sign up for that.”
On a Zoom call on Saturday where he previewed the PAC for reporters, Kinzinger said that in the days following the Capitol riot on January 6, he felt optimistic as McCarthy said Trump was responsible for encouraging the mob to attack Congress. McCarthy, however, has since changed his tone and praised the former president.
“That’s a heck of a move in about three weeks. It’s hard to square that circle,” Kinzinger said.
The House Republican Conference will meet on Wednesday to discuss, amongst other things, Liz Cheney’s leadership role and whether or not to punish Taylor Greene for her actions.
Kinzinger called the meeting “the opening salvo in the fight for the party.”
