Rep. Adam Kinzinger during a July hearing on Capitol Hill of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told WGN-TV in an interview published Thursday he has no regrets about standing up to former President Trump, but he thought more Republicans would speak out.
Driving the news: Kingzinger called on Trump in November 2020 to stop spreading "debunked misinformation" about the presidential election and criticized him for calling for an early end to ballot counting.
What he's saying: "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," Kingzinger told WGN's Ben Bradley.
- "We talk about democracy — Republicans love to talk about the Constitution — and yet we're openly violating it now," he added.
The big picture: Kinzinger is now one of two Republicans to serve on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and will not seek re-election this November.
- When asked about his battle with Trump in the Republican Party, Kinzinger told Bradley: "He won, in the short term at least. There's no use in pretending somehow I scored some major victory and saved the party."
Of note: Kinzinger also criticized national Democrats during his interview for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost far-right figures against moderate Republicans in the hope of helping the election chances of Democratic candidates.
- "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?'" Kinzinger said. "That does get a little frustrating."
Go deeper... Adam Kinzinger to Republicans: Your leaders "have been lying to you"