Kinzinger calls on GOP to condemn rally backing Capitol rioters: 'This overthrow-the-government fetish – I don't understand it'
Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL) on Thursday ripped into his GOP colleagues for refusing to condemn Saturday's rally in support of Capitol insurrectionists.
Noting that temporary fencing is being reinstalled around the Capitol, CNN New Day host Brianna Keilar said while most GOP lawmakers have ignored invitations to the Justice for J6 rally, they also haven't condemned it, and two GOP congressional candidates are slated to speak at the event.
"What do you think it be like to be sitting in the House chamber next to a member of Congress who supported, at a rally, people who broke into or tried to break into the House chamber?" Keilar asked Kinzinger.
"I don't know," Kinzinger responded, before referencing the Oath Keepers, one of the militia groups involved in the Jan. 6 riot.
"Let's keep in mind, Oath Keepers may try to sound like they're some constitutional, America, flag-waving thing," Kinzinger said. "No, they are all about the overthrow of the federal government."
"This overthrow-the-government fetish that exists, I don't understand it, except there's a lot of bored people out there that probably never served a day in the military and get to go play dress up," Kinzinger continued. "So, if one of those folks gets elected to Congress and sits next to me, I don't think — you cannot be against the Constitution and also somehow swear to the Constitution that you're going to protect it. It's bull crap, and frankly if we have to have this fence put up every time someone that hates the federal government goes and rallies, it is time for the Republican Party to denounce militia-ism, and to just say we are a country that takes our disagreements, and we discuss them in Congress. We don't do this violently and with all this angst that everybody has nowadays. Let's do this as grownups and do it in the government we inherited from some people that made some pretty bold moves a few hundred years ago."
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