'The state of the party is a disaster': Adam Kinzinger unloads on the GOP leadership
At the conclusion of an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) was asked what he sees in the future for the Republican Party after its dalliance with Donald Trump.
After bringing fill-in host Jonathan Lemire up to date on what to expect from the House select committee investigating the Jan 6th insurrection incited by the former president, Lemire asked, "You mentioned that democracy itself would be in jeopardy were Trump not to be potentially prosecuted. It seems like most members of your party are still standing with him; the poll numbers are dipped just a little and we have seen a few voices like Mike Pence say they're going to run for president. But the vast majority of the GOP still wants to follow, or seems to want to follow Donald Trump. What is your take on the state of the republican party, that that could be the case despite everything the hearings have laid out?"
"The state of the party is a disaster," the clearly disgusted GOP lawmaker stated. "Look, there are -- there are anecdotal -- I have people that tell me, 'Hey, my dad was addicted to Fox News, never thought anything wrong with Donald Trump, now he hates him because of these hearings.' I hear anecdotal things like that and there are movements that are occurring."
"I think in the medium and particularly in the long-term, Donald Trump will be persona non grata in this country because of this," he continued, "but in the short term, it takes leaders."
"I always thought when you got elected to Congress, this is my naivete as a kid, that you coming out here to lead. What I have learned is that but leadership is extremely, exceedingly rare in this job, and people are more interested in maintaining the title and getting re-elected," he continued without naming names. "Look, you have Republicans that only trust Republican leaders and when there's only two Republican leaders that are currently elected that are telling you the truth, myself, Liz [Cheney], maybe Mitt Romney and a few others, it's easy to demonize us."
"We're not the ones lying to you, fellow Republican voters," he added. "It's the people too scared to tell you the truth. That's a choice you have to make. All I can do is say truth and I'll do that any day of the week."
Watch the video below or at this link.
MSNBC 07 25 2022 08 03 23 youtu.be