Maverick GOP congressman calls for subpoenas for McCarthy & Jordan in Jan. 6th probe
While most of the rest of the Republican Party grovels in fear of being primaried and losing their lucrative government job by some more compliant supporter of the disgraced ex-president Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) prefers to stick to his principles.
As one of two Republican members of the House of Representatives appointed to the select committee investigating the origins and inspiration of the January 6th attack on the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, Rep. Kinzinger, along with Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY), have been pariahs in their own political caucus because of their failure to play along with the downplaying and coverup of the violent insurrection and the cynical attempts to pin the blame on Antifa like their more democracy-averse colleagues.
Appearing on ABC News‘s This Week today, Kinzinger further alienated his fellow Republicans by declaring to host Jonathan Karl that both House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) — two lawmakers who have confirmed that they had spoken with Donald Trump on that fateful day — should be subpoenaed to compel their testimony before the investigatory panel.
.@jonkarl: "Would you support subpoenas to the Republican leader in the House and to Jim Jordan?"@RepKinzinger: "I would support subpoenas to anybody who could shed light on that. If that's the leader, that's the leader."https://t.co/g2YZDNlfIS pic.twitter.com/GKbE4alvrf
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 1, 2021
"It's going to be a thorough investigation, that's for sure."
EXCLUSIVE: GOP @RepKinzinger, one of two Republican lawmakers on the Jan. 6 select committee, tells @jonkarl: "I would expect a significant number of subpoenas for a lot of people." https://t.co/g2YZDNlfIS pic.twitter.com/KZmk0ycPBe
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 1, 2021
Rep. Kinzinger’s vow to find out what Donald Trump “was doing every moment of that day” shows that he means business in getting to the bottom of the insurrection and any potential criminal activity that may have taken place behind the scenes leading up to the violent incursion of the Capitol Building.
Kinzinger demonstrated little sympathy or respect for those GOP members of Congress who he sees as abandoning their own personal principles for political expediency.
He took particular aim at the congresswoman who took over Liz Cheney’s number three leadership position in the Republican Party after the Wyoming lawmaker was ousted because of her refusal to accept Trump’s big lie about a supposedly “stolen” election.
With the formerly moderate Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) now brazenly attempting to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the insurrection by criticizing her supervision of congressional security, Kinzinger lashed out at what he called the New York Republican’s “desperation.”
“To me it’s mind-blowing and shows the desperation to derail this. The speaker and I don’t get along on a lot of things. On this, we do. Blaming what happened on Jan. 6 on the security posture, that’s like blaming someone for being a victim of crime,” he told ABC News.
Kinzinger on Stefanik trying to blame Pelosi for Jan 6: "All Donald Trump needs to see is that you're making a defense, no matter how nonsensical that defense is … if you stand in front of the news channel that Trump watches & say 'this is Pelosi's fault,' you've done your job" pic.twitter.com/oFptp82fBg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 1, 2021
It’s great to know that at least a few members of the GOP are principled enough to disregard the damage that swimming upstream against a tide of stubborn Republican opposition to discovering the truth about the insurrection could have on their future careers.
For Kinzinger, the calculation likely is that, once the truth is revealed and the dust settles, he will be one of the few members of his party unsullied by fealty to Donald Trump and will be in a position to play a leading role in what a Republican Party purified of its most unscrupulous members may look like.
We should all wish him luck in his quest.
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