GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger says 'we traffic in lies' as he launches campaign to 'take party back' from Trump and QAnon-following congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene
Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger has launched a new campaign to take the party back from influence of members like Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
'The Republican Party has lost its way. If we are to lead again, we need to muster the courage to remember who we are,' Kinzinger, 42, said in a video launching his Country 1st PAC.
'Republicans must say enough is enough. It's time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality, and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage,' he added.
His political action committee, unveiled in a six-minute video released Sunday, will challenge the current direction of a GOP that Kinzinger argues has wrongly become a 'Trump-first party.'
'The biggest danger right now is that we've become a party that dabbles — not just dabbles — we traffic in conspiracies and we traffic in lies,' the GOP representative from Illinois said.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger launches new Super PAC to take Republican Party back from influence of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene
'We traffic in conspiracies and we traffic in lies,'Rep. Adam Kinzinger said of GOP under influence of former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
The PAC will serve as his way to financially influence the GOP ahead of the 2022 midterm election.
And it comes as the Republican Party is struggling with a deep divide in its ranks - between the radical beliefs associated with Trump and Greene and the traditionalists who want to return the party to its conservative roots.
Kinzinger, a former darling of the conservative Tea Party movement, decried the views of people like Greene and made it clear he thinks House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has shown weak leadership when it comes to dealing with the more radical elements of the GOP.
But his move also shows the dilemma that many Republicans face - speaking out against Trump angers the former president's millions of loyal supporters, who are a force of their own in the GOP.
Kinzinger revealed to NBC' 'Meet the Press' on Sunday that he has had friends and family turn against him, telling him he's 'possessed by the devil' as he distanced himself from the Trump wing.
He was one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the January 6th attack, which he cited as a personal breaking point for himself. Kinzinger is an Air Force veteran, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Illinois Republican Party is expected to censure Kinzinger for his impeachment vote.
He decried the actions of Greene, who has come to national prominence in recent days as her past musing on social media have come to light, including that she thought California's wildfire was caused by space lasers; claimed that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, before her death, was using a body double; and that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin cut off a child's face while she was alive - all of which are false.
Kinzinger also had harsh words for Trump ally on Capitol Hill Rep. Jim Jordan, who is pushing to expel Republican Rep. Liz Cheney for the party leadership for criticizing Trump for inciting the MAGA mob who attacked the Capitol, leaving five dead and a path of destruction in their wake.
'They're political terrorists,' Kinzinger said of Jordan and his allies, on a zoom call with reporters over the weekend, according to The Washington Post.
But Greene also has her own strong cache of supporters. She announced on Friday she raised $1.6 million off all the controversy surrounding her and revealed on Saturday she had spoken to Trump, who, in the past, called her a 'future Republican star.'
Republicans are facing their own reckoning as they struggle on a path forward after losing control of the White House and the Senate to Democrats.
McCarthy is expected to meet face-to-face with Greene this week to discuss her social media postings, many of which happened before she was a member of Congress. In them, she expressed support for killing Democratic politicians, touted unfounded QAnon theories along with racist views.
The House Republican Conference meets Wednesday to debate Cheney's status and discuss whether to punish Greene for her actions.
McCarthy originally said Trump bares some responsibility for the January 6th MAGA riot on Capitol Hill, for which the former president criticized him, reportedly calling him a 'p***y.'
But McCarthy apparently has made amends. On Thursday he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm beach, Florida, in a meeting that was described as 'very good and cordial.' The readout was released with a photo of the two men smiling.
Adam Kinzinger referred to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (left) and Rep. Jim Jordan (right) as 'political terrorists'
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will meet with Rep. Greene this week about her controversial social media posts and entire House GOP meets Wednesday on the issue
Kinzinger criticized McCarthy for bowing down to Trump.
'I was disappointed over the last few weeks to see what seemed like the Republican Party waking up and then kind of falling asleep again and saying, 'Well, you know, what matters if we can win in two years and we don't want to tick off the base,' he said.
'The photo,' he noted , 'shows that the former president is desperate to continue looking like he's leading the party.'
Kinzinger decried the current state of the Republican Party, telling NBC's 'Meet the Press' that 'let's take a look at the last four years, how far we have come in a bad way. How backward-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.'
'It doesn't mean we don't need to fight back, you know, to defend what we believe, conservative principles,' he noted. 'But when I ask people now what is a conservative principle, how many people think that conservative principles are things like just 'build the wall' and, you know, charge the Capitol and have an insurrection?'
