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Anti-Trump Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger criticized Republicans, and also Democrats, in his farewell speech Thursday as he leaves Congress after declining to run in the Republican primary against a Trump-backed challenger.
‘Were the Republicans once believed that limited government meant lower taxes and more autonomy. Today, limited government means inciting violence against government officials,” said Kinzinger, an Illinois lawmaker who was one of two Republican members who served on the House select committee on Jan. 6.
He pointed to the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, in which two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, attacked a federal building.
“Former President George HW Bush publicly rebutted those who used fear to gain support,” Kinzinger recalled. ‘In stark contrast, our leaders today belittle and in some cases justify attacks on the US Capitol as “legitimate political speech.”
The phrase came from a document voted on by members of the Republican National Committee, who censured Kinzinger and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney for their involvement in the Democratic-led Jan. 6 inquiry.
“The Republican Party used to believe in a big tent that housed the weary, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” he continued. “Now, we harbor the ignorant, the racists, who only fuel anger and hatred towards those who are different from us.”
Anti-Trump Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger criticized Republicans, and Democrats as well, in his farewell speech Thursday as he leaves Congress after declining to run in a Republican primary against a Trump-backed challenger.
He criticized Republicans for harboring the ‘ignorant, the racists’ and the party’s reaction to January 6 (pictured)
“But we cannot use our faith as a sword as a shield while ignoring the fact that we are all children of God, that we are all Americans,” he added.
He said the Democrats’ hands weren’t clean because the party, in the 2022 primaries, often helped fund the more extreme Republican MAGA candidates, to weed out moderate Republicans who could appeal to a broader range of voters in midterm elections in November.
“To my fellow Democrats, you too must bear the burden of our failures,” Kinzinger said. ‘Many of you have asked me where all the good Republicans are. In the past two years, the Democratic leadership has had a chance to stay above the fray. Instead, they poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of MAGA Republicans, the very candidates that President Biden called a national security threat, to ensure these good Republicans didn’t make it out of their respective primaries.’
‘This is no longer the usual policy. This is not a game,’ he continued. If you keep stoking the fire, you won’t be able to point a finger when our great experiment goes up in flames.
He said that members of both parties lacked the guts to stand up and put the country over the party.
“When one party’s megaphone blares out calling for civil war, and the other tacitly and in some cases openly supports it, then clearly we are lost, Mr. President,” he said. “Like the Titanic on her maiden voyage, if the Republicans and Democrats do not urgently correct course, I fear we will hit the iceberg right in front of us.”
Kinzinger, who completed two tours of Iraq in the Air Force and remains in the Air National Guard, stressed the importance of the United States remaining involved in Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Some members of the Republican Party, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have suggested that they may not continue funding the effort once they take control of the House of Representatives in January.
“Advocating stronger US assistance in Ukraine to counter Putin’s illegal invasion should not be political, that’s the right thing to do. By supporting those who believe in freedom, we advance the interests of the American people,” Kinzinger argued.
“If this Congress or any future Congress decides to turn its back on our alliances and commitments, it will only embolden our adversaries,” he said.
He specifically singled out China and suggested that if the US withdraws financial support from Ukraine, the communists will take over Taiwan.
“It has all been true that China is measuring its tolerance for pain based on our response to Ukraine,” Kinzinger said. “And if we don’t support our allies in Kyiv, China will unleash its own imperial aspirations throughout the region.”
Kinzinger concluded his remarks by highlighting some of the abuses he suffered as an anti-Trump Republican in a body of Congress that has largely remained loyal to the former president.
Thanking his family members, he said: ‘You have all lifted me up and my time of need. While others fled, you stood your ground and supported me through thick and thin. And for this, I am eternally grateful.’
And he yelled at his staff that they received “the brunt of the vitriol from angry, lost people.”
“If I had known that standing up for the truth would cost me my job, friendships and even my personal safety, I would, without hesitation, do it again,” he said. ‘I can rest easy at night, knowing that I have fulfilled my oath to office.’
“I know that many in this institution cannot do the same,” he said.