Kinzinger Hits Back at RNC for Censure of Him and Liz Cheney

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 09:00 pm

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Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) criticized the Republican National Committee (RNC) for its censure of him and Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for the roles they’ve played in the ongoing investigation into the January 6 insurrection, noting that the censure of “Liz and I was a bridge that went way too far.”

Kinzinger and Cheney, who sit on the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the events of January 6, have been adamant that the events of that day amounted to an attack against the seat of government and that the violence of that day was spurred by and precipitated by former President Donald Trump’s lies about the integrity of the 2020 general election.

“Conservatism is no longer about what you actually believe, it’s about how intensely you’re loyal to Donald Trump,” Kinzinger told CNN, noting that the RNC’s move is a sign that the Republican Party “is not committed to the rule of law, despite what they say and it’s not committed to democratic principles.”

The Republican Party last week declared that the attack constituted “legitimate political discourse,” and in its formal censure of Kinzinger and Cheney, said that they were participating in “persecution of ordinary citizens.”

“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, said in a statement. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”

In a separate interview with The Atlantic, Kinzinger said that the censure hurts him, but for a single reason.

“The only reason this hurts me is that it reminds me of how frigging crazy the Republican Party has become,” he said to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, ahead of the vote.

Cheney, for her part, stressed that her party’s censure will not stop her from continuing to speak out against Trump.

“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” she wrote on Twitter.

Cheney added that she does not “recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump.”

“I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic,” she concluded.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.