Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on Sunday called on members of his own party and President Donald Trump to refuse to acknowledge that Trump lost the election, warning of possible violence if Republicans continue their “scam.” to challenge the results.
With a series of allies of the president in the House and Senate who indicated they would disrupt the January 6 congressional certification of the Electoral College vote in a last-ditch effort to steal the election, Kinzinger took to Twitter over the weekend to punish Trump and the “congressional thugs.”
“Ten of me. Trying to burn the place at the exit because you can’t get lost. There’s no evidence, nothing but his anger and crazy conspiracies. Shameful.” the Illinois congressman tweeted in response to Trump encouraging the effort.
Interviewing Kinzinger on CNN State of the Union on Sunday, guest host Dana Bash presented the planned attempt to contest the decisive victory of President-elect Joe Biden, noting that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence recently met with some of the Republicans behind the effort.
“I hope there will be a little chaos,” Kinzinger replied. “Still, it’s a scam.”
Noting that the Trump team’s lawsuits alleging that “the election was stolen” had no leg, Kinzinger added that there is “no impetus to overthrow the election even if you wanted to” in Congress.
“All that’s being done is that certain members of Congress, the president, and Twitter’s‘ thought leaders ’receive retweets, gain followers, and raise money for this scam,” Kinzinger said. “It’s a scam and it will disappoint people who believe these elections were stolen, who believe it’s an opportunity to change them.”
The Illinois congressman went on to say that “instead of disappointing the people who brought them to this scammer,” Trump supporters will end up accusing the “RINOs in Congress” of preventing Trump from continuing in office instead. of “the Constitution which prevents this.” in first place “.
Speaking of Trump’s recent pardons from his corrupt associates and friends, such as Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, Bash added that “we’ve heard and seen a lot of crazy things” from the president in recent weeks.
“We’ve seen and heard talk of declaring martial law, baseless allegations of stolen elections that you just talked about, mixed signals about military funding and relief from COVID,” he continued. “But the president still has more time in office. Do you really care what he and the people who support him can do? ”
While Kinzinger said he wasn’t sure he was “worried,” at least he was “worried” about how he would play the Jan. 6 gambit among the most baffled part of Trump’s base who believes in the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory. .
“If you convince people that, as you know, Congress can change a legitimate election and that everything was stolen, there is a deep theory of the state / QAnon that drives this that Satanist pedophiles run the government,” he said. to say. “You can see how people are driven to violence, so I’m worried about that.”
Kinzinger, who is also a lieutenant colonel in the National Air Guard, also said he was confident the Pentagon would not implement martial law to redo the election, as suggested by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“The concern I have right now and why I have been so frank is that I grew up as a Republican because I believe in a smaller government and a strong national defense and that is being destroyed by conspiracies right now. And anger,” he said. “And I’m really worried about the future of my party.”