‘We Shelter the Ignorant, the Racist – Who Only Stoke Anger’: Kinzinger Torches His Own Party in Final Floor Speech

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) delivered his final speech on the House floor on Thursday and ripped his party for harboring “ignorant” and “racist” people.

The outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 committee member opted not to run for reelection in 2022.

In his speech on Thursday, Kinzinger ripped Democrats and Republicans, but saved some of his more pointed barbs for his own party.

“We must not abandon our values or our beliefs in the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “We all swore an oath in this very chamber to support and defend the Constitution of the United States – not a political party and not a single man.”

The congressman slammed his party for not taking a stronger stand against the Trump-inspired attack on the Capitol in January 2021 when his supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Trump falsely claimed the election was rigged against him.

Kinzinger stated the GOP now welcomes racists into its ranks:

Our leaders today belittle and in some cases justify attacks on the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.” The once great party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan has turned its back on the ideals of liberty and self-governance. Instead, it has embraced lies and deceit. The Republican Party used to believe in a big tent, which welcomed the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Now we shelter the ignorant, the racist – who only stoke anger and hatred to those who are different than us.

Kinzinger then bashed Democrats for donating to Trump-backed candidates in the 2022 Republican primaries in the hopes they’d win but be too extreme to win their general election matchups.

“They poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of MAGA Republicans – the same candidates president Biden called a national security threat,” he said. This is no longer politics as usual. This is not a game. If you keep stoking the fire, you can’t point the fingers when our great experiment goes up in flames. Unfortunately, there are too few Republicans and Democrats that have the spines to stand up and put country over party.”

Watch above via MSNBC.