Kinzinger Torches McCarthy and Republican ‘Children’ in the House: ‘I’m Glad I’m Leaving’
Retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) lashed out at his fellow House Republicans Tuesday in a Twitter video, denouncing some of them for showing “sympathy” to Russian President Vladimir Putin amid his atrocities in Ukraine. He also slammed unnamed colleagues for their obsession with attacking “wokeism.”
The congressman did not name any culprits in particular, but he did ding Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for not reining in some members of his conference. Kinzinger’s remarks may have been prompted by Rep. Matt Gaetz’s questioning of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about “wokeism” in the military.
Instead of a tweet thread about the unseriousness of some members of Congress in this serious time, I just decided to tell you on video: pic.twitter.com/TPJfofOKra
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) April 5, 2022
“I’m in here looking at Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who hasn’t really said a word about his members that have shown Putin sympathy,” Kinzinger said. “I never could’ve imagined my party would not just even have somebody that showing Putin sympathy, but would not vomit them out if they rose their ugly head.”
He then accused Fox News host Tucker Carlson of suggesting that the CIA has acted to “frame” civilian killings in Ukraine, which he has not actually done.
“We have people like Tucker Carlson in essence, ‘just asking questions.’ That’s his thing, you know, about whether the CIA did, you know, frame all these atrocities we’re seeing in Ukraine.”
Kinzinger was likely alluding to a tweet by former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) that contained a fake Carlson quote suggesting the Ukrainian military carried out the atrocities.
Kinzinger also whacked his colleagues over their fixation on “outrage” as a means to gin up political donations.
“And then the latest outrage of the day is some woke thing on Disney or whatever it is, you know, Dr. Seuss, we’ve moved on from,” he said. “I gotta tell ya, we’ve got a bunch of children in this job. We’ve got a bunch of people that sit around. The world order is being challenged for the first time since World War II and they’re sitting around thinking today about how we can win our next election, what the newest outrage is, what’s the next thing we can do to get people angry and upset and get their money from them for our reelection.”
He added, “There is a genocide going on in Ukraine and the outrage is over what’s happening at Walt Disney. You guys deserve way better. I’m glad I’m leaving here in a year because I’m just being surrounded by a bunch of children, so let’s grow up.”
