Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R- IL) railed against the “peddling” of conspiracies in his party on Sunday as he defended Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R- WY) on CBS.
Cheney is likely going to be ousted from House GOP leadership this week and being replaced by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R- NY). Kinzinger is one of the few House Republicans who has come out to publicly defend Cheney.
Kinzinger noted to John Dickerson that Kevin McCarthy himself called out Donald Trump over the riot before getting back in his good graces, while Cheney’s been consistent.
He even compared his own party to the Titanic:
“We’re like, you know, in this in the middle of this slow sink, we have a band playing on the deck telling everybody it’s fine, and meanwhile, as I’ve said, you know, Donald Trump’s running around trying to find women’s clothing and get on the first lifeboat. And I think there’s a few of us that are just saying, ‘Guys, this is not good, not just for the future of the party, but this is not good for the future of this country.’ We’re four months after January 6th, an insurrection, something that was unthinkable in this country. And the message from the people that want to get rid of Liz Cheney is to say it’s just time to focus on the future and move on, like
this was 10 years ago and we’ve been obsessed about it since. It’s been four months.”
Dickerson asked about the idea that Cheney is just “fundamentally at odds” with where the party is right now.
“Truth matters,” Kinzinger responded.
He noted that most Republicans believe the election was stolen only because Trump and other GOP leaders have spread that false claim.
Kinzinger expressed some frustration as he said his party needs to “tell people the truth and quit peddling in conspiracies, because that’s what we’ve seen in this party.”
“And they’re going to get rid of Liz Cheney because they’d much rather pretend that the conspiracy is either real or not confront it than to actually confront it and maybe have to take the temporary licks to save this party and in the long term this country.”
You can watch above, via CBS.