Kinzinger Says He Warned Kevin McCarthy Before Jan 6 GOP’s Election ‘BS’ Would Led to Violence: I Was Met With ‘Crickets’

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a major anti-Trump Republican voice, is saying he warned House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy before January 6th that GOP rhetoric about the election would lead to violence.

Former President Donald Trump talked up January 6th, the day Congress tallied the election results, as a pivotal day, and publicly put the onus on Mike Pence to do something he couldn’t actually do.

Back in December, McCarthy joined that Texas lawsuit to overturn the election results in several states.

Kinzinger appeared on C-SPAN Monday and continued calling out his party for going along with the big lie.

He then detailed a phone call he was on with other House Republicans, including McCarthy, during which he flagged serious concerns:

“I was on a phone call with Kevin McCarthy and the Republican conference a couple of days prior to January 6th. And I had said on a few media outlets that I was very concerned about violence on the 6th… And I said, ‘Kevin, with all this basically BS we’re saying about we can make sure the election isn’t certified, it was stolen, etc., I’m really concerned about violence on January 6th.’ The response I got was basically that cricket sound and then, ‘Okay, Adam. Operator, next caller.'”

In a tweet he posted before his comments on C-SPAN, Kinzinger directly said he warned McCarthy that “his words” would help lead to violence.

A few days before Jan 6, our GOP members had a conference call. I told Kevin that his words and our party’s actions would lead to violence on January 6th. Kevin dismissively responded with “ok Adam, operator next question.” And we got violence.

— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) May 10, 2021

You can watch his comments above, via C-SPAN.

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