Adam Kinzinger.Photo: Ismail Hakki Demir/Getty Images
Many of the17 Republican lawmakerswho broke with their party and voted againstDonald Trumpin his second impeachment have been receiving backlash from GOP voters, from their own party — and for at last one lawmaker — from his own family members.
Illinois Rep.Adam Kinzingerhas become one of the most prominent Republican lawmakers to speak out against Trump, 74, and the callous wave of conservative politics he epitomizes.
Seven Republican senators subsequently voted to convict Trump at his trial.
In aMondayNew York Timesprofileabout Kinzinger’s anti-Trump position and the backlash he has faced, he revealed that nearly a dozen relatives have since disavowed him over last month’s impeachment vote.
“Oh, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!” two of Kinzinger’s cousins wrote in a letter to the six-term Congressman.
Eleven of his family members signed the letter, according to theTimes.
The paperpublished a copy of the letter, which had been mailed to Kinzinger’s father and a number of Republicans across the state.
“You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!” the letter states, adding, “President Trump is not perfect, but neither are you or any of us for that matter!”
“I hold nothing against them, but I have zero desire or feel the need to reach out and repair that,” Kinzinger told the paper. “That is 100 percent on them to reach out and repair, and quite honestly, I don’t care if they do or not.”
“The party’s sick right now,” he said. “It’s one thing if the party was accepting of different views, but it’s become this massive litmus test on everything.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger.KEVIN DIETSCH/POOL/AFP via Getty
Elsewhere, Kinzinger has broken from Republicans in responding to newly elected lawmakers like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have a history of speaking positively about conspiracy theories.
Kinzinger was one of three House Republicans who voted to kick Greene off her committee posts, in light of her incendiary behavior on social media. (Greene has claimed that other people had access to her social media and said some of her activity was being unfairly singled out.)
Two GOP-led counties in Illinoisvotedto censure Kinzinger since last month’s impeachment vote —mirroring Republican censuresaround the country against GOP lawmakers who broke with Trump.
Kinzinger, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, told theTimeshe may consider leaving the Republican Party later this year.
But he said, “I’m going to fight like hell to save it first.”
He told PEOPLE last year — during an interview about the QAnon conspiracy theory’s recentrise in Republican politics— that it was incumbent upon members of the GOP to call out other members who were touting conspiratorial beliefs or basing policy on what might go over well in a tweet with their constituents.
“It’s about leadership,” Kinzinger said then. “It’s incumbent upon you to keep your house in order.”
source: people.com
