Adam Kinzinger says it's not up to him and Liz Cheney to 'save the Republican Party'

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is ready for his fellow House Republicans to step up and speak out against former President Donald Trump.

Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who both voted to impeach former President Donald Trump last year, are the only Republicans on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. During an appearance on ABC's This Week Sunday, Kinzinger said it is "not on Liz Cheney and I to save the Republican Party. It's on the 190 Republicans who haven't said a dang word about it, and they put their head in the sand and hope somebody else comes along and does something."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other GOP leaders "have held onto Donald Trump," Kinzinger said, and they continue to prop up his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Last week, Kinzinger announced he will not seek re-election in 2022, and he believes this decision is "not handing a win as much to Donald Trump as it is to the cancerous kind of lie and conspiracy."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

When pressed about whether Trump could be prosecuted for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, Kinzinger said he didn't feel "comfortable" saying so at this time. The committee is "getting a lot of information," Kinzinger added. "We are continuing to learn things every day. Some of which gets to the press. Some that doesn't. If the president was aware of what was going to happen, didn't lift a finger to do anything about it, that's up to the DOJ to make that decision."