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."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
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."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The Week’s big New Year’s Day quiz 2026Quiz of the Year How much do you remember about 2025’s headlines? Put yourself to the test with our bumper quiz of the year
-
Is tanking ruining sports?Today's Big Question The NBA and the NFL want teams to compete to win. What happens if they decide not to?
-
‘Netflix needs to not just swallow HBO but also emulate it’instant opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump considers giving Ukraine a security guaranteeTalking Points Zelenskyy says it is a requirement for peace. Will Putin go along?
-
Why is Trump’s alleged strike on Venezuela shrouded in so much secrecy?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Trump’s comments have raised more questions than answers about what his administration is doing in the Southern Hemisphere
-
Vance’s ‘next move will reveal whether the conservative movement can move past Trump’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
What have Trump’s Mar-a-Lago summits achieved?Today’s big question Zelenskyy and Netanyahu meet the president in his Palm Beach ‘Winter White House’
-
Biggest political break-ups and make-ups of 2025The Explainer From Trump and Musk to the UK and the EU, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a round-up of the year’s relationship drama
-
Donald Trump’s squeeze on VenezuelaIn Depth The US president is relying on a ‘drip-drip pressure campaign’ to oust Maduro, tightening measures on oil, drugs and migration
-
Trump appears numerous times in new Epstein batchSpeed Read
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
