Though Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., recently called a tweet from President Donald Trump “beyond repugnant” – making him one of the few Republicans willing to publicly criticize Trump - he said Thursday he backs the president and does not support impeachment.
For those who might have the impression Kinzinger was leading a charge against Trump, that’s not the case. He’s carefully straddling the line from being an occasional Trump critic to backing the president.
Still, Trump’s re-election campaign saw and did not ignore Kinzinger’s “beyond repugnant” and extracted a punishment, albeit one that Kinzinger didn’t seem to care about.
The Sun-Times has learned that Kinzinger’s “beyond repugnant” shot, delivered in his own Tweet, resulted in Trump’s re-election campaign not naming him on Tuesday as an honorary Illinois co-chair of Trump’s 2020 bid in Illinois.
Of five GOP House members from Illinois, only Kinzinger wasn’t tapped to be part of the Illinois Trump “Victory effort.”
Kinzinger shrugged off being snubbed by campaign as he made clear that his “beyond repugnant” criticism of the president was over a specific tweet and not about other issues related to Trump, who has cranked up his attacks on Democrats, the press and a whistleblower since a formal impeachment inquiry was launched.
On Sept. 29, Trump in a tweet paraphrased a quote from the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, and a Fox News contributor saying, “ ....If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews”
Kinzinger, an Air National Guard lieutenant colonel slapped back in his tweet, “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.”
Kinzinger is seeking another term in 2020. As for being left off the Trump leadership team, he said “it’s fine. I don’t think it’s a decision probably the president made — probably his political operatives.”
Kinzinger also said he does not regret that tweet.
“My view on it is this. Some people maybe took that tweet and jumped to this idea that I support impeachment. I don’t. I just didn’t think the president should be tweeting about civil war. I think that, you know, as a guy that’s seen war and also has been to significantly war-torn places. It’s not something ... anybody should dip a toe in.”
Trump has been raging at Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who is steering the impeachment inquiry, accusing him of treason.
“It’s not treason,” Kinzinger said Thursday. “He’s a congressman. If he violated any kind of law, then we will go from there. But I don’t know anything going on right now. Nobody does.”
Kinzinger discussed Trump and impeachment at Kennedy-King College in Englewood where he attended, as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a Chicago field hearing on the public health threat of gun violence.
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Kinzinger’s attendance made the hearing bi-partisan, noted panel chair Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.
Others from the Illinois Congressional delegation attending were Reps. Bobby Rush, Robin Kelly and Jan Schakowsky, all Democrats and members of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Sitting in as guests were Reps. Danny Davis and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
