At Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) insisted that it’s “time to stop the outrage and the conspiracies that fuel the violence and division in this country,” adding that Americans “need to reject those that promote it.” The conspiracy theories that Kinzinger no doubt had in mind include the false claim that some kind of systematic election-rigging went on to swing last year’s presidential race to Joe Biden. No meaningful evidence for this idea has ever emerged — and not a single court has ever accepted the notion — but the conspiracy theory that Biden was fraudulently elected inspired the riot at the Capitol.
Kinzinger, who got emotional during his remarks, also lauded the fact that, ultimately, it’s the police officers who defended the Capitol that day who “won.” Democracy held. Four officers who participated in the defense of the Capitol were witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing, and addressing the group directly, Kinzinger commented as follows:
‘You guys may individually feel a little broken… But you guys won. You guys held. Democracies are not defined by our bad days. We’re defined by how we come back from bad days, how we take accountability for that, and for all the overheated rhetoric surrounding this committee, our mission is very simple. It’s to find the truth, and it’s to ensure accountability.’
Kinzinger also spoke more broadly about the disgrace of those who have downplayed or otherwise attempted to ignore the reality of what took place. He described the behavior of certain Republicans as a “disservice” to “the American people,” commenting as follows:
‘Like most Americans, I’m frustrated that six months after a deadly insurrection breached the United States Capitol for several hours on live television, we still don’t know exactly what happened, why — because many in my party have treated this as just another partisan fight. It’s toxic, and it’s a disservice to the officers and their families, to the staff and the employees in the Capitol complex, to the American people who deserve the truth, and to those generations before us who went to war to defend self-governance. Because self-governance is at stake.’
Kinzinger poignantly added as follows:
‘In order to heal from the damage caused that day, we need to call out the facts. It’s time to stop the outrage and the conspiracies that fuel the violence and division in this country, and most importantly, we need to reject those that promote it.’
Kinzinger described the riot as having been “fostered and encouraged by those granted power through the very system they sought to overturn.” In other words — the rhetorical groundwork for the violence was laid by people in power, including the then-president of the United States and certain Republican allies of his in Congress.
Check out his comments below:
