During an appearance on Meet the Press over the weekend, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) addressed a range of critical issues connected to Donald Trump and his actions. The list included upcoming work of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, where Kinzinger is a member, and he indicated more serious evidence is forthcoming.
Evidently, the committee will hold additional public hearings next month. Before getting to the panel, Kinzinger discussed the recent raid of Trump’s southern Florida property known as Mar-a-Lago. The raid was part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the handling of classified documents from the Trump administration. Any observer might expect that the Republicans who were so furious over Hillary Clinton’s supposed mishandling of government information would quickly come out to condemn Trump. So where are they? An FBI affidavit reveals information connected to gathering intelligence from clandestine human sources was found in boxes of records recovered from the former president earlier this year, after months of communications between Trump’s team and authorities. Revealing that sort of information could put the sources in lethal danger from being exposed. Where is the Republican outrage?
“The hypocrisy of folks in my party that spent years chanting ‘Lock her up!’ about Hillary Clinton because of some deleted emails or quote, unquote wiping a server are now out there defending a man who very clearly did not take the national security of the United States to heart, and it’ll be up to DOJ whether or not that reaches the level of indictment,” Kinzinger commented on NBC. “But this is disgusting, in my mind. No president should act this way, obviously.”
Asked about future ground the riot committee will cover, Kinzinger brought up financing. “I think one of the more intriguing things is going to be some of the financing, right? Some of the fundraising,” he told Chuck Todd. “The fact that a vast majority of this money was raised, under quote, unquote ‘Stop the Steal,’ with no intention of doing anything to ‘stop a steal.’ It was all about just raising money. And people were abused that way.”
Theoretically, Trump could eventually face charges in connection to the riot, although that isn’t for the House panel to decide. Questioned if he agreed with a statement from writer Rich Lowry that criminal statutes are “ill-suited” to deal with Trump’s behavior in the aftermath of the last election, Kinzinger replied, “Not at all.”
“Of course there’s not precedents,” Kinzinger exclaimed. “We’ve never had a president of the United States attempt a coup against the United States of America. So there’s no precedents. And if we need a new law, let’s get a new law. But I’m quite sure that some of the laws can cover this. The DOJ seems very convinced of it… Here’s what I recommend… I recommend we never again elect somebody who does not respect the Constitution of the United States, who does not respect the voters, and who abuses people by lying to them. That is Donald Trump.” Check out Kinzinger’s comments below:
