Adam Kinzinger Tells America That Kevin McCarthy Is A Phony Coward

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) isn’t confident in the prospect of House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) becoming House Speaker.

Although it’s not guaranteed until he’s actually voted into the position, McCarthy currently looks set to become the Speaker of the House if Republicans successfully regain control of the chamber. In the aftermath of January 6, McCarthy — despite initial acknowledgments of the seriousness of what happened — essentially re-established his strong commitment to the Trump wing of the party. He visited the now former president at his southern Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, and he provided cover — in the form of public defenses and a lack of substantial consequences from within the party — for extremists including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) when they faced scrutiny and push-back over particularly egregious conduct.

“He would come to us, ‘Oh I’ve got to do this so I can control the crazies,'” Kinzinger remarked. “He’ll be the worst speaker and he won’t last because he’s going to be led around by insurrectionists.” (What Kinzinger described on Kevin’s part is, of course, the same trend that enables Trump.) Nothing unshakably binds those in the corner of the House GOP best represented by Greene and her allies to McCarthy. What happens if they suddenly decide he’s actually a RINO? All of that self-deprecation on Kevin’s part would be for nothing. (“RINO” refers to “Republican in Name Only,” and it is a derogatory moniker often used by those in Trump’s corner for supposedly insufficiently loyal GOP’ers.)

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) also recently expressed concerns about the idea of a McCarthy Speakership. Serving in that role would place McCarthy behind the vice president in the line of presidential succession — a troubling prospect. “My views about Kevin McCarthy are very clear,” Cheney said on ABC. “The Speaker of the House is the second in line for the presidency. It requires somebody who understands and recognizes their duty, their oath, their obligation, and he’s been completely unfaithful to the Constitution and demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the significance and the importance of the role of Speaker. So, I don’t believe he should be Speaker of the House.” Forecasters generally give Republicans a favorable chance of winning House control in this year’s elections.