AAs one of only two Republicans serving on the Jan. 6 committee, Adam Kinzinger lent credibility to Congress’s investigation into the insurrection. Now the former Illinois congressman is using his Republican roots to support Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
In a short speech at the Democratic Party Convention on Thursday evening, Kinzinger spoke out fully in support of Harris and Walz’s slate of candidates. “I am proud to stand with you in the trenches, as part of this sometimes difficult alliance,” he said, “to defend truth, democracy and decency.”
But many of Kinzinger’s remarks were aimed at his longtime opponent: former President Donald Trump, whom he denounced as a toxic force in American politics. “Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party,” he said. “His fundamental weakness has gripped my party like a disease. It is robbing us of our strength. It is weakening our spine. It is driving us into a fever that is detaching us from our values.”
After a violent mob attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Kinzinger became one of Trump’s most vocal and outspoken critics. He was one of 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump after the attack. He and Former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney was the only Republican to To be a member of the panel that ultimately recommended criminal charges against Trump. Coincidentally, neither of them is still in Congress. Kinzinger did not seek re-election and Cheney lost to a Trump-backed challenger in the primaries.
Kinzinger, a former Air National Guard lieutenant colonel, invoked his credibility on national security issues to criticize Trump for abandoning the vigorous internationalism that has characterized decades of U.S. foreign policy. “How can a party claim to be patriotic when it idolizes a man who tried to overturn a free and fair election?” he said. “How can a party claim to stand for freedom when it sees a fight for freedom in Ukraine, an attack that pits tyranny against democracy, a challenge to everything our nation claims to be?”
Last February, Trump shocked America’s traditional allies when he said at a campaign rally that Russia could “do whatever it wants” to a NATO country that he said was not spending enough on collective defense. He also hinted that he might not continue aid to defend Ukraine against Russia. “I wouldn’t give anything until Europe starts to balance things out,” Trump told TIME in April. “If Europe doesn’t pay, why should we pay?”
Kinzinger portrayed Trump’s behavior and policies as a deal breaker, while Harris would uphold the ideals of liberal democracy, he said. “I know Kamala Harris shares my loyalty to the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy,” Kinzinger said. “Whatever policies we disagree on pale in comparison to these fundamental questions of principle.”
To that end, Kinzinger encouraged his Republican colleagues to reject the party to which he had devoted much of his adult life. “I urge you: Make the right choice,” he said. “Choose our core values. Vote for Kamala Harris.”
