Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) opened up on CNN Wednesday morning about his decision to endorse President Joe Biden's re-election — one of the most prominent Republican politicians to have crossed the aisle so far in this way.
Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran and a longtime critic of Trump, was one of a handful of conservative Republicans who voted to impeach the former president, and went on to join the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack. In his latest interview, he emphasized just how much harm he believes Trump has done to America and why it's important to keep him out of power.
"I think it's really important for people to understand, particularly the 20 percent of, let's just call them the 20 percent of Haley voters, for them to understand that this is a stark choice," Kinzinger told anchor Kate Bolduan. "This isn't just who do I agree with more on certain issues. I actually don't even really know where Donald Trump stands on many issues. But this is about, does democracy survive the way we love it, or does it not? ... I lived through January 6. I didn't watch it on TV. I was there, and I have a two-and-a-half year-old kid that I do not want raised in a country where things like that are okay to happen. So for me, it's just we've got to put decency above maybe political differences, and it's just the right thing to do."
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"Over our many conversations ... since you left Congress, it is, you made no secret of your disagreement and distaste for Donald Trump, what he stands for and what he's done," said Bolduan. "But did you wrestle with this decision? What did you wrestle with most and making this choice?"
"I mean, I guess I wrestled to the extent of like, okay, you endorsing a Democrat as a Republican is a big deal," said Kinzinger. "But to me it wasn't much of a — I didn't have to look in the mirror and look into my soul or anything like that. I have spent the last few years on a committee, the last couple of years in Congress, looking at the direct link between Donald Trump and what happened on that terrible day. And I hear the acidity, the acrimony that comes out of, you know, many people who are supporting Donald Trump and some of the people around Donald Trump, because he's created a culture of, just, anger and division."
"For me it wasn't a hard thing to say, look, I really put a lot on the line when I decided to go on the January 6 committee, I'll do it at this [point] because this is truly the most important election of my lifetime," Kinzinger added. "And I want, like I said, my kid Christian, to be raised in a country where decency in the greatest office in the land is still something that people look up on and not have a president that continues to punch down because he's such a whiny weak victim that he's scared to death of anybody that says anything mean about him, like Donald Trump does."
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Adam Kinzinger on his endorsement of Biden www.youtube.com
