Analysis: Adam Kinzinger was the face of modern conservatives and beloved by Republican leaders like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. But now he is trying to steer the party toward a new path in politics opposite his once “true friend.”
Kinzinger was referencing the current House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy , who a dozen years ago, as a junior member of Republican leadership, helped recruit Kinzinger and dozens of others who propelled the party into the House majority.
Without that tea party-infused class of 2010, which shifted the Republican Party on a course toward this nativist and nationalist ethos, Trump’s presidential ambitions might never have lifted off that escalator back in 2015. Kinzinger couldn’t bring himself to vote for Trump, and by late January 2017, when the new president visited Republicans at their legislative policy retreat in Philadelphia, the single 30-something lawmaker found temporary salvation in the bottle.
By the fall of 2020, Kinzinger pulled off the worst rationalization of his political career: He voted for Trump. “That way I can say with a straight face I voted for him,” Kinzinger explained, thinking about future discussions with voters. “I know he is not going to win, but I can say I did it. And so I have credit with the base.”Didn’t that make him the sort of political coward he now despises? “Yeah, I was. Yeah, absolutely,” Kinzinger admitted, saying he felt “dirty” casting that ballot.
Kinzinger then gladly accepted Pelosi’s offer to be on the committee. Once Illinois Democrats drew new lines that put him into the same district as a more reliable conservative, he decided to retire rather than go out in certain defeat.
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