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A desperate Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) made another desperate attempt to help his desperate Democratic comrades use the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol to score a few more cheap political points against former President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers. During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, he did his level best to try to distract the audience from their economic woes by focusing them on a group of thugs who decided to get froggy at the Capitol building last year.
During his conversation with host Dana Bash, Kinzinger first reacted to North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s comments defending Trump from accusations that he incited the riot. The governor also cast doubt on testimony given before Congress by former aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Cassidy Hutchinson.
“Yes, I mean, this — I’m blown away this is not — I served with Kristi Noem in the House, and it’s like ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’” Kinzinger said. “This is not the Kristi Noem I served with. The Kristi Noem I served with was conservative, dedicated to truth, and I at the time would have thought would have put her country above her political career at any moment.”
The lawmaker then accused Noem of trying to boost her political career, claiming that “It is clear she is running for president or vice president” and that the governor is “scared to death of the base.”
The conversation then turned to embattled Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who joined Kinzinger as the other anti-Trump Republican to serve on the Democratic House Select Jan. 6 committee. Bash brought up comments made by GOP candidates challenging Cheney in the primaries.
“So, Liz Cheney, you can disagree with her position on whatever, but she stood in front of her constituents and she said, look, here’s where I’m at on these issues, these core democracy issues,” Kinzinger bloviated. “Now you can make a decision whether or not to vote for me. Frankly, that’s what politics should be. That’s what every election should be. You see her opponents spreading conspiracy. Her main opponent was a big supporter of Liz Cheney until she found out that maybe she could run against Liz Cheney.”
The representative accused Cheney’s opponents of “lying to their constituents” and lauded his ally for “making a stand.”
When Bash brought up Hutchinson’s allegations that President Trump lunged like Jackie Chan at secret service members for refusing to take him to the Capitol building on Jan. 6, Kinzinger became rather cagey when it came to evidence supporting the former Meadows aide’s statements. “Well, I’m not going to say what we do or don’t have in terms of corroboration,” Kinzinger began. “But let me say this. What she said is, this is what she heard. At no point that she says she was in the Beast with the president and saw this happen…. Now, you guys have done a good job of reporting Secret Service sources saying they heard the same story.”
The lawmaker then pointed out that “Nobody has argued that the president didn’t want to go to the Capitol” and that “Nobody has argued that he didn’t know there were guns.” Instead, people are focusing on the allegation that Trump, a 74-year-old man, tried to overpower secret service agents and grab for the steering wheel. “They’re trying to argue, did he really grab for the Beast? And that’s where Tony Ornato will have to come in and tell us more about his position on that.”
When Bash asked if Ornato, former White House deputy chief of staff who Hutchinson claims told her about lungegate, would be testifying, Kinzinger dodged the question. “There’s information I can’t say yet,” he replied. He continued:
“But we certainly would say that Cassidy Hutchinson has testified under oath. We find her credible. And anybody that wants to cast disparagements on that was firsthand present should come and also testify under oath, and not through ‘anonymous sources’ — quote unquote — and not potentially being an anonymous source.”
When asked if other witnesses have come forward to participate in the Democrats’ witch hunt hearings, the lawmaker answered in the affirmative, but stressed that he did not “want to get into who or any of those details.” He was nice enough to follow up with a nice helping of word salad slathered in BS dressing:
“Every day, we get new people that come forward and say, hey, I didn’t think maybe this piece of the story that I knew was important, but now that you guys are talking — like, I do see this plays in here. But, yes, I mean, look, [Hutchinson] is going to go down in history as — I mean, people can forget the names of every one of us on the committee. They will not forget her name. And, by the way, she doesn’t want that. She doesn’t want to be out in the public spotlight. But she has a commitment to truth that somebody like Kristi Noem, for instance, and most people in our party would actually benefit to take just a 10 percent ounce of.”
In short, Kinzinger said absolutely nothing of substance when it comes to the Jan. 6 committee and the circus it is putting on for the American public. He could not even corroborate the allegations that Trump tried to go full Bruce Lee on members of the Secret Service. Instead, he served up yet another heaping bowl of nothing in the hopes that he could help his pals on the Democratic side salvage some seats in Congress. Meanwhile, everyday Americans are still wondering when gas prices will finally decrease and if Democrats will ever get around to addressing crime, education, immigration, and other important issues.
