Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who became persona non grata in a MAGA-dominated GOP after he stood against what he characterized as Donald Trump‘s anti-democratic presidential machinations, explained that he will vote for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November.
Appearing on The Daily Show, Kinzinger — who like fellow old school Republican Liz Cheney lost his seat at the table for his Trump defiance — said the decision to vote for Harris wasn’t hard to make.
Unlike other Republican Trump resisters who despite their disdain for Trump the candidate have either held their nose and said they’d vote Republican anyway (Bill Barr, etc.) or said they couldn’t vote for either candidate, Kinzinger expressed a belief that — as a conservative — it was his duty to vote for Harris.
Conservatives for Harris? Among the candidates, only Harris, Kinzinger said, will stand up for the constitution and “defend democracy.” Nothing, he asserts, is more conservative than backing that defense.
Fmr. GOP Rep. @AdamKinzinger: I was there on January 6. I had to go through that. I stand for democracy and the Constitution and Donald Trump is the opposite of that. Kamala Harris is going to defend democracy pic.twitter.com/8OK5l5pY5l
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 4, 2024
“It’s real easy,” Kinzinger said. “I believe in democracy…I was there on January 6. I had to live through that. Standing for the Constitution, standing for democracy, there is nothing more conservative than that — and Donald Trump is the exact opposite of that.”
Kinzinger says unequivocally: “For me, Kamala Harris is going to defend that democracy.”
Kinzinger added that “every Republican that takes their views, viewpoint, seriously — old school Republicans, not whatever this new thing is — should be voting the same way.”
Breaking from the Republican majority in 2021, Kinzinger joined nine other House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection. Kinzinger accused Trump of “executing on this idea that democracy doesn’t work, that the election was stolen.”
Kinzinger told PBS in the interview above: “When you have the President of the United States, the Article 2 part of the Constitution…incite and ignite a mob to attack the Article 1 branch, that is nothing short of an insurrection.”
At that time, Kinzinger expressed the hope that the January 6 events were the “culmination, hopefully the culmination, of the violence.” Now he is less sure there is not more violence in store and is pushing for leaders who will protect the Republic against autocratic threats.