YouSaid · the spoken record

Adam Kinzinger

lines on the record: 55
first: 2023-10-02
most recent: 2023-10-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I don't think there is anything I could say to him that would change his mind or make a difference. I would just express how deeply my deep-seated belief that history will judge him as a complete stain on this country. And he needs to know that. Because I would love for him to see the light someday, but I think there is going to be a day when he is alone with his thoughts and realizing that his legacy is going to be complete garbage and he did nothing to help this country.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think if I somehow could lead the Republicans and say three things, I'd say let's focus on reform of government, not just cutting government, reform government, make it 21st century, a strong national defense and infrastructure, which actually I think all three of those are what used to be big Republican priorities.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hurts a lot. I think one of the biggest damages to the Senate was the loss of John McCain. I traveled with him. And it was like a, he was like an American secretary of state everywhere he went. And I think Romney, it's the same kind of loss.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, this is going to be a tough one. I think, but I thought he wouldn't make it through the debt limit, so take that for what it is. He actually did. I don't think he's going to last more than a couple months unless he pulls a miracle, and the Democrats have to save his speakership, I think. And I don't know if they have the energy to do that or the desire.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It goes to show that if you're willing to burn the place down, you have the most power. You know, it's like if somebody walks, I hate this example, but bear with me. If somebody walked into a room you were in and they had a gun, they're the most powerful person, not because they actually have power, but because they're willing to use it. And that's what you have right now.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not unless you have proof that something happened and they don't have that, and they've made it very clear they don't have that. And so I said, by the way, a year ago when I was still in the House, I said next year they're going to vote to impeach Biden every month. I was wrong. They waited a few months. But the pressure was too strong and they have to do it.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tucker Carlson, and because anything that is considered anti West right now is kind of cool among some circles of the GOP.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. If he ends up cutting a deal, which I think ultimately he'll have to do, he will have to fight. The Democrats should be extracting stuff from him because he will ultimately need them to save his speakership. But this impeachment inquiry, I think, poisoned the well.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Anger, frankly, when for instance, I have a contract with CNN. I made it known when they had the big town hall because it's like you're putting in front of a reaffirming audience these lies. And I think that's the piece is how do you fact check that? If fact checks even matter? Is it possible?”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, it's tough. You can't not interview him, but I also think he is an insurrectionist that tried to overthrow the government. And so while I don't think you can ignore him because he is the Republican, half the country probably is going to vote for him, I think things like, so Kristen's interview was actually not too bad. She did a good job. The problem I had with it was the fact checking was on the website later. And if I think there can, is there a moment to call him out directly, to print on the factual differences? It's one thing if a politician says something different, like, you know, I voted against raising taxes and maybe he voted for it once, and that's one thing. When you say like, I'm going to pardon the January 6th people, January 6th was a peaceful day, this kind of stuff, that's a whole different level. So as a First Amendment advocate, I'll leave that to the press, but I'm also going to exercise my”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I haven't voted Republican in a few years, but I'm unwilling to let them run me out of my title right now.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. I think it could. I'm concerned about it. Like, here's my view on the third party thing is the best time to do it is when you have two candidates that are kind of the same. So you think back of like Clinton Bush, when no matter who won Clinton or Bush, kind of the country would still be in the same trajectory. That's when you can play around with third candidates or third parties. The problem is that's when they don't have any traction. I am really concerned that a third party no labels ticket, for instance, is only going to pull more votes away from the Democrats and Republicans.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, honestly. But no, Trump's, the funny thing is they're the same age. They're also younger. They're close, right? Okay, and they're younger than Romney, who looks like he's 24. I mean, that's what good living does for you, I guess.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I don't know. I think he's got every right to run again. And I'm going to say this. Look The infrastructure bill, his support for Ukraine, and thank God he announced a TACUMs today. I think that's important. But so from a successful perspective, he's been successful. And so I'll leave that to the Democrats because I think there's going to be, I think, a primary within the Democrats would be very brutal because there's going to be, it may be quite damaging. But I'll say this, which is Don't discount people when they say they're concerned about Biden's age because I think when you discount that, you do it at your own peril. Because it is a concern I hear from Republicans, yes, from independence, yes, and Democrats.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If he's convicted, he does not win the general election because there are still enough Americans, over 50%. What do you need? 53% probably with the electoral colleges it is that will not vote for Donald Trump because of that. I still have deep faith in the power of democracy in this republic in a general election. Primary is not so much, but in a general election I do. But I don't say that so that to my Democratic friends to say you guys can just chillax for a while because we're going to be fine. This is a tight race between Biden and Trump right now. Last poll had Trump up one point. Don't take this for granted.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, I think what happens, so if he gets, let's say he gets convicted, I don't think it makes much of a difference in the GOP. And again, I think the reason, yes, it's like this rally around the flag, but everybody that has a chance to say the truth is sitting around like too scared to say it. And so, again, you naturally believe if all these people I trust are saying it's a witch hunt, it's a witch hunt. And so then you're going to rally against the guy that's being witch hunted.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think if his chance is if Trump goes out soon, which is not likely, but if Trump goes out soon, I think he still has that aura of being Trump's backup. It'll be him and Vivek Ramashwamy fighting this out. But I think that's his chance. Every day that goes by, though, I think there's much less. I think he's going to have a hard time even surviving in Florida at this point. Because, I mean, look at the whole thing of his politics of immigration. You know, like, I'm going to start flying people and deporting them. I think it was deporting people out of Texas on Florida's dime, which is dumb. And at the point when Florida gets hit by a hurricane and they're begging for people to come work to recover the state, I mean, this is all stuff that's think through. And you can play base politics for a little bit, but eventually I think people see through it.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but his punchability and punchable faceness is a side note too, and I think the reason he has a punchable face is because he's just not, you know that what he's doing is performing. I mean, for instance, again on Ukraine, he was pro-Ukraine when he was in the house. Now he's out here being this irate Tucker Carlson light. He was pro-vaccine, then he was against it because it became popular. This is what I disrespect in politics more than anything is people that don't really believe things and change. You got to play that to an extent. I'm not naive, and that's part of a republic. But if you're getting rid of your core principles, that to me just makes you punchable. Because you can be the furthest left-wing politician or the furthest right-wing politician. If you truly believe what you're saying, I respect that, even if I'll debate it. It's when you become a charlatan, and if you notice everybody on that list was...”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's weird because if you look at politics like whoever has a punch me face never gets elected president anyway for some reason it's like the old test of like would you have a beer with this person? And for some reason jerkery or ass hattery or whatever is distilled in somebody and it comes out in their face. And you can just tell. And so the point isn't to encourage people to go punch a politician. Please don't punch your neighborhood politician. But it is to say, if you had to punch a politician, right? And, you know, who would it be? And Ted Cruz would top that list, I think Tom Cot”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I don't. I mean, it's because you see it in the, you know, like Nikki Haley, for instance, has a good debate where she calls out Ramashwamy and she does, you know, and then in the next time she's on some TV show talking about how, of course, she'll support Donald Trump over Biden's failed policies. And it's like, look, here's the thing I can sympathize with is in order to have a chance to win the Republican primary, you have to say that. The problem is When people keep saying that, is the reason Donald Trump's in the lead. When Tim Scott says it, you know, that Donald Trump is a victim of DOJ witch hunt, and you believe Tim Scott, you're going to believe then that Trump is the victim of that. So it's a catch-22 that I can't give these people advice out of. I just know for me when I made the conscious decision, like, it's the end of my political career, but I feel good about it. Like, that brought peace to me that I don't think...”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Completely didn't come true, and I hope this is one of them, but it appears that it's going to be Donald Trump. And that's why I stress so much the importance of this, what I call this uneasy alliance, because to my fellow Republicans that are...”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think Chris Christie and Asa Hodginson and Will Heard, I think look, the only way, the only possible way Donald Trump could lose is, again, if all this, he goes to trial, all this stuff comes out, and it has an impact around the edges, and this is the big problem, if everybody else but one person drops out. And that's the problem. I mean, if you look right now, let's say it's the latest in New Hampshire, I think he's at like 38, nationwide he's probably he's like 58 or whatever. Imagine if there's only one opponent and it's now 58, 42, all of a sudden you have a horse race. The problem is it's not that easy because if Ron DeSantis drops out, probably a good majority of those people go to Donald Trump because DeSantis is Donald Trump, just a different version of him. So I think, look, it's going to be tough. I think there is a path. I don't know what that path is, but I've also learned there are times I've predicted things that just”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've been close. Yeah. I was close there too. No, and I'll say, like, again, with that moment, I see it now and it gives me an ability, and I try to call this out on all of my social media. The day before the second impeachment, I thought we were going to have 25 people vote yes. Some of those, Mike Gallagher, Nancy Mace, right? Others that I thought were going to vote yes. By the time impeachment came, I was surprised we got 10. Because the thing I noticed the difference is those that were concerned about their re-election were the ones that ultimately voted no. And every one of them did not vote no because they didn't think Donald Trump did anything wrong. They voted no because they found a technical excuse to vote no on. I've done that a hundred times. They do it a hundred times. And I just want to give that as a tool to you. When you find somebody giving a technical excuse, it means they're violating what they think inside.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I don't want to say I was ever at the point where I was convinced I was going to do it, but I was wrestling with it. And while Nancy Pelosi gave me an out when she basically said we have to get this vote done before the turn of the new year. And the reasoning was if we do it next year, it's an election year. I think it was a pretty lame excuse only. But that gave me and others the ability to say, well, she's rushing this. And boy, this is such a serious moment we can't rush it. That's not why I voted no. Even though I said it, I didn't vote no because of that. In all my statements, I'm like, I'm very concerned about what happened in Ukraine. I voted no because that was an out. And that's to my shame. I don't dwell on that in my own heart. But you see that all the time.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Obviously, violation, particularly on foreign policy issues, particularly with an ally that needs our help. And I voted against it to survive. So that is to my shame.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's like this permanent underground fire in a coal mine in Pennsylvania that every now and then they puncture and it pops up and it feeds it more. And it's like, that's kind of what it was. And I can look back and see that. And I can look back and see my role. Now, I can say with a straight face, I didn't play a lot on fear because one of the things I learned early is if you actually speak and try to more inspire people or I had Hillary Clinton in front of the committee on the Benghazi stuff and I actually asked professional nice questions instead of berating her. And you get more attention and I think more effect with that. But I'm not going to pretend like we did, you know, I wasn't part of kind of using that fear to raise money, which became so important to build the team. And so I do play a role in that. And I accept that. And I should have voted. And look, here's the other thing I'm ashamed of. I voted against the first impeachment. And I did that against everything that was screaming inside of me saying, Adam, this guy.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, well, first off, look, one of the things I have the ability to look back on now is to see, again, it's what I just kind of talked about, you know, in the early kind of 2010s, yeah, we were playing with fire a little bit. We thought the fire was controllable.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, it's a great question, and I spend a lot of time in the book called Renegade, by the way. Renegade. I just didn't pick that up.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I think some of the animating issues with, okay, why are we, and by the way, we need better border security. We have to be clear about that. But we also need real immigration reform in this country. But I do think some of what can animate the anger, not the concern, the anger, is because the people coming here aren't white. And I think that does animate some of it.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To an extent, to an extent, I think if you say right away is there overt racism, no. Is there class, I guess, anger, yes? Is there in the Midwest, for instance, or in the anywhere besides basically the coasts, do people feel left out? Yes. But I do think, and again, I wouldn't put it as a majority of Republicans, but I do think. If we had a lot of immigration, but it was coming from Ireland, do you think people would be as upset? Truthfully, I don't.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's gotten out of hand. You can do that for a cycle or two. You can't do that for a generation, and that's what's happened.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, you have people that change and you have no leadership, and so of course they're going to love Donald Trump. I think the other thing is he really plays well to base emotions. How many of you guys are on, probably all of you to some extent, are on some email list somewhere that now you get 500 things a day that are trying to raise money. Well, if you end up on a Republican email list, and this was something I wish we could have flushed out more on the committee, we didn't have time to do it, really, which is between election day and January 6th, the radicalization that occurred because of the fundraising emails. We had witnesses that came in and told us they were writing knowingly false emails to raise money. They'd have to write 15 a day, and it had to raise whatever, $20,000 per email. And so if you go on and your email constantly says, Pelosi's trying to kill you, all this stuff, that radicalizes. And we have played with the dark force of fundraising through fear.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's two things, I think. Number one is because the people they trust. So if you think of like this disparate world we live in, if you're on the left, you trust left voices if you're on the right, you trust right voices. When Donald Trump, for instance, gets arrested, and every other voice in that ecosphere that people trust is too scared to say that he broke the law and they say it's a witch hunt, of course they're going to rally around Donald Trump because everybody they trust is saying that he's a victim here because that's what happens when you don't have leadership.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it matters in the extent that it's a message that has to be out there. Look, if Donald Trump, which everybody's innocent until proven guilty, right, when he goes to jail. He deserves it. Let's just be honest. I've seen all this. He deserves every ounce of that. But when he goes to jail and people see all this evidence, could that make a difference? It's possible. You've seen around the edge some cracks from the GOP. But look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend like this. We're not even the establishment anymore. By the way, MAGA is now the establishment. I'm not going to pretend like sane voices are going to somehow come out and win anytime soon. I don't think they are. And I think you're seeing a massive political realignment happen. But I know this. We never predicted Donald Trump actually running for and winning the presidency. Anything can happen, but we have to continue to be loud about it. And in my mind, we have to continue to fight for honor, for the right thing. For Ukraine, I mean, there is no cleaner fight.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know, definitely not the house again, so it would have to be something. I don't know, governor, senate, or president. It would have to be that's the only options left because I'm not running for city council. But look, with my country first movement, we've been able to stay very engaged in fighting for sanity among the GOP, sanity all over the place. I feel politically homeless, though, at the moment. I still call myself a Republican because I'm not going to give up that title, but I haven't voted Republican in three years. I probably will not vote Republican at all in the next election. And I feel politically homeless.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. And honestly, I'm saying this genuinely. I don't really care as much. I care from the perspective of, because if there's no future for somebody like me, it means that kind of broader movement of sanity doesn't have room. There's nothing about me right now that's plotting or planning my return to politics, although I'll accept the fact that it very well may happen. But thank you.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I don't get the threats as much because, again, I mean, truly they don't know, you can't send something to my office. But I certainly am conscious of the fact that at any given time there are a number of people that would kill me if they met me.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Affected me until I got out of Congress and I got time to just get some distance, and then you realize the toll it took. And I describe it as like being in war. You know, you can operate if you're in the trenches. By the way, we think of the people in Ukraine fighting for their freedom today, the toll they're going to have to take. When you're fighting, you can do it. When the guns go silent is when you have to deal with the toll it took.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Your names on there. Look at the comments. You'll see them there. Look, I mean, it was, you know, when you tell somebody that you have a 24-hour security detail, like it sounds cool until you get one. And then, you know, it's things like, okay, meeting my friends at the bar after votes, for instance, in Congress, now I have to take into account I have three security people with me. And what does that mean for their night? Everybody's now looking at us. So that was an inconvenience. Having a cop sitting outside my house because my wife and kid were there is an inconvenience. We got letters that said, you know, to my wife got one that said, you're married to the devil, literally, and we find it blasphemous that you named your son Christian, the son of the devil. And I mean, you get that stuff. We're like wishing that she would be killed by traffic and my son would be killed too. I mean, these are real people that would send this stuff. And I'll tell you honestly, I didn't think it affected.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They fear losing their identity more than I think they even fear death. And I think that's what a lot of this is. People, and then over time, you can convince yourself that what you're doing is right. You can convince yourself of it. And once you get this”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's survival and its identity. You know, all of us struggle with identity in our lives, like, what am I? Who am I? Am I a congressman? Or am I a father or am I a journalist? Whatever that is. And you have to find your identity as something beyond your job. Well, at something like Congress or Senate, House or Senate, anytime you go into a room, by the way, you're the center of attention. And imagine that. That was my life for 12 or 13 years. Anytime you go, unless you're with the president, like you're the person everybody's looking at, that can be addictive. That power can be addictive. That attention can be addictive. And it's not addictive in a way that you ever get satisfied. You need more of it. And so when that becomes your identity, and all of a sudden now you're faced with an existential crisis to your identity, I tell you the thing I have learned in all this is people fear losing their membership to the tribe and they lose their tribe.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's worthy because let me answer that just from an individual perspective. If I would have just tried to survive and become voted against impeachment, stayed kind of like we'll call it marginally pro-Trump, and somehow I survived through that. For me personally, and I'm not trying to say this to sound like anything but just the truth, I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. My kid's 20 months old, and I couldn't imagine him reading in a history book and reading his last name and being ashamed about it, right? And I have I have a lot of colleagues that I don't think can say that as long as their last name's not Smith or something, then you can blend in as a kid. But if you have a unique last name like Kensinger, this is going to be a moment in history you read about. So for me, I couldn't. I couldn't do it.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, there's a lot of things that divide us, and like there's a lot of issues like tax rates, whatever else, all these issues. We can discuss those for a long time if we have a democracy. And my concern right now is truly that we're at a point where we could see democracy fail. And so while somebody on the left and right may not agree on any issue at all, if they agree on democracy, that's where I think we need to see an uncomfortable alliance. Not going to be easy, though. I'm not pretending like that's an easy thing.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think we all do But he's become, I mean, he's the one out there telling the truth, and I give that to him, and I'm very supportive of him. Here's what I think from an alliance perspective needs to happen. Yes, the old kind of the godfathers of Never Trump, the sons of Never Trump, the newer ones, you know, like me, the people that are yet to come, and frankly Democrats, left-wing, everything. We have to have an uncomfortable alliance on democracy because this is a moment.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, initially, no, we were pretty competitive because remember in 2016, he was the first to come out and endorse Trump”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then also when I did the DOJ hearing, the Department of Justice hearing was the fifth hearing, and that's where it came out that Donald Trump said just to the DOJ, just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressman, which if you think about that as such a sad and amazing statement. It's like just take a veneer of, just say it's corrupt and then we can do the rest. I think it was important for a non-lawyer to lead that hearing because I don't know a lot of law terms and so we wouldn't get messed up in that.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I was, but there's a video where people are, he's like saying, we're going to go in the capital and then people start chanting Fed basically to CYA, cover their own backside, and then there's a point at the very beginning, or at the beginning of kind of the breach of the capital where he whispers into somebody's ear. And that became a conspiracy theory that he is a Fed. He actually launched this insurrection, therefore it's the FBI. Well, the truth is he was whispering into the guy's ear like, you don't need to do this. Like, we have to keep this tame. And anyway, but that became the whole conspiracy to prove that the FBI was behind this. And so I'd see these things grow, and I could call it out and say as a committee, we have to take this on or we don't have to take this on.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So Rayf's is a guy that got caught up in the January 6th stuff. He looks like a Fed because he has a short haircut. So everybody has a short haircut looks like a Fed, evidently. And there's a video where...”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think we can both kind of feed off each other in terms of calling things out in the GOP and seeing how crazy it's become. She was a lawyer, and she is a lawyer. And so her ability to get into when we were dealing with the January 6th stuff, to get into the facts, to say, okay, this actually constitutes the violation of the law. This is something that is obviously seeming wrong. Let's find out more. She could develop that in a way I couldn't. I don't have the ability to do. I think where I would bring a strength is I was able to kind of keep an eye on what was going on in like, I'll call it right-wing media, but right-wing Twitter. And you'd see these conspiracy theories that were boiling up that I can tell if it's going to become a bigger conspiracy theory. The example is like Ray Epps. And I remember sitting in the committee telling people, we've”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was just a lot of why is Kevin McCarthy going down to Mara Lago to meet with Donald Trump? I can't believe this person's doing that. And it was just a lot of like that. And there'd be some discussions when we were all making a decision whether we'd run again or not.”
2023-10-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT