Republican lawmaker says Trump needs to be convicted in order to 'save America'

Rep. Adam Kinzinger is one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump.
In an opinion column, he writes that Republicans need to "learn the lessons of the recent past."
"Convicting Donald Trump is necessary to save America from going further down a sad, dangerous road."
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Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of the 10 Republican lawmakers who crossed party lines to vote for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, asked his congressional colleagues to "learn the lessons of the recent past" and vote to convict the former president.

In an opinion column published in the Washington Post on Monday, Kinzinger wrote that "the future of our party and our country depends on confronting what happened" after the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. Kinzinger argued that the riot "didn't come out of nowhere" and that it was perpetuated by "four-plus years of anger, outrage and outright lies."

"Perhaps the most dangerous lie - or at least the most recent - was that the election was stolen," Kinzinger wrote. "Of course it wasn't, but a huge number of Republican leaders encouraged the belief that it was. Every time that lie was repeated, the riots of Jan. 6 became more likely."

capitol siege trump supporters — US Capitol siege in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Kinzinger has been outspoken against lawmakers who insist that the 2020 US presidential election was ripe with voter fraud. Federal judges repeatedly struck down legal challenges from Trump allies, while a group of Republicans that included Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri continued to entertain unproven allegations of voting irregularities.

"Even now, many Republicans refuse to admit what happened," Kinzinger wrote. "They continue to feed anger and resentment among the people."

Kinzinger claimed that despite a vocal minority, a majority of Republicans and Democrats would "reject the madness of the past four years."

"The better path is to learn the lessons of the recent past," Kinzinger added in his column. "Convicting Donald Trump is necessary to save America from going further down a sad, dangerous road."

The column is just one example of Kinzinger's opposition to Trump and his staunchest allies in Congress. In November, Trump delivered an impromptu speech in which he alleged the election was rigged with "illegal votes."

Speaking at the White House, Trump claimed without evidence that there was "no question" the election was stolen.

Immediately after Trump's speech, Kinzinger tweeted that "this is getting insane."

"We want every vote counted, yes every legal vote (of course)," Kinzinger said in his tweet. "But, if you have legit concerns about fraud present EVIDENCE and take it to court. STOP Spreading debunked misinformation."

After comments made by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia surfaced in which she fueled wild conspiracy theories about QAnon, Kinzinger voted to remove the outspoken Trump ally from her congressional committee assignments. He joined 10 other House Republicans in the 230-199 vote earlier in February.

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