Latest news with #Kinzinger
The Hill
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Kinzinger: Politicizing military, intel community ‘usually doesn't have a great ending'
Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who served in the Air Force in Iran and Afghanistan, criticized President Trump's politicization of U.S. airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities on CNN. 'Donald Trump wanted this nice movie where he could come in at the end, deliver a blow, tie it up with a bow, have a ceasefire and it's the end of a blockbuster movie. And unfortunately, he, by his own doing, said it was obliterated. He created these questions,' Kinzinger told CNN host Anderson Cooper. 'And so now what you have is Pete Hegseth and everybody around Donald Trump that are trying to create a strawman, and the strawman is 'you're going after the military.' Debate has been brewing in the administration and Congress over whether Iran's nuclear encirclement capacities were actually destroyed by U.S. bombings on June 21. A preliminary classified report was leaked stating the bombings did not 'obliterate' Iran's nuclear program like the president said, but set back the program for only months, according to reporting from the New York Times. 'Now you have these people that should be very serious, the Secretary of Defense, these people in the intelligence community, instead of giving us kind of clean-cut stuff, they're actually being mouthpieces now for the president. And honestly, it's politicizing the military, politicizing the intel community. And it's just this usually doesn't have a great ending,' continued Kinzinger. Following this leaked report, the administration aimed to limit the amount of classified information shared with Congress as Democratic lawmakers demand answers on the actual impact of the strikes. 'Now the problem is since Donald Trump said obliterated, and we just don't know that yet, he's created the story,' said Kinzinger. The House and Senate still received an intelligence briefing on Friday. However, the briefing has not answered questions from dubious democrats who still don't know whether Iran was an imminent threat to the U.S. and whether the American strikes were successful. 'We've got the president saying one thing … and based on the DIA analysis, it's different,' said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the senior Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, 'His approach, potentially, could get us in trouble. If we don't up our diplomacy game, then all bets are off.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been adamantly defending the strikes. He lashed out at Fox journalist Jennifer Griffin for asking whether Iran's enriched uranium stacks were inside Fordow, one of the nuclear sites the U.S. bombed. Even though the administration has continuously asserted the strikes were successful, Trump said that he would consider bombing Iran again.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kinzinger talks Trump and his own future in Chicago speech
CHICAGO (WGN) — Adam Kinzinger has been out of Congress for two years now, but his final term continues to define him and his mission. 'This is not normal,' Kinzinger said of President Donald Trump's first four months back in the White House. 'Regardless of your opinion of him, people can obviously look at this and say: This isn't how politics used to be. This kind of anger, this division is not sustainable.' Kinzinger spoke with WGN ahead of a speech Wednesday evening in Chicago. Since leaving office, he has traveled the nation for his 'Country First' political action committee, telling the story of being one of only two republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 Committee. Despite having a conservative voting record, Trump supporters branded him a 'RINO,' which stands for 'Republican In Name Only.' GOP's Kinzinger explains his appearance at Democratic National Convention 'Democracy is still worth preserving,' Kinzinger said. Kinzinger encouraged Republicans and Democrats not to tune out the daily drumbeat of headlines. 'You have the daily clown show or the daily controversies. Some of it is so outrageous, you have to pay attention. Some of it is corruption,' Kinzinger said. 'In the meantime, the stuff that really matters – did DOGE save $160 billion? It did not. By the way, they promised $2 trillion. The 'Big Beautiful Bill' will actually cut Medicare and Medicaid and explode the debt. So people are talking about that, and then we hear about the Qatar jet. So, how do you kind of juggle all those balls and stay engaged? That's the big key.' Kinzinger doesn't sound like a man content to stay on the sidelines of government, but he has yet to announce his next move. In the meantime, he'll continue to try to reach new audiences through social media, a regular column on Substack, YouTube videos, and commentary on CNN. 'I want the younger generation to recognize: This doesn't have to be this way,' Kinzinger said. In 2022, WGN profiled Kinzinger as a politician without a party. WGN Investigates: Investigating public corruption, crime & fraud In 2024, Republican Kinzinger accepted a prime-time speaking role at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 'I look at the Democrats and say, sure, there's a lot I disagree with, but there's actually a lot I agree with that my party has abandoned, like foreign policy. I mean, standing with Ukraine in a fight against Russia, if you had told me 10 years ago that my party would've abandoned that fight, I wouldn't have believed you,' Kinzinger told WGN at the time. 'When they call me a RINO, there's not much about me that's changed from what I used to be. The whole Republican party has changed.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Adam Kinzinger Thinks Trump's Second Term Is 'Way Worse' Than He Ever Imagined
Former GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger has been warning for years about what another Trump presidency might look like. But even he didn't think it would be this bad. 'It's way worse than anything I could've imagined,' he told Katie Couric in a new interview for her podcast, Next Question. 'I was trying to warn the Democrats basically between Trump's victory and inauguration day — like, you guys need to get your ducks in a row.' Looking back, he's still frustrated by how unprepared Congress was in those crucial early days. 'One of my biggest frustrations — and I think it's why so many Democrats are angry now — is that Trump gets inaugurated, DOGE is created out of thin air, and then Congress goes on recess. Democrats just went home,' he said. 'And all this stuff started happening without any organized opposition. It was infuriating.' For Kinzinger, it wasn't just chaos — it was predictable. 'We told you this was coming. It's Project 2025. The playbook was already out there.' Kinzinger became a household name for his break with Trump after the January 6th attack on the Capitol. He was one of just 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection, and he later served on the House committee investigating it. That decision sparked fierce backlash from his own party — the Republican National Committee censured him, and his family received threats. Eventually, that pressure, among other factors, led him to step down from Congress. (His term ended in 2023.) Though he still considers himself a Republican, he admitted to voting straight-ticket Democrat in the last two elections. He jokingly calls himself a 'proud RHINO' — a twist on the insult 'RINO,' or 'Republican In Name Only.' Kinzinger tells Katie that most Republicans are still afraid to speak out. 'They're frozen in fear,' he said. 'We forget — Trump's been in the system for about 10 years now. In that time, they've pushed out anyone with independent thought, anyone with courage, anyone willing to tell the truth. What's left is a party shaped in his image — a kind of cult.' Despite the party's continued loyalty to Trump, Kinzinger sees glimmers of hope. He praised Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski as 'one of the shining stars' in the GOP — someone, he said, 'who's willing to tell the truth and vote her conscience.' He also applauded Reps. Don Bacon and Brian Fitzpatrick for their 'very aggressive' support of Ukraine. For more of Kinzinger's take on the second Trump administration — including his thoughts on the ongoing immigration crackdown and the fallout from Trump's tariff policies — watch the full interview above. The post Why Adam Kinzinger Thinks Trump's Second Term Is 'Way Worse' Than He Ever Imagined appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kinzinger on Trump's first 100 days: ‘I see failure after failure'
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Tuesday slammed President Trump over the first 100 days of his second term, calling them a 'failure.' 'With the 100th day of the Trump presidency here, it's the perfect time to step back and survey the wreckage,' Kinzinger wrote on Substack. 'And when I look across the landscape, I see failure after failure. One phrase from his first inaugural speech keeps coming to mind — 'American carnage.'' 'In just his first 100 days, Trump has issued more than 130 executive orders, throwing the economy, higher education, the legal system, and much of the federal government into chaos,' he added. 'He pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. And most damaging of all, he declared a trade war with China — and pretty much the rest of the world — sending us hurtling toward a severe recession.' More than four years ago, Kinzinger and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump for his part in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. The former lawmaker from Illinois has also been a fierce critic of the president in the years since the Capitol riot and backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House last year. While giving a speech at the Democratic National Convention last year, Kinzinger said that the GOP 'is no longer conservative.' 'It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself,' he said at the time. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, in response to The Hill's request for comment, asked, 'Who is Adam Kinzinger?' In his Tuesday Substack post, Kinzinger referred to the president's economic policy as 'disastrous,' and he knocked Trump administration officials such as tech billionaire Elon Musk, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He also went after Trump over his response to the war in Ukraine. 'A failure at home. A failure abroad. A failure in the polls. If there's one thing Trump has proven in his first 100 days, it's that he's consistently bad at this job. Too bad for the rest of us,' Kinzinger said in the post. The Hill has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Kinzinger on Trump 100 days: ‘I see failure after failure'
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Tuesday slammed President Trump over his first 100 days of his second term, calling it a 'failure.' 'With the 100th day of the Trump presidency here, it's the perfect time to step back and survey the wreckage,' Kinzinger wrote on Substack. 'And when I look across the landscape, I see failure after failure. One phrase from his first inaugural speech keeps coming to mind — 'American carnage.'' 'In just his first 100 days, Trump has issued more than 130 executive orders, throwing the economy, higher education, the legal system, and much of the federal government into chaos,' he added. 'He pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. And most damaging of all, he declared a trade war with China — and pretty much the rest of the world — sending us hurtling toward a severe recession.' Over four years ago, Kinzinger and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump over his part in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. The former lawmaker from Illinois has also been a fierce critic of the president in the years since the Capitol riot and backed former Vice President Harris in her bid for the White House last year. While giving a speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last year, Kinzinger said that the GOP 'is no longer conservative.' 'It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself,' he said at the time. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, in response to The Hill's request for comment, asked, 'Who is Adam Kinzinger?' In his Tuesday Substack post, Kinzinger referred to the president's economic policy as 'disastrous,' knocked Trump administration officials like tech billionaire Elon Musk, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and went after Trump over his response to the war in Ukraine. 'A failure at home. A failure abroad. A failure in the polls. If there's one thing Trump has proven in his first 100 days, it's that he's consistently bad at this job. Too bad for the rest of us,' Kinzinger said in the post.
