Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger will no longer be in Congress next year. In October, the midwestern lawmaker announced his current sixth term would be his final. He was first elected to the lower chamber in 2010.
“Dehumanizing each other has become the norm,” Kinzinger said to explain his escape in an exit video. “We’ve taken it from social media to the streets.”
On Wednesday, the outgoing congressman engaged in the same behavior that he claimed with moral superiority has alienated him from elected office. In response to an article on GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s demand that President Joe Biden drop support for Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Kinzinger skipped the substance and went straight for the jugular.
“I hate to be so personal,” Kinzinger wrote on Twitter, “but Hawley is one of the worst human beings, and a self egrandizing con artist. When Trump goes down I certainly hope this evil will be layed in the open for all to see, and be ashamed of.”
One might call the post “dehumanizing.”
After Hawley reportedly brushed off the post as “weird,” Kinzinger blasted the senator for “pleasing Tucker and playing to the worst instincts than leading.”
“Denying Jan. 6th truth despite fomenting it, among other things,” Kinzinger wrote.
The online meltdown in which a House lawmaker launches unhinged attacks over a wide range of topics against a senator unprovoked might seem bizarre at first glance. An honest look at Kinzinger’s late congressional tenure, however, reveals a congressman desperate for relevance, validation, and vengeance, so much so that he’s openly celebrated disowning his own family on national television. Yet Kinzinger has the authority to declare rival members of Congress among the “worst human beings”?
Last summer, Kinzinger eagerly accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to serve on the Select Committee on Jan. 6 as one of two Republicans appointed by the Democrat. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was the other, tapped to serve as vice-chair after Pelosi barred Republican appointments in an “unprecedented” move by the speaker’s own words.
Kinzinger’s recruitment to the partisan probe launched as a clear vendetta to persecute political opponents came after the Illinois representative joined Cheney in her futile crusade to impeach President Donald Trump with Republican support in January. Only eight GOP lawmakers joined their vote to convict. Since then, Kinzinger has embraced the mantle of a NeverTrump crusader, abandoning the Republican voter with a vengeance cloaked as moral conviction.
In March, RealClearPolitics ran a story outlining how Kinzinger had repeatedly lobbied the Trump administration for prominent gigs prior to the mediocre lawmaker’s vehement public opposition. Such opposition would crown Kinzinger a darling of a corporate media establishment hungry to promote GOP critics of the former president.
“A lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, Kinzinger had lobbied for a nomination from the president he publicly criticized, telling Fox News in 2019 that he would be willing to serve as a secretary of the Air Force and that ‘it would be an honor to be considered,'” reported RealClearPolitics. “He didn’t get the job, and the next year, another hiring decision allegedly led to more strife.”
A tweet from former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino in December 2020 taunted Kinzinger over that hiring decision.
“Adam’s just mad that The White House didn’t hire his big push and recommendation (we’ll leave who, between us) in the comms shop back in April 2020,” Scavino wrote in response to more Trump criticism from Kinzinger. “Why weren’t they hired, and brought on the team!? Bingo! Because they were close to him, and honestly, he’s a TOOL! Embarrassing!”
Real Clear Politics further reported:
The tweet was a public taunt that Trump World privately understood. When the congressman tangled with the Senate Conservatives Fund though, it resurfaced. According to three former White House officials, Kinzinger had pushed hard last spring for his wife, Sofia Boza-Holman, then a press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, to join the president’s communications team.
Scavino stopped the hire. ‘It’s 100% true. We completely shut it down when Kinzinger lobbied the Whte House to hire his wife in the Communications Department because he’s a complete a******,’ a source with knowledge of the process told RealClearPolitics.
‘Kinzinger lobbied everyone – and his wife wanted nothing more than to work in the White House,’ the source added. ‘But nope, we didn’t allow it to happen.’
Now Kinzinger is left to do Pelosi’s bidding as he plans his next steps for next year.
