The Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger said on Monday he warned the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, about potential violence at the US Capitol on 6 January, but McCarthy dismissed his concerns.
“A few days before Jan 6 , our GOP members had a conference call,” Kinzinger said on Twitter. “I told Kevin that his words and our party’s actions would lead to violence on January 6th. Kevin dismissively responded with ‘OK Adam, operator next question.’ And we got violence.”
Five people died amid and after scenes of chaos at the Capitol, as supporters told by Donald Trump to “fight like hell” in his attempt to overturn his election defeat broke into the building, in some cases allegedly looking for lawmakers to kill.
On Monday, Kinzinger also said he had considered trying to force a vote of no-confidence in McCarthy after the insurrection.
“I don’t consider him to be speaking on behalf of the Republican party any more,” Kinzinger told Bloomberg News, adding: “I actually thought the person that should have their leadership challenged was Kevin McCarthy after 6 January because that’s why this all happened.”
Kinzinger said he abandoned such plans to keep the focus on the impeachment vote against Trump which followed the insurrection. Ten House Republicans voted with Democrats to impeach Trump for inciting the riot but only seven Republican senators followed, too few to return a guilty verdict.
McCarthy did not immediately comment.
Kinzinger has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump and others peddling the “big lie” that there was widespread fraud in the presidential election.
But like most of his party McCarthy has sided with a former president whose grip on the party seems set to strengthen this week with the ejection from leadership of Liz Cheney, a Wyoming conservative who has also spoken against him.
Kinzinger has been one of Cheney’s few Republican defenders in Congress. Speaking to Bloomberg, he said: “Liz is the one playing defense, for what? What’s she playing defense for? Telling the truth and not ransacking the Capitol on 6 January?
“If you think about it from the forest, it’s ludicrous that she’s having to defend herself. That’s insane, but that’s where we are.”
Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, Kinzinger said his party was “going to get rid of Liz Cheney because they’d much rather pretend that the conspiracy is either real or not confront it than to actually confront it and maybe have to take the temporary licks to save this party and the long-term [future] of this country”.
McCarthy told Fox Business he was endorsing the New York representative Elise Stefanik to replace Cheney in “a position in leadership. As conference chair, you have one of the most critical jobs as a messenger going forward.”
Trump weighed in on Monday, issuing a statement in which he said: “The House GOP has a massive opportunity to upgrade this week from warmonger Liz Cheney to gifted communicator Elise Stefanik.”
The “warmonger” jibe was in part aimed at Cheney’s father, the former vice-president Dick Cheney, one of the architects of the Iraq war.
“We need someone in leadership who has experience flipping districts from blue to red as we approach the important 2022 midterms,” Trump added, “and that’s Elise! She knows how to win, which is what we need!”
Trump formally endorsed Stefanik last week. In congressional votes to recognize electoral college results, held in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riot, Stefanik objected to results from Pennsylvania. She did not object to results from Arizona, as many other Republicans did.
Before the votes, she indicated plans to object to results in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. No senator supported challenges to results from those states, however, so none were mounted.
Cheney is set to be replaced in a closed vote on Wednesday. On Sunday, Kinzinger also compared the trajectory of his party to the sinking of the Titanic, saying leaders were not acting responsibly.
“We’re like in the middle of this slow sink,” he said. “We have a band playing on the deck, telling everybody it’s fine, and meanwhile as I’ve said, Donald Trump is running around trying to find women’s clothing to get on the first lifeboat.
“I think there’s a few of us saying, ‘Guys, this is not good, not just for the future of the party, but this is not good for the future of this country.’”
On Monday a new report warned that many lawmakers are receiving threats and worry for their safety after the Capitol was so easily breached by extremist Trump supporters.
The Capitol police force was hobbled by inadequateintelligence gathering ahead of time, according to the inspector general, Michael Bolton.
The House is holding hearings this week on what went wrong duringthe insurrection, as lawmakers contemplate overhauling congressional security.
The Capitol police said that there has been a 107% increase in threatsagainst members of Congress this year compared to 2020 and “providedthe unique threat environment we currently live in, the department isconfident the number of cases will continue to increase”.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
