Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL) on Sunday said he believes impeaching President Donald Trump isn't a "smart move." Instead, he would rather see Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment.
"I honestly don't think impeachment is the smart move because I think it victimizes Donald Trump again, Kinzinger explained to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. "... He stirred up a crowd. It was an executive branch attack on the legislative branch, one of the worst days in American history."
The congressman said he would "vote the right way" on whatever articles of impeachment are brought forth. The issue he has is the small amount of time left in Trump's administration.
"I would think it's the right move if we had more than basically 10 days left of the administration," Kinzinger said. " ... We're not going to be able to even get through a trial so, yeah, he'll be impeached a second time, but also exonerated, in theory, a second time. It depends on how that trial goes. If they do it once he's out of office, all that. I think there's a lot of ideas with censor, with preventing him from being able to run again. The reality is we just don't have a lot of time in this administration left, which is a good thing."
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who backs invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, says he doesn’t think impeachment is the “smart move because it victimizes Donald Trump again,” adding it “would be the right move” if Trump still had more time in office. https://t.co/FnD9YSf2TE pic.twitter.com/1qw7qbWXrl
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 10, 2021
Instead of moving forward with impeachment, the congressman said he believes President Trump should resign. If Trump refuses to resign, he wants to see Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment, which would immediately remove the president from office.
"I think the best thing for the country to heal would be for him to resign. The next best thing is the 25th Amendment. That's why I call on Vice President Pence to do it," he said. "This is just the thing that gets us out of the debate in Congress. It doesn't victimize Donald Trump. It makes him look as bad as he has been here and it's leadership."
According to the congressman, Pence needs to invoke the 25th Amendment and "do the right thing."
"We have to be willing to give our careers to do the right thing when it's something so egregious as we're facing, like we have been the last week," he said.
House Majority Whip James (D-SC) said articles of impeachment are expected sometime Tuesday or Wednesday, with additional articles in the works.