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Rep. Adam Kinzinger Acknowledges Fellow Republican House Members' Plans for Impeachment

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 20, 2022 2:30 PM

Last month, we highlighted how some House Republicans, should they win control of the chamber, have an idea in mind to impeach President Joe Biden. Such a plan has been acknowledged by retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), as he lamented to David Axelrod that "all the crazies" in the body are "going to demand an impeachment vote on President Biden every week."

Impeachment articles have already been introduced, not only against the president, but also against Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Bob Good (R-VA) have been mentioned as the members most enthusiastically going for impeachment.

While Kinzinger may have a fondness for attacking these "crazies" in the party, someone may like to point out to him that it was the Democratic Party, when they had control of the House, that was fixated on impeaching former President Donald Trump. 

They even did so twice, the first time leading to them being too distracted from realizing the emerging threat of COVID-19, and the second impeachment trial not concluding until Trump was already out of office. Rep. Kinzinger was one of 10 House Republicans to vote for impeachment articles.

As our friends at Twitchy highlighted, people did point that out.

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Rep. Kinzinger, who has been particularly critical of his fellow Republicans, including and especially House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), also sought to downplay chances the party will have come November. 

While McCarthy is largely expected to become the next speaker, Rep. Kinzinger predicted that McCarthy will either have a difficult time due to the "crazies," or may not even be speaker after all.

During Axelrod's podcast he said: 

...And I think that's his feeling on Kevin McCarthy. And I think if there's particularly if there's a narrow Republican majority, let's say there's five, a five seat Republican majority, it only takes five Republicans or six Republicans to come together, deny Kevin the speakership because they weren't, let's say, [Rep.] Jim Jordan, where they have this idea that Donald Trump can sit as speaker. Any of them can do that. And I know these Freedom Caucus members fairly well, and I know that they have no problem turning their back on him and they will.

Even those prognosticators which have sought to downplay Republican chances of taking back the House still see a pick-up of more than five seats. The CBS Battleground Tracker poll for instance, predicts Republicans to have a +12 advantage, with 226 seats to Democrats having 209 seats. 

More recently, Fox News released power rankings, which shows 216 seats for Republicans, 189 for Democrats, and 30 seats being considered toss-ups.

For all of his vocal criticism against Trump, Illinois State Democrats still decided to pretty much redistrict Kinzinger's seat out of existence. He thus decided to retire rather than lose his seat, though he has left the door open to seeking higher office.

Almost all of the Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump have lost their primaries or decided to retire.