Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a member of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, on Sunday issued a dire warning about potential violence heading into the 2024 presidential election unless the GOP gets a “grip” on election fraud falsehoods pushed by former President Trump and his allies.
Appearing on ABC News, Kinzinger took aim at fellow Republicans who continue to boost bogus claims of a “stolen” election.
“If you’re not willing to tell people the truth in America, you shouldn’t run for Congress … this should be a position where you can tell the hard truth,” Kinzinger said. “And, unfortunately, my party has utterly failed the American people at truth. It makes me sad, but it’s fact.”
Kinzinger pointed to a New Mexico’s GOP-led county’s governing commission that refused to certify local election results, pointing at baseless conspiracies surrounding Dominion voting machines. (The commission ultimately certified the results following a state court order. Dominion Voting Systems has filed numerous defamation lawsuits in the past year over false statements about the 2020 elections.)
“And this is the untold thing. We focused so much on what goes on in D.C. and Congress and the Senate,” Kinzinger said. “But when you have these election judges that are going to people that don’t believe basically in democracy, authoritarians, 2024 is going to be a mess.”
Kinzinger noted a recent threat against him and his family in response to his defiance of the Big Lie. Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, have faced backlash from other Republicans for their criticism of Trump and the election fraud falsehoods the former president and his allies espouse.
Kinzinger described a letter mailed to his house that threatened to execute him, his wife and his five-month-old child.
“We’ve never seen or had anything like that,” Kinzinger said. “It was sent from the local area. I don’t worry — but now that I have a wife and kids, of course, it’s a little different.”
Kinzinger urged the public to take the prospect of violence in the future seriously, which he said can only be averted if members of the GOP “get a grip” on the spread of the Big Lie that led to the deadly Capitol insurrection last year.
“There’s violence in the future, I’m going to tell you,” Kinzinger said. “And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can’t expect any differently.”
Later Sunday, Kinzinger posted the threatening letter in a tweet:
Watch Kinzinger’s remarks below:
