Act Daily News
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Outgoing Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger stated Sunday he fears for the way forward for the nation if former President Donald Trump isn’t charged with against the law associated to the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, although he believes the Justice Department will “do the right thing.”
“If this is not a crime, I don’t know what is. If a president can incite an insurrection and not be held accountable, then really there’s no limit to what a president can do or can’t do,” the Illinois lawmaker informed Act Daily News’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
“I think the Justice Department will do the right thing. I think he will be charged, and I frankly think he should be,” Kinzinger stated of Trump. “If he is not guilty of a crime, then I frankly fear for the future of this country.”
Kinzinger served as one in every of two GOP members on the House choose committee investigating the Capitol riot. The panel concluded its work final month and laid out a case for the DOJ and the general public that there’s proof to pursue costs towards Trump on a number of felony statutes.
The committee referred Trump to the division on no less than 4 felony costs: obstructing an official continuing, defrauding the United States, making false statements, and helping or aiding an rebellion. The panel additionally stated in its govt abstract that it had proof of attainable costs of conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.
In observe, the referral is successfully a symbolic measure. It doesn’t require the Justice Department to behave, although particular counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to research Trump, has requested proof collected by the choose committee.
“The Republican Party is not the future of this country unless it corrects,” Kinzinger informed Bash, including that he views GOP chief Kevin McCarthy as liable for Trump’s political resurrection following January 6.
“Donald Trump is alive today politically because of Kevin McCarthy,” he stated. “He went to Mar-a-Lago a couple weeks after January 6 and resurrected Donald Trump. He is the reason Donald Trump is still a factor.”
Kinzinger stated that whereas he’s “fearful in the short term” for American democracy, he’s extra hopeful in the long term.
“I feel honored to be at this moment in history and to have done the right thing,” stated the congressman, who has confronted intraparty criticism for his stance on Trump.
The Illinois Republican, who didn’t search reelection final yr, stated he wouldn’t do “one thing differently” however wouldn’t miss being in Congress. And whereas he stated it could be “fun” to debate Trump, Kinzinger informed Bash he doesn’t intend to run for president in 2024.
Another retiring House Republican, in the meantime, expressed optimism about the way forward for Congress.
“I know who I work with in Congress. There is a middle class. You don’t see them or hear them much because like the middle class, they’re serious about their jobs,” Texas’ Kevin Brady stated on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I think if people could see more of that working class in Congress, you would have more confidence, as I do,” he added.
Brady, the outgoing high Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, additionally stated it was his “hope” that McCarthy wins his speakership bid.
“I think Kevin McCarthy understands this conference in a big way. He’s worked with folks across the whole spectrum,” Brady stated. “I am confident he can pull these final votes together.”
With House Republicans solely having a slender majority within the subsequent Congress, McCarthy has struggled to lock down the votes wanted on Tuesday to be the subsequent speaker, even after making plenty of important concessions to GOP critics in current days.
House Republicans are holding a convention name on Sunday as McCarthy continues his quest to safe the assist of no less than 218 lawmakers within the upcoming ground vote, in response to two sources acquainted.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.