Rep. Adam Kinzinger Reacts to the Midterms

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: And air defense systems which you’re already sending and they need more. I mean, of course, you speak with a lot of knowledge being a military man yourself. But I want to ask you now about the take away, you know, from the elections. Obviously, the Republicans did not do as well as was, sort of, broadcast. What do you make of that? What do you make of what happened to the MAGA wing. Tell me about your takeaway.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Yes, I think it’s a number of things. So, I think the abortion decision had an impact. I think our work on the January 6th Committee had an impact. I think the attack on Paul Pelosi had an impact. All of these things, kind of, worked together that even in a year where it’s the economy, it’s the border, it’s crime that is kind of overtaking people in terms of the things they care about the most or the things that are impacting them the most. They don’t feel comfortable with candidates that do not accept election results. Candidate quality matters. You know, standing for the truth of democracy matters. And I think what we are seeing so far is that if you want to stand up and deny elections and you want to stand up and attack democracy, you’re not going to win. That does not mean though, by the way, that MAGA is going to be, you know, extricated from the Republican Party. It’s going to be an intense battle. But I think it is sending a very strong message that the American people will not stand for election denialism and they still actually believe in democracy.

AMANPOUR: And I think that you told one of my colleagues that nonetheless, despite what you’ve just said and the results, there will be a certain pretty big number of election deniers elected. And I think you said, out and out, extremists. Can you expand on that?

KINZINGER: Yes. I mean, look, I would say — I would argue today that of the 200 some Republican members in Congress, there may only be one or two that actually believe 2020 was stolen. They’ll go out and say it was stolen, because that’s, you know, they’re performing. But now, in this next Congress, you are going to have people that truly believe that the election in 2020 was stolen. You look at a guy like Joe Kent out in Washington State who’s been very openly, in essence, white supremacist and anti-government. You’re going to see people like that go to the United States Congress. So, even though this election didn’t turn out to be the red wave that so many people expected, there are going to be some very corrosive influences in the House of Reps. And let’s say the Republicans do take the majority by a very slim margin which looks possible. Now, all of a sudden, those people have great power because they can deny the majority — the votes pass something. And that would require the speaker, if it is Kevin McCarthy or whoever, to reach across the aisle, to Democrats to pass things. But they haven’t shown, really, a willingness or desire to do that in the past.