GOP Rep. Kinzinger: President Should ‘Never’ Use National Power to Help Himself Politically

On Monday’s broadcast of Fox News Radio’s “Guy Benson Show,” Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said he hopes the transcript of President Trump’s call with Ukraine is released and stated that a president should never “use the national power instruments to basically help himself in a political race.”

Kinzinger said, “So, the question is, is it high crimes and misdemeanors? That’s number one. And then number two, is it highly inappropriate? So, on number two, it’s absolutely highly inappropriate what President Trump did, and I don’t care about the Biden arguments. I — that’s important and we need to get to the bottom of it. … That’s separate. And if there’s any impropriety there, we need to know. But never should a president of the United States ever use the national power instruments to basically help himself in a political race. And so, there’s a lot we don’t know, and that’s why I hope the transcript of the call is released. I don’t think, even if he did use the national power to do that, it doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment. But it is highly inappropriate, if it was done, and we have to, again, put it through the, what would we say if Obama did it filter. … And we just need the president to hear from the people around him, ‘No’ sometimes, and listen to it. Because, look, he’s going to get himself in real trouble if he’s not careful. So, I hope this transcript’s released, so we can see either way, but in terms of just — I don’t see this rising to the level of impeachment, but it absolutely needs to be called out as wrong and not defended.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett