Outgoing Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” called former President Donald Trump an authoritarian who abused and twisted Republican voters’ good intentions.
Cooper said, “There have also been attempts at voter intimidation like the two armed people in tactical gear watching a ballot drop box in Arizona last week. How concerned are you about that, the safety of poll workers, the potential of, you know, I don’t know, violence surrounding the election or just the idea of people trying to, people think that they are doing something by being armed watching people drop off at ballot drop boxes which again are surveilled 24/7.”
Kinzinger said, “Think about this, Anderson, so everybody in their life, and I think this is what Donald Trump did well, everybody wants to fight for a cause. They want to fight for a mission. They want to feel like they are doing something bigger than themselves. That’s a noble characteristic both in Americans and, frankly, in humanity in general. If you convince people an election is stolen, you get them to show up at the Capitol on January 6. If you convince people, there is balloting harvesting at drop boxes. You can get these folks to show up armed to intimidate people but also think they are doing something to defend democracy.”
He added, “That’s why I think it’s so important to point out, like, yes, obviously, there is voter intimidation, but they are being abused. This is exactly when you look at the rise of authoritarians, they take people’s good intentions and twist it into something else, and you are seeing that in people watching these boxes. Yes, you have a right to, and in Arizona, you can probably have a right to sit there with an AR-15. But there is no reason to sit there with an AR-15 very openly but to show your strength and intimidate.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN