Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), one of ten Republican representatives to vote for the impeachment of former President Donald Trump and one of two Republicans to sit on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s partisan committee investigating the January 6 incident at the Capitol, announced his retirement Friday after the Illinois Democrats released its redistricting maps.
Kinzinger announced the retirement in the video by saying the “time is now” to move on from Congress. He also expressed “awe” at the nine other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump — one who has already announced retirement and the rest facing tough reelections in the midterms coming next year.
“My disappointment in the leaders that don’t lead is huge,” he said, noting that while being a part of elected office, “Dehumanizing each other has become the norm.”
“We’ve taken it from social media to the streets. We’ve allowed leaders to reach power selling the false premise that strength comes from degrading others and dehumanizing those that look, act, or think differently than we do,” he added. “As a country, we’ve fallen for those lies, and now we face a poisoned country filled with outrage blinding our ability to reach real strength.”
The Illinois Republican has been a vocal critic of Trump and his own party since January. Kinzinger joined Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) by accepting an invitation from the Democrats to join Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) committee to investigate January 6.
Trump’s influence over the party has remained strong since being out of elected office. He has since vowed to campaign against members of his own party that voted to impeach him, including Kinzinger. Upon Kinzinger’s announcement, the former president quickly released a statement saying, “2 down, 8 to go!”
In addition to Trump’s influence in Republican politics, earlier in the month, the Illinois state legislature released their proposed borders for the new congressional district maps and placed Kinzinger in the same district as freshman Democrat Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL), Illinois’s Third Congressional District, which has leaned Democrat for decades and would have likely ended in defeat for the Republican.
In the video, the Illinois Republican hinted at another office he might run for, saying, “I cannot focus on both a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide. I want to make it clear — this isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning.”
There are rumors of Kinzinger looking to challenge Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in the midterms next year.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.
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