Kinzinger calls for people with info on Trump to come forward

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is calling for officials with knowledge of former President Trump’s involvement in inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol to come forward with whatever information they may have. 

“I think there’s a lot of people that know things. I don’t know who they are. They’re sitting on information, now’s the time to come forward,” Kinzinger, one of Trump’s most vocal critics and one of the 10 House GOP lawmakers to vote in favor of impeachment, told ABC News on Saturday. 

His comments come shortly after the Senate voted to allow for witnesses in the impeachment trial on Saturday. The Senate took that step after GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) released a statement saying that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told her Trump sided with the insurrectionists during the riot. 

“When McCarthy finally reached the president on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Herrera Beutler said in her statement.

“McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'” 

Herrera Buetler also called for those with information on Trump to come forward.

“To the patriots who were standing next to the former president as these conversations were happening, or even to the former vice president: if you have something to add here, now would be the time,” she said.

Kinzinger echoed those remarks.

“Absolutely. If you have more information, you must now come forward with it.  This is your duty as an American.  History is watching.  And history judges perfectly,” he tweeted Friday evening. 

Herrera Beutler’s statement changes the landscape of the trial, which was slated to end with a vote in coming days, potentially prolonging the proceedings for weeks. 

It’s unclear which witnesses Democrats will bring forward in the case. 

“We’re not going to be able to count on Kevin McCarthy by any means to do the right thing. But there are other people who would have been witnesses to that conversation who can speak out,” House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Friday evening. 

“So, I would hope that others would come forward and would speak out. But given that they have waited as long as they have and probably those most in the know like Mark Meadows are less likely to be candid. I’m not sure how much optimism we should have on that account.”

Meadows is a former GOP congressman from North Carolina and Trump’s former chief of staff.

Mike Lillis contributed.