Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a vocal critic of former President Trump, said Friday that he hasn’t spoken with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in months.
Kinzinger acknowledged his lack of in-person communication with his House leader during an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle about McCarthy’s meeting later Friday with Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone.
Fanone has been asking for a meeting with McCarthy for weeks to discuss his experience protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump’s supporters dragged him down the Capitol steps and beat him.
Kinzinger has been urging McCarthy to meet with Fanone but acknowledged his current communications with McCarthy are mostly through social media.
“Kevin and I haven’t even really talked in months. You know, it’s more having to be through Twitter because I think he’s focused on trying to win over the Trump side,” Kinzinger said.
The lack of communication between McCarthy and Kinzinger shows how GOP lawmakers critical of Trump face the risk of being distanced from their own party.
Kinzinger was one of 10 Republicans who voted in January to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Another Republican who voted to impeach Trump and continued to push back against the former president’s false claims of election fraud, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), was ultimately removed from her No. 3 leadership post earlier this year.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that House Democrats will establish a select committee to investigate the events of Jan. 6 after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create an independent bipartisan commission.
Kinzinger blasted Republicans who have taken to downplaying the severity of the violent insurrection and called for “accountability” so that the nation can move forward.
“Michael Fanone was tortured. And if we don’t take responsibility for what happened six months ago because we’re so concerned with winning an election in a year and a half, I don’t know what that says about us as a party,” Kinzinger said.
“It’s impossible to move on until we take full accountability.”