January six, House committee
member Republican Congressman
Adam Kinzinger.
Congressman,
thanks so much for joining us.
Trump was taken off
Twitter in the first place
for inciting the violent insurrection
against the Capitol.
You're a member of the committee
investigating the insurrection.
What do you make of Elon
Musk reinstating Donald Trump
Well, look, I mean, I get that
people are on all sides of this debate.
And the fact that he did it
with a poll of which,
you know, however
many percent of those
could have been bots
that aren't real people voting in that.
Secondarily, I don't know if,
you know, that decision
should be made by some poll.
I mean, what happened?
I remember specifically
when this was all done.
So not only was he lighting
and accelerating the fire on January six,
also before
January six with his conspiracies
at the end of the day,
he said this is what you get
when a victory is so unceremoniously
basically taken away
from the American people.
So not only when it was done.
Did he have any remorse?
He said,
well, of course,
you guys had an insurrection
because that's what you get
when you steal an election.
I mean,
I remember seeing that specific tweet
and just being outraged
at how after all this is done,
can you still do that?
And so now this idea
that he's going to
come on and be reformed,
everybody knows he won't.
And by the way, I say, as a quick
aside, the person
probably the most upset
today is Devin Nunes,
because this is going to tank
truth social if he does, in fact, leave.
On Friday, Attorney General Merrick
Garland appointed a special counsel
to oversee the investigations
into Donald Trump's
handling of classified documents,
as well as the one
looking at his role
in the January six insurrection.
You have expressed frustration
with the Justice Department's approach
to Trump in the past.
Do you think this is the right move
You know, I'm going to have to leave
that to the experts to decide
if this was the right thing,
because I don't know where
the Justice Department
is in their investigation.
Let's say, for instance,
they were very close to indictment
and then they switched to this
because he's running for office.
And I think that's an unnecessary delay.
But then again,
if we're trying to do the best
we can to take politics out of it.
First off,
there are a lot of people
that will never be satisfied
that there's no politics
because that's how they frankly
raise money
is to to convince people
that there are some conspiracy out there.
But I think what
we're going to be able to judge us by
is what the ultimate outcome is.
Will he will
this special prosecutor
get to our independent counsel, get to a
belief that he
was guilty or
not, will be based on the evidence
and what will be the result
of Donald Trump?
But look,
if the former president thinks
that just
by simply announcing
he's running for president,
he can obstruct justice.
I mean, that would be a bad precedent,
of course,
because then
anybody that's under investigation
could just announce
they're running
for president in this country.
The January six committee
is going to wrap up its work
by the end of the year,
and it seems likely
you'll have to do so
without hearing
from former Vice President Mike Pence.
Here's what he told me about that
a few days ago.
Congress has no right to my testimony.
The very notion of a committee
on Congress
in Congress
summoning a vice president
to speak about deliberations
that took place at the White House,
I think would violate the separation
of powers.
Now, of course, as the committee notes
that did not stop Pence from detailing
some of those deliberations
and conversations in his new book.
So help me God.
What do you make of what you've heard
from Pence this week
since rolling out this book?
Look, it's really disappointing.
So I think Mike Pence is trying to do
to police to different groups.
He's trying to please
those that are concerned with Trump
and those that really like Donald Trump.
And here's something I've learned, Jake,
and kind of the last five years.
You can't please them both.
You really just have to pick.
You have to be committed
to whatever you believe
truth is and pick that side.
So he can't on the one hand, say
that what Donald Trump did was terrible,
was a threat to our democracy
and then say,
but Congress
has no right to my testimony.
Look,
I fully believe
in the separation of powers
but that was violated on January six
when the former president launched a mob
into the legislative chambers, violate
that separation of power.
And of course,
we have oversight responsibility.
We're not subservient
to the president in Congress.
We are a co-equal branch.
The other thing
that the
vice president said
after that was that
this is a partizan exercise.
And I just want to remind people,
it has been a very partizan exercise
because the only people
we've really interviewed
and have testified
have all been Republicans.
And so, yeah, there have
been a ton of Republicans coming in
and talking about what
the former president did
and what he knew.
And people may not
fully love what Liz and I are doing
if you're a Republican, but guess what?
We haven't changed our belief system.
A lot of other people have.
This is a bipartisan committee
doing bipartisan work.
And I think, frankly, history
will judge this very well
before the election.
Congresswoman Marjorie
Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia,
pledged that, quote,
not another penny will go to Ukraine
under a Republican led Congress.
What is your response to her?
And how worried are you
that with this narrow majority,
she is going to be newly empowered
in the Republican House?
Well, first off,
she will be newly empowered.
And the fact that she is supporting
Kevin McCarthy
means that he's made a lot of promises
to her.
Just trust me,
that's how this business works.
In terms of the commitment to Ukraine.
I mean, she even posted a video
the other day of some wounded
Ukrainian soldiers and said basically
they were being abused and used.
Look, when you're her,
she's a millionaire.
You've never sacrificed
for a thing in your life.
You've never served anything but yourself
and your own goals.
I can't expect her to understand
what it means
to actually defend democracy physically.
She can
she can pretend like she knows all
she wants. She obviously doesn't.
So I think it's going to be a tough fight
for Ukraine.
I think there's still strong
bipartisan support.
But I would not be surprised
if Kevin McCarthy has to cut
deals with Democrats,
which is something
he needs to keep in mind
because he's not going to get
218 votes
for everything
he wants
to pass, including government funding,
because he's got people
that'll never vote yes on anything.
I've done this business for a while,
and I'll tell you,
they're just the hope
yes, vote no, caucus
they vote
no on everything,
or now
they're only going to vote
for the most conservative stuff.
What kind of speaker
do you think Kevin will be?
Kevin McCarthy
look,
I mean,
if you'd asked me five years ago,
I would have said a pretty good one.
Now, I think he has cut so many deals
with bad people to get to this position
that I think he's
not going to be a leader at all.
I think
he'll be completely hostage
to kind of the extreme wings
of the Republican Party.
And I frankly don't think
he's going to last very long.
Maybe he'll prove me wrong.
But it's sad to see a man
that I think had so much potential
just totally sell himself.
He's the one that resurrected
Donald Trump
the second he went to Mar a Lago
a week or two after January six.
He resurrected Donald Trump politically.
So he owns everything that Trump says now
as a candidate for reelection.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger,
Republican of Illinois, thanks so much.
Good to see you, sir.
You bet.