‘A pathetic fraud’: Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger mocked for crying during January 6 riot hearing

Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger has been mocked for his teary testimony decrying the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill in January. With such waterworks on show, it’s likely no wonder Nancy Pelosi chose him to probe the riot.

Representative Kinzinger (R-Illinois) is one of only two Republicans serving on House Speaker Pelosi’s select committee investigating the Capitol Hill riot, after Pelosi kicked two pro-Donald Trump Republicans off the panel last week, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled the remaining GOPers off in protest. Kinzinger, however, defied McCarthy and accepted a spot on the panel, alongside fellow anti-Trumper Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming).

In his opening speech to the committee on Tuesday, Kinzinger summoned up what many observers called crocodile tears. 

“I never expected today to be quite as emotional for me as it has been,” he choked, addressing Capitol Police officers in attendance. “You guys won. You guys held,” he said, before sobbing, “Democracies are not defined by our bad days. We're defined by how we come back from bad days.” 

On the bad day in question, Congress was interrupted from its business of certifying Joe Biden’s electoral win. One death on the day has been definitively linked with the rioting: the shooting dead of an unarmed Trump supporter by a Capitol Police officer. Nevertheless, Kinzinger insisted that the riot was a far greater threat to the US than the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, which led to around two dozen deaths and between $1 and $2 billion worth of property damage in just two weeks. 

“Not once did I ever feel like the future of self-governance was threatened like I did on January 6,” Kinzinger said. “There’s a difference between breaking the law, even rejecting the rule of law, between a crime, even grave crimes, and a coup.”

Kinzinger was flayed on social media for his performance. Congressional candidate Catalina Lauf, who is challenging Kinzinger in his district, described his stunt as “nothing but political theater. Just like everything else in Washington, DC.”

Shortly before Kinzinger tugged on the committee’s heartstrings, Cheney took a different tack, calling the political environment on the right that led up to the riot as “a cancer on our constitutional Republic, undermining the peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democratic system.”

Kinzinger and Cheney are extremely unlikely to offer any kind of pushback against Pelosi’s characterization of the riot as an “insurrection.” With seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans on board, the committee seems designed to reach a predetermined conclusion, which Pelosi spelled out earlier this month when she announced its formation. Describing the “root causes” of the riot, Pelosi named “white supremacy,” “anti-Semitism” and “Islamophobia” as responsible. Minority Leader McCarthy has described the committee as a “sham,” and Kinzinger and Cheney as “Pelosi Republicans.”

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