Adam Kinzinger: "Nothing that I did was heroic—but I was just surrounded by a bunch of cowards"
House Democrats held a hearing on Tuesday to mark five years since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a conservative Republican who was ousted by his party for demanding that President Donald Trump be held accountable for inciting the violent protest, spoke at the hearing—but not before a brief interruption by a self-proclaimed Jan. 6 defendant, since pardoned by Trump along with more than 1,500 others.
The unidentified man asked, “Why is this committee only closed for Democrats?”
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi had a quick response.
“I’m glad you asked,” Thompson said. “Because no Republicans participated.”
Shortly after, Kinzinger—a decorated Air Force pilot who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan—was asked how he mustered up the courage to break with his party and vote for Trump’s second impeachment.
“What made me do it is just simply my oath,” Kinzinger explained. “What shocks me is that there were more people that didn't. … Nothing that I did was heroic—but I was just surrounded by a bunch of cowards that were too scared to do it.”
Kinzinger was one of two Republicans (former Rep. Liz Cheney was the other) who participated in the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee investigation and, as a result, was labeled a traitor by people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has since fallen out with Trump and resigned her House seat as of Monday.
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