Kinzinger on Trump event: ‘Rally of a loser president’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday dismissed former President Trump’s rally in Ohio over the weekend, characterizing it as a gathering of people to support “a loser president.”

“It was a rally of a loser president. I mean, he’s the first president to lose reelection in decades,” Kinzinger said Sunday evening during an appearance on CNN. “I don’t know why these people would go there and in essence ogle at and in many cases just sort of worship a loser.” 

At his first post-presidential rally on Saturday in Wellington, Ohio, Trump repeated false claims of widespread voter fraud and an election “rigged” against him. He painted President Biden as incompetent and beholden to the far-left forces in the Democratic Party. 

And Trump pledged to help Republicans loyal to him and his policies during his presidency be elected to Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

“After just five months, the Biden administration is already a complete and total catastrophe. I told you,” Trump told the crowd.

“We won the election twice, and it’s possible we might have to win it a third time,” he added, hinting at a possible 2024 White House bid.

Trump in recent weeks has also reportedly been pushing allies in conservative media and other right-wing circles to suggest he will be reinstated as president by the end of the summer. 

Kinzinger, one of Trump’s most vocal critics in the lower chamber, called it “frightening” that many people believe what Trump has been saying about the election and a possible reinstatement. 

“They don’t take people telling them otherwise,” Kinzinger said. “You can take me and [Rep.] Liz Cheney … and if it’s just us, you can demonize us and say we’re the aberration and we are right now, but we’re telling the truth.” 

Cheney and Kinzinger were among several House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting insurrection against the government following rioting by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. 

Other Republicans, like Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.) and Mo Brooks (Ala.), have defended the Trump supporters who carried out the attack on Jan. 6 and backed Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud. 

Kinzinger called on fellow Republicans to say Biden was elected legitimately and stop suggesting otherwise, something he called “really, really dangerous.”