Kinzinger calls Trump ‘professional victim, professional whiner and bellyacher’

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Friday that attempts to kick former President Trump off primary ballots in Maine and Colorado are actually likely to help the former president get elected.

“I think this is probably good for Donald Trump politically, because he’s a professional victim, a professional whiner, and belly acre, and this allows him to feed more than that he’s such a poor victim,” Kinzinger said in an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

Maine’s secretary of state determined this week that Trump should be barred from the primary ballot, citing his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riots as violating the 14th Amendment “insurrection clause.”

The former congressman and notable Trump critic also gave slack to GOP presidential rivals who have criticized that ruling, noting that even anti-Trump candidates have little to gain by backing the move politically.

“If you’re running against the guy to beat him, and you just come out and say that these cases are the way to get rid of Donald Trump, I think it makes you look weak,” Kinzinger said. “It does not help you with the base. It doesn’t help you with the election.”

The candidates lined up to denounce the Maine ruling this week, as some moderate Democrats joined Republicans in saying that Trump should be left on the ballot for voters to judge.

In her decision, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said Trump “used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters” on Jan. 6 and “was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear a similar challenge in Colorado, held up by the state’s high court last week.