Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Wednesday expressed fresh frustration at his fellow Republicans in response to fresh video of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi the day after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot in which she said former President Trump has to “pay a price.”
When asked to respond to footage showing Pelosi stressing that the National Guard should have been called earlier while stressing a focus on Trump in the riot’s aftermath, Kinzinger said the new video evoked fresh memories of that day.
“She was reacting how we all did, and it just kind of takes me back to that, and makes me furious that my party decided to — to memory holed that whole day.,” Kinzinger said on “CNN News Central” to anchor Sara Sidner.
The footage features Pelosi in scenes like those in the early morning the day after the Capitol riot, in which the former Speaker states that former President Trump has to “pay a price” when it comes to “what he did to the Capitol and to the country today.”
Kinzinger said the focus should be less on conservative criticism that Pelosi was more focused on Trump than securing the Capitol that day.
“The focus of all of Congress on that day was getting justice for what happened,” Kinzinger said of the day after the riot.
Kinzinger was a member of the House Select Committee that investigated into the riot at the Capitol and one of 10 Republicans in the House to vote to impeach Trump in the wake of Jan. 6.
Even after leaving office, he has remained a prominent anti-Trump Republican and spoke at this year’s Democratic National Committee (DNC) last week.
“The Republican Party is no longer conservative,” Kinzinger said in his speech at the DNC. “It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself.”
Kinzinger also said in the speech that Trump, the Republican presidential nominee “is a weak man pretending to be strong.”
