Kinzinger faults McCarthy for Trump resurgence, says ‘profit-driven radio shows’ created ‘victimized’ GOP base

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(Video: NBC)

Never Trumper Adam Kinzinger is seemingly lamenting how opportunistic Republican leaders and conservative radio shows have monetized politics and support for former President Trump even while the Illinois congressman is raising money for a political action committee to help elect RINOs like himself.

Kinzinger also claims that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rejuvenated Trump’s career following a Florida sit-down when it seemed like the former POTUS was heading to pariah status within the GOP hierarchy after the universally condemned January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

To his credit, Kinzinger did not  break down into tears during the appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that is embedded above.

MTP host and corporate mouthpiece Chuck Todd teed up the segment by fretting over the fact that the GOP is Donald Trump’s party even though he thought it was over for the ex-president after the J6 chaos. “How did a year later we go to a Republican Party that is more in the grips of Donald Trump than what it was on January 7th, 2021?”

In this context, the corporate media frowns on any discussion of the intricacies or anomalies of Election 2020 amidst a flurry of mass numbers of mail-in ballots pursuant to voting changes that bypassed state legislatures. And especially that Trump, for better or worse, continues to exercise his freedom of speech by claiming, as a result, that the outcome was rigged.

Kinzinger, who sounds like he is angling for a gig on MSNBC or CNN because he is not seeking reelection to Congress, replied that he could probably spend a half hour on explaining reasons (for the viewers’ sake, this was fortunately prevented by TV time constraints), and then went on to discuss McCarthy’s Mar-a-Lago meeting.

“It caught everybody off guard…In that picture he had with Donald Trump — and I think Kevin told us something like ‘oh, I just happened to be in Florida, and he wanted to meet, so I was gonna meet with him.’ No, that was an intentional meeting. That…resurrected Donald Trump back to life,” he said.

“I think when history looks back, it will be Kevin’s meeting with Donald Trump which actually made him as immediate of a force as it was,” Kinzinger added. “He may have come back, but I think that was a very important meeting.”

Todd tossed another softball to Kinzinger by asking the lawmaker if Trump revealed what the Republican Party really is at its core or did he change it.

Kinzinger responded by bashing the grassroots base of the party, as well as many independents, who support a populist, American First agenda, rather than all talk, no action, establishment types like himself or even McCarthy and others of that ilk.

“You know, I think it’s actually a little of both,” Kinzinger replied. “I think, on one hand, Donald Trump is a symptom of years and years of leaders, profit-driven radio shows, whatever, turning the base into this angry, fearful, victimized group of people who are saying, ‘look, you can never get a fair shot. As time goes by, you’re gonna lose more and more political power.’

“Keep in mind, Republicans still won just about half of every race. But then Donald Trump came along, and I think unintentionally, because he wanted to be that guy, unintentionally got in front of the wave where people wanted somebody to blow stuff up. I think it’s a little of both; it’s fed off each other,” he continued. “The problem is leaders have to now interdict this fear and anger cycle, and they’re not doing it. They’re instead hiding.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hand-picked Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney for the partisan January 6 investigation committee after Minority Leader McCarthy pulled official GOP participation when Pelosi refused to seat U.S. Reps. Jim Banks (R-In.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on the panel.

For going along with the anti-Trump committee, Democrats rewarded Kinzinger by gerrymandering his district out of existence.

Without a hint of irony, Kinzinger put in a plug for his PAC as if he and Todd really believed that a substantial constituency exists for his brand of politics that would ban the “Trumpist wing” from the GOP.

Although Kinzinger announced that he is not running for Illinois governor, he left the door open for a future bid for public office.

“It’s not even just about the Republican Party, although I think it’s important. It’s about just restoring our ability to talk to each other and calling out the abuse that is happening of our voters every time they get that email that says ‘send me 20 bucks, otherwise x, y, z, Pelosi is going to kill your family.’ That is abuse of our voters, and they need to hear it,” Kinzinger insisted, noting that his group will field like-minded candidates in Republican primaries.

Much of what goes on in the political realm is admittedly transactional. Moreover, Adam Kinzinger does have a point about annoying, incessant fundraising emails that track every sky-is-falling development in the news cycle. But is he implying that Democrats, or the clickbait media for that matter, never lower themselves to use the same techniques?

Generally, the corporate media prefers low-energy Republicans who will lose submissively, kind of like “jobbers” in professional wrestling.

The subtext of much of the recent coverage, including on the January 6 anniversary, that the liberal political/media echo chamber is very concerned what could happen to the progressive agenda if the GOP wins back Congress and perhaps the presidency.

In a form of projection or transference that liberals, particularly in the Trump- and post-Trump era, have become known for, during the segment Todd grieved over the “conspiracy spreaders” and “misinformation peddlers” who are supposedly part of the Trump coalition.

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