The LaSalle County Republican Central Committee censured GOP Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger for voting to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
The local GOP chapter passed the censure measure “overwhelmingly,” with 88% of the vote on Tuesday, according to a statement on the party’s Facebook page.
Kinzinger, the 42-year-old congressman from Illinois’s 16th Congressional District, has become a vocal critic of the former president and his supporters in and out of Congress. He not only joined nine other House Republicans in voting to impeach Trump for his role in the deadly riot that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he also announced last week that he’s starting a super PAC dedicated to distancing his party from Trump.
The county had received “hundreds” of messages from angry constituents about Kinzinger, Chairman Larry Smith said.
“The La Salle County Republicans have received hundreds upon hundreds of emails, text messages, and phone calls from our county and beyond expressing their frustration and a lot more with Congressman Kinzinger’s actions and statements the past few months,” Smith said in a statement. “Many have been very direct that their support for the Republican Party is over if Congressman Kinzinger’s behavior isn’t addressed.”
“Though our Central Committee is not noted for political activism and we have always supported Republicans at every level, Congressman Kinzinger’s actions and statements against former President Trump have opened a Pandora’s Box of criticism,” he added.
The party, in the statement, noted that Kinzinger has not met with the LaSalle County Republicans in over six years.
The Illinois Republican has been vocal about defending House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, who also voted to impeach the former president. Kinzinger has also attacked freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has garnered national attention in recent weeks as social media comments and posts from before she was elected resurfaced. Her conspiracy-laden social media history includes doubting the veracity of mass shootings and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the promotion of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and support for violence against Democrats.
“But you know, to see people at the end of it just be all-in on Marjorie Taylor Greene. Look, I get it. She’s a Republican in your mind, and you want to defend her, but my goodness, look at what’s been said,” he said on CNN about the freshman Georgia lawmaker who could be stripped of her committee assignments as a result of those old posts.
The Senate is set to begin the trial portion of the impeachment proceedings next week. It takes a two-thirds majority to convict the former president.
Forty-five Republican senators voted to drop the impeachment trial, claiming it is unconstitutional given Trump is out of office. Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is retiring, all of whom have publicly criticized the president for his role in the post-election conspiratorial phase, voted with the Democrats.
