Continuing his media suck-up tour, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois wrote Monday in the Washington Post that a Senate conviction of former President Donald Trump in his second round of impeachment is “necessary to save America from going further down a sad, dangerous road.”
That “sad, dangerous road,” according to Kinzinger, is one in which the GOP is a party of “more violence and more division.” Only by convicting Trump will we be able to “save America.”
Kinzinger is deluding himself if he actually believes that the Democrats’ pursuit of Trump weeks after he has been out of power is actually about preserving the integrity of our government.
Republicans have across the board denounced the Jan. 6 riot and Trump’s irresponsible rhetoric that preceded it. And if it weren’t for the fact that Trump was exiting the White House in a matter of days, many of them might well have put their weight behind another impeachment effort — one that wouldn’t require them to skip showers, meals, and toilet breaks to prepare for.
But that’s not the hand that was dealt. Instead, we got this rush job with no investigation. They took the best course of action otherwise, called the riot a calamity, and tried to move on.
Democrats, of course, know it’s better for their party not to move on. No, rubbing the sore is always politically advantageous, and it’s working. There are enough Republicans like Kinzinger who think they can win a few points with the media by going along with the Democrats and throwing Trump’s entire political career in a coffin and burying it 6 feet under.
But what Republicans like Kinzinger never learn is that those points aren’t actually good for anything outside of buying a brief pause before journalists turn back to ending their careers, too.
The impeachment trial isn’t about getting Trump. It’s about getting the entire Republican Party.
