Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) says he does not want a preemptive pardon from President Biden to shield him from possible retaliation by President-elect Trump over his participation on the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
“I understand the theory behind it, because Donald Trump has clearly said he’s going to go after everybody, and it’s not going to be for the Jan. 6 investigation. What they’ll do is they’ll weaponize other investigations,” Kinzinger said during an appearance on CNN Monday.
Kinzinger argued that allies of Trump will target critics and file lawsuits, forcing defendents to spend money on legal fees.
“This happened to Brad Raffensperger in Georgia, as he was forced to defend himself. But the second you take a pardon and it looks like you’re guilty of something—I’m guilty of nothing besides bringing the truth to the American people, and in the process, embarrassing Donald Trump, because for 187 minutes, he sat there and did absolutely nothing and showed how weak and scared he truly was,” Kinzinger told CNN host Anderson Cooper. “So no, I don’t want it.”
Kinzinger, a vocal Trump critic, was one of two House GOP members, alongside former Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), to sit on the House panel that probed the 2021 Capitol riot. Both have since endured criticism from Trump and his allies, and the pair also endorsed Vice President Harris over Trump in the November election.
Trump said during an interview last month he would not direct his administration appointees to go after his political opponents, but he mentioned that some of the Jan. 6 panel’s members “should go to jail.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who also served on the committee that investigated the attack, offered a similar response when asked Monday about receiving a preemptive pardon.
“It would be the wrong precedent to set. I don’t want to see each president hereafter on their way out the door giving out a broad category of pardons,” Schiff said on CNN.
Kinzinger, who has been critical of the modern Republican Party, predicted that the emphasis of the potential probes against the members of the select committee will be to deprive them of money with lengthy legal proceeding rather than seeking a conviction.
The former Illinois lawmaker said if that’s how the process would play out, “I will use that as an opportunity to show the American people what the country should not be and ever be again. And if that’s a process to save, you know, democracy, then I’m happy to fight that fight.”
