Harry Hamburg/AP
- Rep. Adam Kinzinger told CNN he does not think the GOP should win the House if it pushes "division" and "lies."
- Kinzinger said he wanted to see "actual Republican values" in a GOP majority.
- But he said the GOP should not have a majority unless it "fights for real conservative values."
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger told CNN this weekend that he doesn't think the Republican Party should win a majority unless it "actually tells (the) truth and fights for real conservative values."
Kinzinger told CNN's Dana Bash that as a Republican, he still wanted to see "actual Republican values" and in the majority.
"All I can say right now is my party has to embrace truth. We have to have a full reckoning of what happened on January 6 and we have to turn away from conspiracy," Kinzinger said during his appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" on September 5. "I think if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the Republican Party should not have the majority."
Kinzinger, who has a seat on the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot, is facing opposition from within the GOP and is in a fairly precarious political position now because of his role in the investigation.
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs and the House Freedom Caucus have called on minority leader Kevin McCarthy to remove both Kinzinger and fellow House select committee member, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, from the House Republican Conference. Cheney and Kinzinger were the two Republicans who were nominated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to sit on the panel investigating the events of January 6.
Kinzinger accused his GOP colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus who are pushing for his and Cheney's removal of being supportive of "bloodshed" and "flirting around with white nationalism."
"The question is - what is our party going to be? Are we going to be the party of opportunity and hope, or the party of anger and division, where truth has no place in it?" Kinzinger said.
"If Andy Biggs has his way, we will be the party where truth-tellers and people that want to stand up for the Constitution, like Liz Cheney and myself, get kicked out of the party because there's no room for truth. So, I would encourage the rest of my colleagues in the Republican Party to not just passively resist that move, but to do it openly and honestly," Kinzinger told CNN.
He added that he is "not worried" about his future in the party, but added that the GOP "desperately needs some people to stand up and tell the truth."
In July, Kinzinger, who made a name for himself as an anti-Trump Republican, called the GOP's demands for him to be punished for serving on the House Select Committee "petty."
The Illinois lawmaker was seen tearing up at the Committee's first hearing on the Capitol riot on July 27 after hearing officers' testimonies about the racism and physical harm they were subjected to by rioters who unleashed violence upon them.
More than 630 people have been arrested in connection with the riots, an Insider database shows. Their charges range from assaulting members of law enforcement to disorderly conduct in a restricted building. More than 1,000 assaults were committed against police officers on January 6, per Axios.
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