Kinzinger Rewarded for Denouncing the GOP ‘Terrorist Caucus’

Former congressman Adam Kinzinger has a new book out for Halloween titled “Renegade.” This implies he’s a daring rebel against Republicans, instead of simply switching parties. In some dictionaries, “renegade” is defined as “a person who abandons a cause or organization, usually without right,” like a “mutineer.” That fits.

When asked by liberal interviewers, Kinzinger volunteers that he voted for Democrats in the midterms and will vote for Biden and Democrats in 2024. He says it’s a simple decision between democracy (Democrats) or authoritarianism (Republicans). That fits the Democrat narrative perfectly.

He’ll claim he’s still a Republican. Professionally, Kinzinger is now a “CNN Republican,” just as for his last two years in Congress, he was a “Pelosi Republican” on her personally picked panel on Jan. 6. She was his leader. He followed her orders. Just like those hearings, his book interviews are all prepackaged anti-Republican talking points.

ABC and NPR and other liberal media outlets were eager to interview him and promote his book. When you draw a softball interview with Clinton press secretary George Stephanopoulos, you look like a Democrat. When you’re celebrated on the Stephen Colbert hootenanny, it’s the same look.

Even at a time when Hamas terrorists can slaughter hundreds of innocent people and still cause “professional” journalists to refrain from using the T-word, Kinzinger knew he could call conservative Republicans “terrorists” and get rewarded for it.

In an interview on the National Public Radio show “Pants On Fire” — well, it’s called “All Things Considered,” but that’s a nightly lie — interviewer Scott Detrow asked Kinzinger if he was surprised when Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted.

“I think that writing was on the wall,” Kinzinger argued. “When you cut a deal with what, you know, I think Boehner aptly called the terrorist caucus and you start cutting deals that make it where they hold you hostage and then you come up against real deadlines like debt limit, like government shutdowns, I think it was inevitable.”

Detrow underlined the “hostage” talk even as there are actual American hostages in Gaza: “You’re talking about a minority of the caucus holding the rest of the caucus hostage, as you put it. I think that is the story of a lot of Republican officeholders in the Trump era.” No one fears “fact-checkers” will rule that “conservative members of Congress have not taken any actual hostages or committed any acts of terrorism.”

Perhaps NPR should “consider” that they’re a bad joke of a news network. They sound like taxpayer-funded CNN or MSNBC. They would never “consider” a book interview with Mark Levin, especially when it has a title like “The Democrat Party Hates America.” Instead, NPR is the network that has promoted civil unrest and “black rebellion” in books like “In Defense of Looting.”

Kinzinger also looked like a Democrat on CNN. He told Anderson Cooper about family members disowning him because “I’ve lost the trust of … men like Sean Hannity.” Anderson Cooper thinks that’s funny but can’t imagine a Democrat who would abandon their party and “lose the trust of men like Anderson Cooper.”

CNN never tires of presenting Trump as a dictator-in-waiting, and that’s why Kinzinger gets paid. “You see a legitimate slide to authoritarianism if Donald Trump is reelected?” Cooper asked. “I see, if he’s reelected, not a slide, a sprint,” replied the CNN Republican.

In the end, the entire book publicity tour is an appeal for Biden’s reelection. Choose Biden, or choose the end of America as we know it. Adam Kinzinger’s messaging checks all the boxes for our “objective” media organizations.

—

Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM