GOP Rep Explains Why Republicans Go Limp On Donald Trump

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said his fellow congressional Republicans would rather “go limp” than publicly oppose Donald Trump for fear of losing their seats to an extremist lawmaker like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

“It’s really easy to convince yourself that you can’t make a difference speaking out loudly,” Kinzinger told Roll Call’s Heard on the Hill in an interview published Tuesday.

“The only thing that can happen is you lose, and you’ll be replaced by somebody like a Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he continued, referencing the Trump adoring, far-right, conspiracy theory-endorsing Georgia Republican . “And that’s how these people (in Congress) convince themselves, ‘Hey, the best thing I can do is go limp.’”

Kinzinger, one of the loudest critics of Trump in the GOP, admitted to wondering at times why he was one of only a handful of Republicans speaking out against the former president. He always thought the vote he’d sacrifice his political career for would be on something like Social Security reform, he said.

“But at the moment, I really truly utterly believe that our democracy is under siege,” Kinzinger continued. “I truly believe that nobody else is coming. We have this sense as Americans that somebody else will come and save the day, because we always have.”

“Nobody’s coming, right? It’s us. And I don’t like the job enough to sell out the future of this country to keep it. So, if it costs me my job, great. I’ll go make more money and have a way easier life.”