Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois called President Donald Trump’s behavior near the end of his term “erratic”, adding, “I think he is more focused on complaints than on ending strong.”
In an interview Monday on MSNBC Andrea Mitchell ReportsMitchell asked Kinzinger about the comments he made on Sunday on CNN calling Trump’s reasons for vetoing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) “absurd.”
Kinzinger publicly criticized the president for refusing to sign the last COVID-19 stimulus bill until the last minute. The lawmaker also called the efforts of Trump and Republicans to overturn the election “a hoax”.
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Kinzinger told Mitchell that Trump had made the final weeks of his presidency difficult for Republicans in Congress. “It has definitely been erratic in the end here,” he said of the president’s behavior. “I think he is more focused on complaints than on finishing strong.”
“The NDAA veto on this does not make sense, but hopefully, we will override that,” continued Kinzinger.
Last Wednesday, Trump vetoed the bill, in part because it did not include the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a law that protects social media companies from liability for user-shared posts.
Trump has long advocated repealing the law and said the failure to repeal it “facilitates the spread of foreign misinformation online.” However, free speech experts said the repeal of Section 230 would force social media companies to massively censor all online speech under the threat of lawsuits.
“Section 230, if you have a real problem with section 230, fine, but the defense bill is not the place to deal with it. This is done through the Energy and Trade Committee and others,” he said. Kinzinger to Mitchell. “We have 20 more days, we have to do what is right.”
Congress must override the president’s veto, since it had already passed the NDAA with a veto-proof majority.
Trump signed the latest COVID-19 stimulus project on Monday morning, after days of casting doubt on whether he would do it or not. In a video message last Tuesday, Trump described the stimulus package as a “disgrace” and pushed for checks for $ 2,000 for every American adult. Democrats later criticized the president, saying they also wanted checks for $ 2,000 for all adults, just to have the proposal negotiated by Republicans in Congress.
In the past, Kinzinger called Trump and Republican fundraising efforts to change the election results a “screaming coup”.
“It’s a scam,” he said. “It will disappoint people who believe that this election has been stolen, who think that this is an opportunity to change it.”
The Trump campaign has repeatedly solicited supporters for donations to Trump’s “Official Electoral Defense Fund” to create legal challenges that seek to nullify the vote in several key states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden.
However, the legal language in Trump’s requests specifies that any donations under $ 8,000 will benefit the Republican National Committee or “Save America”, a PAC (political action committee) from the Trump leadership, and not legal attempts to dispute the election, according to Reuters.
“Instead of being disappointed with the people who led them in this terrible coup,” said Kinzinger, “they are going to somehow, you know, try to convince these people that they were the RINOs (Nameless Republicans) in Congress, or something like that. , not the Constitution that prevents this from happening in the first place. “
Newsweek contacted Kinzinger for further comments.