Adam Kinzinger accuses Mike Gallagher of backing off Trump impeachment out of re-election concerns

WASHINGTON – A former Republican congressman and member of the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol accused Rep. Mike Gallagher over the weekend of declining to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump after the insurrection out of concern for his own re-election chances.

Gallagher's office, in response, called the comments "utter nonsense."

"Anybody that I talked to that was on the line on impeaching that mentioned their reelection as a concern, they all ended up voting against it," former Illinois Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger said when talking about Jan. 6 during a discussion in Madison on Saturday. "What the hell do you need this job so bad for? I don’t get it. Mike Gallagher was one of those."

Kinzinger made his remarks during a Cap Times Idea Fest panel discussion that focused largely on Kinzinger's career, outspoken opposition to Trump and the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot. He singled out Gallagher after he was asked his thoughts on how some of his former Republican colleagues treated Trump after initially speaking out against him.

“I still don’t believe it. I mean, I believe it, but I still don’t process it," Kinzinger said, later adding of Gallagher: "Mike Gallagher was, I think, an iota away from voting to impeach. And then a month later, he’s kind of on the front lines against Liz Cheney. How do you make a pivot that quickly?"

"Now look, I still like Mike," Kinzinger said. "I appreciate what he’s doing on this China task force — you know, Republicans and Democrats working together. But when democracy was on the line, what did you guys do? What did you do? Why is it like this?"

Gallagher after the 2020 election was critical of Trump's attempts to overturn his loss. Before Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building, Gallagher published an op-ed pushing back on lawmakers who planned to object to the certification of the election. During the insurrection, he tweeted a video message from his office urging Trump to call off his supporters, referring to the riot "banana republic crap."

But Gallagher just days later voted against impeaching Trump on charges of inciting violence against the U.S. government and has remained largely silent on the former president and his efforts to overturn the election in the years since.

In explaining his vote against impeachment, Gallagher at the time said Trump "bears responsibility for the tragic events" of Jan. 6 but claimed impeaching Trump was "not wise" and referred to the impeachment efforts as "rushed" and "partisan."

"It will not advance the cause of justice. It will not restore our constitutional order. If anything, it will simply feed a cycle of enmity and polarization, which is already spiraling further out of control, chilling speech and silencing debate," Gallagher wrote after the vote.

“A second partisan impeachment will create more and not less cynicism among the American people," he added. "Done hastily, it will sow confusion and distrust. Delayed until summer, it will collapse. A second failed impeachment will dramatically empower, not diminish, President Trump.”

On Monday, a spokesperson for Gallagher called Kinzinger's comments "complete and utter nonsense."

"If re-election were a factor in his decisions, he would not have spoken out so forcefully against the objection. The congressman evaluated the arguments for a rushed impeachment and concluded they were weak," the spokesperson said in an email to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. (Trump is now facing four criminal charges in connection to his effort to stay in power.)

Kinzinger, who along with Cheney was one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, retired from Congress last year and later became a political commentator for CNN.

He warned the crowd in Madison that people fear "losing their tribe" — both Kinzinger and Cheney were shunned by Republicans for their criticisms of Trump — and mentioned Gallagher once more when listing the reasons his colleagues gave for not voting to impeach Trump. Some colleagues, he said, attempted to find technicalities in the charges while others noted Trump would not be president anymore by the time impeachment proceedings concluded.

Gallagher's office on Monday also pointed to an interview with Firing Line's Margaret Hoover in the days after the insurrection in which Gallagher called the arguments of some of his Republican colleagues objecting to the election results — including the argument that they'd face a primary challenger — "cynical."

"I'm sure I'll have 1,000 primary challenges for what I said," Gallagher said at the time. "But how long are we prepared to tell the American people that we didn't actually lose the 2020 election?"

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Adam Kinzinger says Mike Gallagher backed off Trump impeachment