Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger didn’t mince words this week while describing newly minted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, saying it was merely a “fact” that his ex-boss is a “piece of shit.”
Kinzinger, who recently joined CNN after exiting Congress this month, talked this week about the chaotic drama surrounding McCarthy’s election as speaker—culminating in a near-fistfight after a weeklong stalemate with the far-right wing of the GOP caucus. McCarthy, meanwhile, seemingly secured his speakership by bribing MAGA members of his party, which holds a slim majority in the House after a disappointing midterm election.
Appearing on conservative pundit Charlie Sykes’ Bulwark podcast, Kinzinger spoke at length about “detoxing” from Congress and the current direction of his party under McCarthy. At one point, Sykes brought up disgraced Rep. George Santos (R-NY) and his broad history of fabulism and fabrication, noting that McCarthy has effectively brushed off the brand-new congressman’s many controversies despite intraparty calls for Santos to resign.
“And he says that Santos will get some committee assignments. Not the top ones—why would he, of course, because he’s a freshman,” Sykes said, prompting Kinzinger to exclaim “oh God,” before adding: “They’re not gonna do anything about him, are they?”
The former Illinois lawmaker immediately made his feelings clear about McCarthy.
“Kevin’s a piece of shit,” Kinzinger exclaimed. “And let’s just be honest about this, because he will say whatever he needs to say to stay in power. I’m not even saying that gratuitously to be mean to him. It’s just a fact.”
Kinzinger also took issue with McCarthy recently stripping several Democrats of committee assignments, which Republicans have justified as payback over Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) getting booted from committees during the last Congress.
The ex-congressman pointed out that unlike McCarthy’s unilateral decision, the House votes to kick Green and Gosar off their assignments over violently extreme rhetoric were bipartisan—and McCarthy himself previously removed ex-Rep. Steve King (R-IA) from committees for expressing sympathy for white nationalism.
In the end, Kinzinger said that McCarthy would continue to stand by Santos because the GOP’s House majority is so razor-thin that he needs every loyal member he can get.
“Kevin needs his vote,” he proclaimed. “If this was a 20-vote majority, he’d throw Santos under the bus, but it’s a five-vote [majority] so he needs him.”
During his final years in office, Kinzinger became one of the loudest anti-Trump voices in the GOP. Besides joining a handful of other House Republicans in voting to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, he was one of only two Republicans to join the select committee that investigated the Capitol riots. McCarthy, meanwhile, ignored a subpoena from the committee after refusing to cooperate in the congressional probe.
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