Republican Kinzinger Warns Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories Are 'Endemic' in GOP

GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger warned on Thursday that conspiracy theories and downplaying the events on January 6 last year have become "endemic" within the Republican Party.

Just over 13 months ago, hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to disrupt the formal certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Despite what happened that day, many GOP lawmakers and other Republicans have downplayed the assault on the federal building, as has Trump.

Kinzinger has been strongly critical of Trump and serves on the House select committee investigating the January 6 violence. Representative Cheney of Wyoming, the only other Republican serving on the panel, and Kinzinger were censured by the Republican National Committee (RNC) last Friday for their criticism of Trump and their involvement with the January 6 commission.

During a Thursday interview with The View, Kinzinger addressed that censure—which described January 6 as "legitimate political discourse."

"This is a huge endemic within the party, is this idea that we can't stand up and just tell people the truth," the Illinois Republican cautioned. "We can't stand up and say this was a Trump-inspired insurrection. So you have these conspiracies it was FBI, it was Antifa—all lies."

He asserted that "the truth is, this was a Trump-inspired insurrection." Kinzinger also said it makes him "sad" when people "bury their heads and don't address it."

Later in the interview, Kinzinger lamented that the Republican Party has been transformed under Trump's leadership.

"A once great party, party that stood for something—stood for principles—whether you agree with those principles or not, is now a party that stands for loyalty to one man," he said. "That was clear in the RNC censure."

The censure drew backlash from some prominent Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back against it in Tuesday remarks to reporters. He said the RNC should not be "singling out members of our party who may have different views of the majority."

"We saw it happen. It [January 6] was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That's what it was," McConnell said.

Michael Steele, the former chair of the RNC, blasted the censure effort last week.

"As the former chairman of the Republican party, I cannot express enough my condemnation of this pathetic act of cowardice taken by its current leadership to censure ⁦@Liz_Cheney⁩ and ⁦@RepKinzinger⁩. You are wrong. I stand with Liz and Adam," Steele tweeted.

Newsweek reached out to the RNC for comment but did not immediately receive a response.