The family member of the Republican, Adam Kinzinger, excited him as a disappointment to us and God and an embarrassment to the family in a serious two-page letter hammering the congressman about his criticism of former President Donald Trump.
“Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!” the letter, which Kinzinger first discussed in an interview with Anthony Fisher of Insider and was fully shared with The New York Times, begins. “We were once proud of your achievements! Instead, you go against your Christian principles and join ‘the devil’s army’ (Democrats and the news media).”
Kinzinger, who has represented Illinois’s permanent Republican 16th congressional district since 2013, has made headlines as one of Trump’s most outspoken and powerful critics who began during Trump’s presidential campaign.
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Kinzinger was one of only ten House Republicans who voted to accuse Trump on charges of inciting the January 6 uprising, and one of 11 who voted to deprive right-wing representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee mandates in a vote on February 4th.
After saying that they believe Trump will be forgiven by God, the letter from Kinzinger’s family members reads: ‘It is the most embarrassing for us that our family is yours. You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name. ‘
Karen Otto, Kinzinger’s cousin, who spearheaded the letter signed by 11 other family members, told The Times she spent $ 7 sending the letter by certified mail to make sure that he sees it, and added that she wants to see Kinzinger ‘avoided’.
They sent the letter to Kinzinger after he asked that Trump be removed from office by the 25th Amendment over the Capitol uprising.
—Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) 15 February 2021
Kinzinger, in turn, believes his family members have been subjected to ‘brainwashing’ by their churches.
“I have nothing against them,” he told The Times, “but I have no desire or feeling that I should succeed. It’s 100 percent of them to reach out and recover, and honestly, I do not care if they do or not. ‘
With Trump out of office, Kinzinger told Insider and The Times that his goal is to heal the Republican Party, including through a new PAC that supports anti-Trump Republicans.
“The party is sick at the moment,” Kinzinger told The Times he plans to “fight like hell to save it first” before considering separating from the GOP.
But as The Times noted, Kinzinger could see himself pulling out of his district in the upcoming post-2020 redistribution by the Democratic-controlled state government of Illinois. Illinois is one of several states in the Midwest that are expected to lose a congressional district in 2020.