Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who served Illinois’ 11th Congressional District and later the 16th from 2011 to early this year, is one of the Republican Party’s most significant truth tellers. Kinzinger is now a political commentator. In his blistering farewell address to Congress in December, Kinzinger said: “Where Republicans once believed that limited government meant lower taxes and more autonomy, today, limited government means inciting violence against government officials.”
On Monday night, Kinzinger spoke in Chicago at a meeting organized by The Joyce Foundation. In a session moderated by a former Tribune reporter, White House official and Democratic strategist, David Axelrod, the former congressman spoke alongside Tim Heaphy, the chief counsel and lead investigator for the Jan. 6 House committee.
This was a left-leaning audience, receptive to sharp criticism of the Republican right and far friendlier to Kinzinger than many members of his own party. But something Kinzinger said at the Arts Club caught our attention after the conversation turned to recent school shootings.
