Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger on Tuesday sharply criticized comments by members of their own party, former President Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson as supportive of Russia in a time of international crisis.
On Tuesday, Trump called Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s recognition of Ukraine’s breakaway regions as a pretext to sending in troops a “genius” move. “I said, ‘How smart is that?’ He’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper,” Trump in an interview on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.” When president, Trump frequently praised Putin.
In a tweet Tuesday night, Cheney, who was nearly ousted from the Republican Party for her opposition to Trump, said the former president’s comment “aids our enemies.”
“Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America,” she said.
Separately, Kinzinger decried a tweet posted by the House Republicans’ official account that accused President Joe Biden of “weakness on the world stage.”
“Let me, with all my might, condemn this damn awful tweet during this crisis. You can criticize policy but this is insane and feeds into Putins narrative,” he said.
Kinzinger also called Trump “a sick man… who loves him some Putin” and called pro-Putin comments by Fox News host Tucker Carlson “beyond dangerous.”
Earlier this month, Kinzinger and Cheney were each censured by Republican Party officials — a punishment scaled down from expulsion from the party — for taking part in the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters. Kinzinger is not running for re-election, while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is backing Cheney’s rival in the Wyoming Republican primary.
At the time of his censure, Kinzinger called the move “a defining moment” for the GOP, and one that reflected weakness.