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Granderson: You can’t be a Republican by today’s standards if you won’t go along with the ‘Big Lie’

File photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks during a hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on July 27, 2021 at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. Kinzinger recently announced he is not running for re-election in 2022.
File photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks during a hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on July 27, 2021 at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. Kinzinger recently announced he is not running for re-election in 2022. File photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks during a hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on July 27, 2021 at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. Kinzinger recently announced he is not running for re-election in 2022.

By LZ Granderson / The Los Angeles Times via Tribune News Service 4 min read

I first met Rep. Adam Kinzinger nearly 10 years ago at a time in which he was a rising star within the Republican Party. Not only was he in his early 30s and a natural on television, he went into the House with a good deal of gravitas, having served in the Air Force in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Over the years, we’ve discussed his views on social issues as well as his thoughts about President Obama’s military strategy. Sometimes I would agree with him, sometimes I would not. But regardless of whether we saw eye to eye on the topic, I always knew where he stood. That’s not to say Kinzinger didn’t play politics. You don’t get to serve six terms in Congress without your share of vague answers and long walks along the party line. But his core principles never changed – he is conservative on gun control, immigration and abortion.

He’s just no longer a Republican.

At least not by today’s standards.

Last week, he became the second Republican House member who voted to impeach President Trump to announce he was not seeking re election in 2022. He joins Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, a former college football and NFL star who also came into office with some cachet, only to see it evaporate as his party fell into Trumpism. In response to the Kinzinger news, Trump issued a statement that read in part: “2 down, 8 to go!”