After former President Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday, several Republican members of Congress who voted to convict him were censured by GOP committees in their home states.
But in one case, a Republican who voted to convict Trump faced a different, more close-knit kind of backlash from his own family members.
“We are thoroughly disgusted with you!!” Trump-supporting relatives of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) wrote in a two-page letter first published by the New York Times on Monday. “And, oh, by the way, we are calling for your removal from office.”
Kinzinger, a six-term GOP House member from Illinois, was one of ten GOP members in the House who partnered with Democrats to vote to impeach Trump on a charge of incitement of the riot that took place January 6 on Capitol Hill.
After Kinzinger’s vote, his home district GOP committee voted to censure him. He then received a handwritten letter from a cousin that was signed by several other relatives saying that his decision was a disappointment “to us and to God.”
Kinzinger’s cousin Karen Otto wrote the letter, telling the Times she hoped her cousin would be “shunned.”
“It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you,” the letter continued. “You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!”
Kinzinger responded to the letter in a Monday tweet, saying that political divisions in his family have become commonplace since Trump’s election.
Thank you, @GretchenCarlson I’m ok, more sad that someone would be willing to choose a man over family. And sad that it’s happening to so many. https://t.co/yx3XbsKjmm
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) February 16, 2021
“I’m ok, more sad that someone would be willing to choose a man over family,” Kinzinger tweeted. “And sad that it’s happening to so many.”
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