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Kinzinger bids IL fond farewell with final tweet, and the ‘don’t let the door hit you’ responses don’t stop

January 3, 2023 | | Print Article

Opening day of the 118th Congress Tuesday marked the official close of the previous legislative body and, with it, a farewell from now-former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) that, if he were being honest, probably was received as well as he could have expected.

Monday evening, the Illinois representative, who retired rather than face a fellow Republican congressman in a primary following Democratic gerrymandering in the state, offered one final tweet from his official legislative account. With the inclusion of a peace sign emoji, the one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump for a second time also offered some warm words to the self-described “Speaker Designate” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

“Thank you, IL-16. Good luck, Kevin. Kinzinger out,” the former lawmaker posted.

As proof to where his allegiances truly aligned, leftists came out of the woodworks to laud the RINO who had joined ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as one of two Republicans to man the partisan witch hunt against Trump that was the Jan. 6 committee.

Contrasting the bot-like behavior from progressives who maintained Kinzinger to be a patriot and a man of integrity who was “doing and saying what’s honest and true,” voters whose values aligned with that of the constituents he had originally been elected by to represent offered their own goodbyes to the six-term congressman.

Kinzinger had joined CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday for a farewell tour where he said, “I feel honored to have been at this moment in history and to have done the right thing. You know my kid’s going to be proud of it. That’s something that I take very seriously and, you know, I wouldn’t have done anything different.”

He also said, “I’m not going to miss the job. I’m glad I’m not going to be back. It gives me time to focus on broader things, bigger fights.”

What those bigger fights are went unspecified, but social media users had some predictions, or perhaps suggestions, on where the former congressman could look for his next gig.

One user made sure to join Kinzinger in thanking the people of Illinois’ congressional district 16 as had they shown support to the widely considered turncoat, he’d still be in office.

Of course, a proper sendoff for the, ahem, “Republican,” wouldn’t have been complete without a full-throated nod to the former legislator’s earned moniker of “Cry-Baby” Kinzinger who went on to tell CNN “I frankly fear for the future of this country because now every future president can say, hey, here is the bar. The bar is do everything you can to stay in power,” he suggested, holding fast to his belief in Trump’s wrongdoing.

And, because he should have stepped down when he announced his retirement in October 2021, here are some more goodbyes for good measure.

Kevin Haggerty
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