Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) strongly condemned Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) for suggesting that President Donald Trump was responsible for Iran reportedly shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane with a missile on Tuesday.

"This is.... sick. Once again Iran is the victim," Kinzinger tweeted.

He was reacting to a comment from Speier to Wolf Blitzer on CNN.



"This is yet another example of collateral damage from the actions that have been taken in a provocative way by the president of the United States," Speier said.

Kinzinger later appeared himself on CNN to explain his condemnation of her comments.

"Blaming the President for the Iranian airliner shoot down, we are broken as a country if this is the level of our debate moving forward," he said. "And we have to move on from it, and be adults again."

Kinzinger went on to condemn the overheated rhetoric on both sides, including claims from some Republicans that Democrats were commiserating with terrorists when they criticized the timing of the US airstrike on Soleimani.

All 176 passengers traveling in the Ukrainian plane perished when it went down after it took off from Tehran in Iran.

Early reports from Iran attempted to blame the crash on instrument error, but U.S. officials on Thursday said that there was growing evidence that the plane was hit by a Russian-manufactured anti-aircraft missile fired by Iran.

Here are the full comments from Kinzinger: