GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger Refuses To Support Trump: "I'm American Before Republican"

Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer why he will not be supporting GOP nominee for president Donald Trump.





REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): My district voted for Donald Trump. I have a lot of great people that support me that support Donald Trump, that are probably a little upset with what I'm doing. I say this, look, great people support him. People each have their own reasons, their own decision to decide who they want to vote for.



For me though, I came into politics as an extension of my service in the military and service to my country. I'm a Republican because I believe that through Republicanism is the best way to defend the United States of America, but I'm an American before I'm a Republican. When I see a frontrunner, or actually a nominee now, that throws all these Republican principals on their head, that a president who has almost unchecked power in foreign policy, who talks about how great Vladimir Putin is, how he doesn't even know that the Russians are in Ukraine, makes fun of the disabled, and the whole litany of things from the Gold Star family on. For me personally, and I'm not trying to say to other people that you can't support Donald Trump, I'm saying for me personally, how can I support that? Because he has crossed so many red lines that a Commander in Chief, or a candidate for Commander in Chief should never cross. It's a tough position for me to be in...



We don't have to pick both of them. We don't have to pick among the two of them. There's a bunch of people on the ballot. There's a write-in option. I don't agree with Hillary Clinton on a lot of things, most things, probably almost all things.But, Donald Trump, you know? I don't know what he stands for on foreign policy. Look at, for instance, even yesterday doubling down on saying how great it would be to have a fantastic relationship with Putin. Our party, you know, me and other people in the party have said for the last six months how awful it was that Hillary Clinton did this reset with the Russians, and how we were taken advantage of.Now, you have Vladimir Putin basically pulling out the old KGB playbook on how to manipulate Donald Trump, and it appears he's fallen right into it.