Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Wednesday that the primary election defeat of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) was “good for the country.” (Watch the video below.)
“It’s good for the country, it’s good for the party, it’s good for the 11th District of North Carolina,” Kinzinger told CNN’s John Berman.
Cawthorn’s loss to Chuck Edwards in Tuesday’s Republican primary will end his turbulent one-term stint on Capitol Hill.
A string of embarrassments dogged Cawthorn ahead of the election. He accused fellow Republican pols hosting cocaine-fueled orgies, then was caught in several compromising leaks.
Photos surfaced of him in women’s lingerie, as did video of a male staffer grabbing Cawthorn’s crotch. And footage was shared of Cawthorn “basically pretending to hump his friend’s face,” as talk show host Trevor Noah described it. He was caught twice trying to carry loaded guns through airport security and was ticketed for driving without a license.
Kinzinger accused Cawthorn of putting celebrity before job performance.
Washington “has become kind of a growing ground for people that are just more interested in fame than governing, that are more interested in becoming famous than in actually doing the really serious work at a time when we’ve got a lot of challenges here at home and a lot of challenges overseas,” said Kinzinger, who is among the very few congressional Republicans who have spoken out against Donald Trump.
Kinzinger hasn’t been shy in criticizing another controversial GOP House member, Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.), and serves on the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.
The traditional role of a conservative, he told CNN, is “to spend a little less money and empower people. It doesn’t mean you deny elections.”
Kinzinger is not seeking reelection.
