Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R–Ill) urged the leaders of his party to call out the “garbage politicians” and “clowns” in the Republican Party who play on vaccine fears for their political gain.
“I call on Leader McCarthy, I call on every leader in the Republican Party to stand up, say, get vaccinated, and to call out these garbage politicians, these absolute clown politicians playing on your vaccine fears for their own selfish gain,” Kinzinger said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union‘ on Sunday.
Last week, President Joe Biden announced his administration would launch a multi-faceted effort to bolster vaccination rates at the local level. This after the administration failed to reach the goal of 70% of Americans receiving at least one shot by July 4 . Such efforts would include a door-to-door vaccination effort.
Since the announcement, Republicans have distorted the message, claiming that federal agents would soon be knocking on doors or mandating a vaccine.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene compared the community volunteers going door-to-door to Nazi Brown shirts. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert called them “needle Nazis” and Sen. Ted Cruz said it sounded like Soviet Russia.
Kinzinger called this reaction “insanity.” He admitted that the Biden administration could have explained the plan better but, “at no point was anybody saying they’re going to break down your door and jam a vaccine in your arm, despite your protest.”
“This is outrage politics that is being played by my party, and it’s going to get Americans killed. Our party has been hijacked. My party has been hijacked,” he said. “It is on its way to the ground.”
“If you are a Republican voter, do not listen to people like Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he added. “The vaccine is safe, COVID is real, get vaccinated. Because if you are going to listen to the outrage, by the way in March, she [Greene] was bragging about Donald Trump creating the vaccine and now she’s saying basically that the vaccine is going to kill you.”
