Adam Kinzinger Slams Stephen A. Smith for Rant About FBI Presence on J6: ‘He Has No Clue What an FBI Informant Is’
CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger called out Stephen A. Smith for his explosive rant about the FBI’s presence at the January 6 Capitol riot.
Last week, the Justice Department inspector general’s office posted a report revealing that 26 FBI informants were in Washington, D.C. that day. Of those 26, 17 either entered the Capitol or a restricted area around the Capitol. Just three of them, however, were specifically tasked with traveling to the city. The rest were there of their own accord.
The report also emphasized that no undercover FBI agents were at the riot — a claim that has been pushed by the right as proof that the organization was behind the whole thing to make Donald Trump look bad.
In the wake of the report, Smith went off on Democrats for having the same “corrupt” and “untruthful” tendencies that they accused Republicans of having.
On Monday night’s episode of CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, Kinzinger accused Smith of pushing conspiracies and misunderstanding the report.
“I hope that next time Stephen Smith is doing his thing, whatever it is, he offers an apology for this because it’s clear by that that he has no clue what an FBI informant is,” Kinzinger said. “In his mind, he thinks they’re FBI agents or undercover FBI agents. Now listen, actually, this report states that they were asked to provide an undercover FBI agent, and the FBI said no because this was a First Amendment activity; so it’s an informant.
Look, the FBI has informants in terrorist organizations. They have informants basically in gangs, you know, whatever they are, and it’s somebody that gives the FBI information. They’re not in the direction of the FBI. They’re not under control. They don’t carry a badge. They don’t have law enforcement powers. They’re usually bad people that have an agreement with the FBI, either to get out of prison, to reduce a sentence. Sometimes they’re paid; and that’s what you have here.”
Kinzinger did acknowledge that the government should have come out and said informants were present instead of waiting years for the report to come out; but he still took issue with Smith’s rant.
“The problem is we have to have people that are telling the truth about what this is, which we’re doing,” Kinzinger continued, “and there are people that are out there that are trying to spin what the truth is into something that fits a narrative. So, yes, I can see how people can mistake an FBI informant for an FBI agent. That’s why it’s important that we tell people an informant is not an agent; and it’s why it’s important that people like Stephen Smith not go off on a rant like these are FBI agents when, in fact, they’re informants.”
Watch above via CNN
