‘Insane!’ Adam Kinzinger Spars With Scott Jennings On Comparing January 6th Riot to Past Vote Count Objections

CNN conservative contributors Scott Jennings and ex-Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) sparred on Monday over comparing the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021 to past instances of members of Congress objecting to certifying election results.

Jennings, a pro-Trump pundit on the network, made the comparison when asked how he believes January 6th will be remembered by history.

“Yeah, I, I think it’ll be remembered, but I don’t think it’s going to be remembered singularly. I think it’s going to be remembered in the context of the last eight years, four years of Trump, four years of Biden. I mean, the fact is it happened. It was a terrible day. Violence, political violence should never be condoned,” Jennings began, adding:

And then we lived through four years of Biden’s presidency and the American people went scrambling back to Donald Trump. They chose to analyze two presidencies, which included one day and a whole bunch of other policy decisions. And they went back to Trump.

The other thing about this day and about this election that I think is noteworthy and actually positive is this. It’s not been since 1988 that Democrats have not challenged a Republican win on the floor of the House when trying to count the votes. I’ve never had an election in my adult professional career in which both sides basically accepted it without too much grumbling, obviously. In four, Democrats didn’t accept Bush. There were Republicans who didn’t accept Obama. We know Democrats still think Russia stole the election in 16. We know what happened in 2020.

This time around, it seems to me that most people have basically accepted the results of the election. Also, the Electoral Reform Count Act passed in 2022, clarifying that the vice president has only, has ministerial duties. So that’s going to go off without a hitch today. It feels like maybe we’ve gotten off the slippery slope of one side or the other not accepting the outcome of an election. So in its totality over the last quarter century, I tend to think that’s a good thing.

Kinzinger replied, “Well, I was just going to say, you know, look, I get it and I agree that in the long run, I think that the days of, you know, January 6th fights are probably going to be over. We did a great thing with the Electoral Count Act reform, but we have to be very careful. We can’t put Democrats and I was against them doing it when they did it, obviously against Democrats opposing the election. We can’t put that on the same level. What happened on January 6th.”

“It’s one thing for a few people to say we’re going to vote against certification of this election once it would have hit critical mass in the Democrats, I’m pretty sure if it were to hit critical mass, the leadership would have come out and said, no, we can’t do this,” he continued, adding:

Instead, Republican leadership like Kevin McCarthy shocked us all on January 1st on a phone call when he said he as well, is going to to object to the certification of this election. And when he did that, that’s when I predicted that day there’ll be violence on the 6th because you’re convincing half of the country an election was stolen. And by the way, Scott, if I believed an election was stolen, I would have been on the steps of the Capitol that day because we’re a country that believes we should have a voice heard. And that’s the danger of terrible leadership and convincing people of lies.

Later in the broadcast, Kinzinger again took aim at Jennings comparing January 6th to past instances of House members objecting to certifying certain states’ electoral votes.

“Quick point. Both parties have always accepted the presidential election until one — four years ago,” Kinzinger said.

“False,” interjected Jennings.

“Scott, members of some of the Democratic Party. Yes, I agree with that. But saying the party– I’ve never seen the speaker or the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives object to a presidential election, there is a massive difference. And don’t try to put these on the same thing. I agree they shouldn’t have done it. But to say it’s the same as what happened January 6th is insane,” Kinzinger hit back as the two spoke over each other.

“But you admit they objected,” added Jennings.

Watch the clip above via CNN.