Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on Wednesday cheered news of Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-NC) primary defeat the night before, calling the freshman GOP congressman’s loss something “good for the country.”
“Well, it’s good,” Kinzinger said during an interview on CNN. “I mean it’s good for the country, it’s good for the party, it’s good for the 11th District of North Carolina.”
Kinzinger added that he believes Washington, D.C. has become 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 very serious work at a time when we’ve got a lot of challenges here at home and a lot of challenges overseas,” Kinzinger said.
Kinzinger, a vehement critic of former President Trump who serves on the Jan. 6 Select Committee, joins a handful of other congressional Republicans who jumped in to praise Cawthorn’s primary loss.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who endorsed Cawthorn’s rival GOP state Sen. Chuck Edwards (R) in the primary race, reiterated his vocal criticism of the freshman congressman after his defeat. A super PAC aligned with Tillis spent more than $1 million on TV ads to campaign against Cawthorn.
Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) also panned Cawthorn as he appeared to fall behind in the primary on Tuesday night.
“I don’t think he was ready for Congress,” Rice said, according to CNN.
