Republican congressman and Air Force veteran Adam Kinzinger slammed President Trump for suggesting that his impeachment could lead to a “Civil War.”
“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted on Sunday, quoting Robert Jeffress, an evangelical pastor and loyal Trump supporter who appeared on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
The suggestion of a civil war was met with widespread backlash — even from Trump’s own party, including Kinzinger, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war,” the Illinois lawmaker tweeted. “I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.”
I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant. https://t.co/a5Bae7bP7g
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) September 30, 2019
Jeffress, who said in the Fox interview that he has “never seen them more angry” when talking about evangelicals, has elicited controversy in the past for his sentiments toward the LGBT community, Mormons and Muslims, who he claimed practice a religion that “promotes pedophilia.”
He was appointed as one of Trump’s evangelical advisers and gained national attention when he claimed that “God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un,” invoking the Bible’s book of Romans to do so.
Trump’s tweet was immediately met with backlash, and Harvard Law professor John Coates argued that the social media post itself is an “independent basis” for lawmakers to remove him from the White House.
“This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment – a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power,” Coates wrote on Twitter on Monday.
The House of Representatives officially launched an impeachment inquiry last week amid reports that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The communication between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was first revealed in a whistleblower complaint to the inspector general of the intelligence community.
The complaint detailed concerns that Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”
The whistleblower also implicated Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr in the Ukraine debacle. Giuliani was described as a “central figure” in the situation.
Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the inquiry, it’s been reported by several news outlets that at least 218 lawmakers in the House (the exact number of votes needed to impeach Trump in the chamber) support moving forward with impeachment.
At least 217 Democrats and independent Representative Justin Amash have favored the inquiry.