Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., on Friday blasted a movement that has gained traction since the death of George Floyd to defund police department, calling it "nonsensical."
In an interview on Newsmax TV's "Spicer & Co.," Kinzinger, who was recently deployed as part of the Air National Guard, said the calls are "pandering to a base. I don't know if that's even a political base."
"I mean, it's nonsensical," he told host Sean Spicer, "the idea that if we get rid of the police basically criminals will go away . . . and saying that police are the cause of all crime."
"We want folks to police better and police fairly," he said, remarking "it's always amazing to me how people can go after the policen until they have to call 911, and then they go after the police for not responding in time."
Kinzinger said the movement "is going to be a self-correcting disaster if they follow through as of now. It may just be silly politics at work here."
Kinzinger also called out The New York Times for its backtracking on the publication of an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
"That's a legitimate position from a U.S. senator dealing with legitimate issues of law and order," he said.
"And to say that that's not a legitimate opinion or you didn't fact check that opinion, this is just going to prove furthermore that . . . the hard academic left doesn't believe in freedom of thought and opinion anymore," he added. "It's actually a very rigid ideology that, if you don't fit into it, they don't accept you. It's not tolerance anymore now; it's just basically, almost Marxism."
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