AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack
- Adam Kinzinger says Trump will tap a sycophant as attorney general if he wins a second term.
- Kinzinger said on The Bulwark podcast that Trump wants someone who will do his bidding at the DOJ.
- "I've heard a lot of people that just kinda scoff when I say, 'Take him seriously,'" Kinzinger said.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger last week said that former President Donald Trump will "interview 100 candidates" for attorney general and nominate the most subservient candidate to take on the role in a potential second term.
Kinzinger, a Republican who served in the House from 2011 to 2023 and recently released a new book, "Renegade," spoke on an episode of The Bulwark podcast, where he told listeners to take Trump's bid for a second term seriously.
The former congressman, a vocal Trump critic, warned that the former president and his top supporters were more cognizant of vulnerabilities within the electoral system after challenging now-President Joe Biden's 2020 win.
Trump not only sought to contest the results in key states like Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania but unsuccessfully prodded his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the 2020 results.
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"I've heard a lot of people that just kinda scoff when I say, 'Take him seriously,'" Kinzinger said of Trump. "If he does get through and he wins this time, he's going to interview 100 candidates for attorney general and only take the one that says, 'Mr. President, in essence, I don't care what the Constitution is. I'm going to do whatever you want as your servant at the Department of Justice.'"
"That person is going to get selected to be attorney general, and we're going to find a system that is stressed beyond what even the founding fathers imagined it can be stressed to," he added.
Trump clashed with both of his confirmed US attorneys general, needling onetime ally Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and criticizing William Barr for rejecting his debunked 2020 election claims.
Sessions, a former Alabama senator, served under Trump from February 2017 until he stepped down at the then-president's request in November 2018. Barr succeeded Sessions as attorney general in February 2019 before leaving the post in December 2020.