George W. Bush Meets With Illinois Congressman Looking To Unite Anti-Trump Republicans

Dallas TX

30 April, 2021

11:19 AM

Description

CBS Dallas/Fort Worth April 30, 2021 Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger headed south to Texas this week looking for allies. The lawmaker was on a mission to find Republicans who, like him, see former President Donald Trump as a scourge on their party. Kinzinger met privately with one sympathetic Republican, former President George W. Bush, on his first day in the state. And on the second, he had lunch with Michael Wood, the only openly anti-Trump Republican competing on Saturday in a crowded special election for a seat in Congress. Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force pilot who flew missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, is positioning himself as a leading antagonist to Trump in a party that is largely refusing to move on from the former president. The congressman's nascent political organization, Country First, has endorsed every House Republican who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And as Kinzinger eyes a potential run for higher office himself, he came to Texas to test how many other Republicans share his outlook. CBS Local Digital Media personalizes the global reach of CBS-owned and operated television and radio stations with a local perspective.