David Pakman sits down with former GOP Congressman—and Air Force vet—Adam Kinzinger to talk about his new documentary, The Last Republican, and the party he says morphed from a “weirdo table” faction into the mainstream under Trump. Kinzinger recounts the post-2020 dynamic: widespread private agreement that the fraud claims were nonsense, public silence driven by fear of the MAGA base, and Kevin McCarthy’s Mar-a-Lago photo op that snapped the party back to Trump. He explains why he joined the January 6th committee despite becoming persona non grata, framing democratic trust in vote counting as the non-negotiable threat that must come before every other policy disagreement. He also urges Democrats to welcome sincere ex-MAGA defections rather than shun them.
The conversation widens to the far right’s growing tolerance for Groyper-style extremism, the online pull on young men, and the need for credible models of healthy masculinity. Looking to 2028, Kinzinger expects a Republican knife fight once Trump is a clear lame duck, predicts a nominee with Trumpist instincts rather than Trump’s unique shamelessness, and argues Democrats should run a broad, competitive primary to strengthen the eventual winner. He says he won’t vote Republican “for the foreseeable future” until the party purges its anti-democratic rot, hints he could return to elected office if it truly matters, and closes with a nod to the film and his Substack.
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