America First Means No President Trump, says Illinois Republican Congressman

Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger has thought about Donald Trump a lot this year. Much more, probably, than he ever expected to.

"God forbid" Trump becomes the Republican nominee, Kinzinger said way back in February.

But God did not forbid.

And last week, after six months of watching, listening and soul-searching, the 38-year-old Channahon Republican announced he would neither support nor vote for Trump.

This journey was fraught with shock and disappointment.

In March, Kinzinger — who backed Jeb Bush from day one — called Trump a "train wreck."

Trump "makes me sick really,” said Kinzinger, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who flew surveillance missions in two deployments to the Middle East before his election to Congress, blasting Trump's talk of how he would go after the family members of ISIS terrorists.

And when Bush was gone, the congressman from Illinois' 16th District turned his attention to Marco Rubio, saying Rubio could lead the Republicans into a "second Reagan Revolution."

He called Trump "a fraud ... and devastating to the future of our country."

Then Rubio was gone.

Kinzinger struggled mightily to come to terms with Trump as the frontrunner.

Before the summer was over, Ted Cruz was gone. And John Kasich, too.

For a brief period, Kinzinger even entertained the idea of his own independent bid for the presidency as an alternative to Trump, according to CNN:

Adam Kinzinger, 38 and in his third House term, would have considered mounting an independent bid had the barriers to an independent run not been so daunting. His pondering of the matter reflects ongoing efforts by GOP forces opposed to Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic standard-bearer. ...

Kinzinger, previously a prominent surrogate for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would have undertaken a third party run "literally to save the union," according to a source familiar with his thinking, because both Clinton and Trump scare him.

As Republicans gathered in Cleveland for the national convention in July, with every alternative fallen, Kinzinger tried very hard to wrap his mind around not only the idea of Trump as his party's nominee, but Trump as the president of the United States.

"It's pretty obvious at some point I'm going to have to support the Republican nominee," Kinzinger said in a WGN Radio interview on the eve of Trump's acceptance speech. "My hope and goal has always been to get to 'yes.'"

Kinzinger even tried to rally Illinois GOP delegates to unite for the good of the party — even as doubt was gnawing at his own conscience.

“Some of you know I was (concerned about) our current frontrunner, but we have to stand together as a party united. We have to win the White House. We have to hold the Supreme Court. We have to remember our mission. We have to hold the House of Representatives,” he told the delegates.

Kinzinger desperately wanted to hear something at the convention from Trump to allay his fears about the blustery billionaire's ability lead the nation and make sound foreign-policy decisions.

"I want to get there, I want to get to yes," he told WTTW's Chicago Tonight. "I hope this is the week that does it, that unifies the party."

What Kinzinger heard, however, turned him the other way resolutely.

And what transpired in the days thereafter — as Trump feuded with the parents of an Army captain who lost his life in the Iraq War — led Kinzinger to put country over party.

Last week, the congressman gave up trying to convince himself he could get behind the dys-Trumpian vision Trump clamors about on the campaign trail.

"I'm an American before I'm a Republican," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. "I'm saying for me personally, how can I support that? Because he's crossed so many red lines that a commander in chief or a candidate for commander in chief should never cross."

Kinzinger said some of what Trump has said and done — from praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and openly advocating U.S. troops commit war crimes by killing the families of ISIS combatants to repeatedly insulting a Gold Star family — is simply "unforgivable."

Trump's “unbelievable spat with the family of a fallen soldier, a fallen soldier who swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" was beyond the pale, Kinzinger told CNN.

Kinzinger, who won't be voting for Hillary Clinton, either, said he would do his best to stop Trump from hurting Republicans running for U.S. House and Senate seats. At the same time Kinzinger was announcing his rejection of his party's nominee, Trump was openly snubbing House Speaker Paul Ryan and U.S. Sen. John McCain.

A few weeks ago, Trump called U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, "a loser."

"I won't be silent," Kinzinger said. "He can tweet all he wants, you know, but I have to do this for my country and my party."

Trump fancies himself a tough guy. If Trump tries to pull his bully antics on Kinzinger, he'll find the Illinois congressman isn't the sort who tucks tail and runs.

Ten years ago, on a Milwaukee street, Kinzinger saw a knife-wielding man slash a woman's throat. Kinzinger stopped the attack, wrestled her assailant to the ground, took the knife away, and saved her life.

"It was, to me, kind of a done deal that I was going to get stabbed," he said later, "but I knew (seeing this woman die) wasn't something I could wake up to."

Neither could Kinzinger wake up to a morning in America with Donald Trump as president.