6 days Ago By BILL FLICK For The Pantagraph
Their guest? Adam Kinzinger. Yes, that Adam Kinzinger . Normal West grad.
Illinois State University alum. Youngest-ever McLean County Board member some 20-plus years ago . And now? He’s about to also star in a January-release documentary movie to theaters, "The Last Republican" — the tale of a "lifelong conservative" whose moral objections to Donald Trump altered a career and reshaped his life.
He’s the Republican who unabashedly spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August ; now also a "senior political commentator" on CNN; the same guy getting texts these days over breakfast with wife, Sofia, and 3-year-old son, Christian Adam, that read, "Anderson (Cooper) wonders if you’re available tonight to talk?" Kinzinger is a best-selling author ("Renegade") , a regular these days on Colbert, Kimmel and Bill Maher, a 46-year-old "Top Gun" pilot and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who still flies into Bloomington-Normal once or twice a month from his home in Texas, to stay in touch with pals and his folks, Betty Jo and Rus. And what else? We caught up with Adam, 46, to ask a few more questions, not particularly about his political stances (they’re pretty well known by now), but instead about just being Adam Kinzinger himself, in today’s buzzsaw era of media mania. "It’s all pretty surreal, and I say that in a humble way.
I grew up in Bloomington-Normal watching (David) Letterman in that (Ed Sullivan) theater. And now it’s where Colbert does his show. And somehow, it’s me, and I’m somehow there.
"You come from the Green Room, they guide you from behind the stage, you hear your name and then, all of the sudden, I’m where I watched for the first 40 years of my life. Cool but humbling." A typical Adam Kinzinger day? "Begins usually whenever my kid wakes.
Usually 7, 7:30. I work from home mostly — travel less now than when I was in Congress. Some days it’s CNN in NYC; others, I’m home.
"I’ll be doing my day, to look up at some point to see my kid pressing his face against the office door of our home to see what I’m doing ...
a nice reminder of what really matters. It’s a fun way to live." Has not liking Mr.
Trump become a career break? "A tough one to answer. Because people know me now because of my (stances), yes, in a way, you might call it a break. But because of that, it’s also sad.
As career boosts go, this certainly is not the path I would have authored." On brushing elbows with all the celebs: "Sure, it’s fun. In time you also realize they’re just regular people.
On 'Real Time' (with Bill Maher), another guest a day I was on was (actor/comedian) Martin Short, that day dressed as his fictional character, Jiminy Glick. Man, when he took that costume off, was he ever sweating ..
.!" What was it like, speaking at a national political convention? "At the convention, everything is choreographed, to the exact second. It’s chaos backstage as they quickly direct everyone into position.
I was standing there with (actresses) Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington when they signaled it was my time. "I NEVER get nervous before I speak, but at that moment, I suddenly thought, ‘Holy s—t! What am I doing here?’ I was really nervous. But then I stepped out up to the podium and it melted away.
" What’s an especially good thing about being Adam Kinzinger today? "It’s a life where you realize some don’t like you and others do. I’ve learned to wear a (camouflaging) hat in public. But I’ll tell you this .
.. when you’re standing somewhere, like an airport, and some total stranger walks up to you to say, ‘Hey, we love your work,’ it feels really good.
" You ever thought about moving back to B-N? "Oh yeah. Every time I come back to Bloomington, it feels great. It’s so fun to go to a Lucca or Avanti’s.
Before I got into politics, I think my dream job would have been flying corporate planes for State Farm." About that new movie, "The Last Republican"? "Steve Pink ("Hot Tub Time Machine," "Grosse Pointe Blank") directed it. It’s more about the human toll than politics.
I’m glad we did it." What about your political future? "I think there’s a desire for a platform that inspires people, and for someone to stand up and truly show how frickin’ awesome it is to be Americans. I’d love to be in a position to make a bigger difference .
.." So does that mean .
.. you’d consider .
.. running for president, as of the United States, in 2028? "Yes, I’d consider a run for the big job in 2028," says Adam Kinzinger.
Still to be decided in these odd political times: if he’d run as a Republican or now a Democrat? "Yeah, it’s weird," he says. A potential president setting a precedent? Stay tuned! Bill Flick is at [email protected] .
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