Prairie State Wire

State Senator Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove) has opposed Congressman Adam Kinzinger's (R-IL) call to remove President Donald Trump from office through the 25th Amendment. 

Oberweis' response came after Kinzinger became the first GOP lawmaker to publicly speak out against the president following last week's violent assault on the U.S. Capitol while lawmakers were in session working to certify results of the electoral college vote. 

"There are less than two weeks to go," Oberweis told Prairie State Wire. "We should let the clock run out."

The morning after Trump supporters forced their way into the Capitol and pillaged it, Kinzinger took to Twitter for his call for Congress to act.  Krinzinger, a veteran, blamed the president for their destructive behavior.

"The president caused this. The president is unfit and the president is unwell," Kinzinger said in a video message posted to his Twitter account.  "And the president now must relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily."

Kinzinger claimed Trump failed to protect the Americans in Congress, "inflamed passions" which escalated to chaos, and feebly condemned the violence. His colleagues on the other side of the aisle began calling for Trump's removal the same day the violence ensued. The Hill reported Democrats on the Judiciary Committee even sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence to ask him for their support in doing so. 

"The horrible violence at our nation's Capitol was a disgrace to all Americans," Oberweis said. "Republicans and Democrats should stand together in condemning such violence, whether it occurs in Washington, DC or Portland, Oregon."  

Although Oberweis disagreed with removing the president from office, he said the people who took part in storming the Capitol should be prosecuted.

"Those who broke into our Capitol building should be severely punished to discourage this from ever happening again," he said.