Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger - whose family sent out a petition to disown him after his pro-impeachment vote - says the GOP is not a 'Trump-first party'

• Rep. Adam Kinzinger said the GOP was "not a Trump-first party" but a "country-first party."
• His remarks Sunday came in response to Kevin McCarthy's visit to Donald Trump's Florida home.
• Kinzinger is one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on Sunday sought to distance the Republican Party, of which he's a member, from former President Donald Trump days after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy visited Trump's Florida residence.

"The former president is desperate to continue to look like he's leading the party. And the problem is until we push back and say, you know, this is not a Trump-first party, this is a country-first party," Kinzinger told Chuck Todd in an interview on "Meet the Press" on Sunday regarding the picture of McCarthy smiling with Trump in Florida.

"In some cases, you may support Donald Trump in that effort. But in my case, I believe that that's a whole new movement," Kinzinger said. "Until we all kind of stand up and say that, we are going to kind of be chasing our tails here in this situation."

Though McCarthy initially said Trump "bears responsibility" for the January 6 attack at the US Capitol, his meeting with Trump last week signaled that he considered Trump's support valuable toward helping the party win back Congress in 2022.

—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 31, 2021

Republicans face turmoil as they decide how to move on from Trump's presidency. Most House Republicans opposed Trump's impeachment in January on a charge of "incitement of insurrection" over the riot. The Senate trial is set to kick off next week.

Kinzinger is one of 10 Republicans who voted in favor of Trump's impeachment. In an interview with the Insider columnist Anthony Fisher on Thursday, the lawmaker said some of his relatives disowned him over the decision.