Illinois Valley Times

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) believes more should be done to protect those who govern the country following the shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana at a GOP baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14.

“You look at the comments that have come in after the Alexandria shooting and there is some deep-seeded evil out there,” Kinzinger told Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson, hosts of "Chicago’s Morning Answer" radio show.

Proft is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.

“I had a lady about a month ago arrested for threatening me," Kinzinger said. "She’s from Colorado threatening basically to kill me."

Kinzinger said he carries a concealed weapon when he travels in Illinois but questions the safety of carrying a gun in the U.S. Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C.

“The issue with that is there’s about a thousand police officers in the Capitol Complex, so it would actually be more dangerous to me for members to carry, but in the larger D.C., we still can’t,” Kinzinger said.

The Chicago Tribune recently revealed more about the Arlington shooter’s past. James Hodgkinson of Belleville had a history of violence and run-ins with police and physically abused his foster daughter, the paper reported.

“I wish I could 'Quantum Leap' back to that moment and just beat the snot out of this guy,” Kinzinger said. “You just think about the level of abuse and what he ultimately did. There are some people that are irredeemable, unfortunately.”

Kinzinger also shared his thoughts on health care and how President Donald Trump should handle the many controversies surrounding his presidency.

“Keep saying to the American people, ‘This is a distraction; I’m focused on getting work done for the American people,'" Kinzinger said. “When Bill Clinton took that position, he really turned public opinion in his favor.”

Despite criticism of the health care measure that was released by Senate Republicans late last month, Kinzinger said Republicans had to tackle health care in order to move on to other important issues.

"I want to see us go on to tax reform," he said at the time. "I think that’s like putting an accelerant on the economy."