Adam Kinzinger Suffered from PTSD after Saving a Woman from Being Killed by Her Boyfriend: ‘Utterly Changed My Life’

Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger is reflecting on a pivotal moment that helped shaped his life and career. 

In the new documentary The Last Republican — which opened at New York City’s Film Forum on Friday — Kinzinger, 46, who served as a U.S. representative from Illinois from 2011 to 2023, opens up about the unfolding of his career and a violent encounter in 2006 that changed the trajectory of his life.

Having just returned from pilot training, Kinzinger was leaving a German restaurant in Milwaukee at 12:26 a.m. when he encountered a harrowing sight. “I’m walking to my car when I hear a commotion, and this girl comes running at me, holding her throat, bleeding out,” he recalls in the documentary.

Kinzinger had only a split second to decide whether to intervene and risk his own life — a decision that, he admits, didn’t come easily. “They say in a crisis half of the people run, 40% freeze and 10% act. I felt every one of those emotions,” he says. “If someone would have whispered ‘Run’ to me, I would have run.”

Ultimately, his conscience wouldn’t let him walk away. “There were two immediate thoughts that went through my head. The first one was, ‘If I act, I’m gonna die.’ The second was, ‘If I watch this lady die, and I do nothing, I can’t live with myself for the rest of my life.’ ”

Kinzinger engaged in a tense struggle with the attacker that he describes as a “close grapple.”

“I had his knife hand and I remember consciously feeling the knife hand trying to stab me,” he says. “It’s not a matter of pride now, it’s a matter of life to win.”

After successfully pinning the man to the ground and waiting for police to arrive, Kinzinger was able to walk away, but it took months for him to process what had occurred. “I [had] blood all over me. The shirt that had all the blood, I could not bring myself to wash it for some reason,” he says. “It stayed in a corner in my room and then it was about two or three months later I started realizing I had some PTSD from it… That moment on that street in Milwaukee utterly changed my life.”

While he doesn’t regret his decision to intervene, Kinzinger admits he’s not sure he would make the same decision today. “When you make the decision to give your life up for a stranger, I mean, how can’t that change you?” he says, getting emotional. “I never wanna do that again, and I hope — if that ever happened again to me, I’m not sure I would make the same decision.”

Despite his ambivalence now, the incident had a lasting impact on him. “Do I think I would have been sitting here today talking about what happened in my congressional career or if I even would have had a congressional career without the incident in Milwaukee? Probably not.”

Since that night, Kinzinger’s life has taken many turns. He served in Congress for over a decade before his political career came to an abrupt end in 2023, following his role as one of two Republican representatives to vote for the creation of a committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. He also served on the committee, where he condemned former President Donald Trump’s alleged involvement.

“I don’t believe what I did was courageous,” Kinzinger says of his isolation within the GOP. “I just think I am surrounded by cowards.” 

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Drawing a parallel between the stabbing and his political career, Kinzinger, who is now a senior political commentator for CNN, says, “What can you say about that except it’s an honor to be able to act? Yet, there’s this creeping cynicism after things like the January 6th attack. Why would you try to defend these people? They hate you.”

Looking ahead, Kinzinger says he is focused on “fighting against that cynicism,” adding, “I don’t want in the second half of my life to not be willing to put my life on the line for people…. Even MAGA people— maybe especially them because they need some inspiration or something that they’re not getting.”

“They’re being lied to and abused,” he continues. “That’s the fight of the second part of my life: making sure I can keep my head above water and find that again — find that inspiration again.”

The Last Republican is currently playing at Film Forum in New York City before rolling out in additional cities.