Rep. Adam Kinzinger is on board with encouraging the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he admits America's leaders need to be very careful about how and where they say that.
The Republican congressman joined us Friday on "TMZ live," and we got his reaction to Sen. Lindsey Graham's controversial comments ... calling for Russians to kill Putin. He actually agrees with Graham about taking out Putin, but says he doesn't think the U.S. has to be the one to do it.
Kinzinger says the whole point of seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs is to push them toward taking out Putin.
Sen. Graham came under fire Friday after publicly pushing the notion of assassination.
However, Kinzinger did acknowledge words matter, and the last thing we want to do is stir up folks in Russia to rally against the U.S.
As far as other folks within the Republican party going after Graham for his comments, Rep. Kinzinger says he respects them too and adds ... it's good for politicians in the same party to have a mind of their own.
BTW, Kinzinger also caught some flak after he said the U.S. needs to get involved and put a no-fly zone over Ukraine -- but, he seems to understand the pushback against it.