By Randall Yip, Executive Editor
Rep Andy Kim (D-NJ) recalled the January 6 insurrection Wednesday night at the Democratic convention, recounting what inspired him to get down on his hands and knees and clean up the debris left by rioters in 2021.
“Always remember, this chaos that we see doesn’t have to be this way,” he said to the delegates at the United Center in Chicago.
It was shortly after he gave his children a tour of the Capitol for the first time that the insurrection broke out.
He found himself going from euphoria of winning reelection for a second term to shock.
“We saw something unimaginable. A mob tearing down flags, assaulting police officers. That night I walked into the rotunda. The floor was covered in broken glass and garbage, strewn with the chao unleashed by Donald Trump. I thought to myself how did it get this bad…So I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed the trash bag and started cleaning up.”
Kim is running as the Democratic candidates in the general election for a six-year term in the U.S. Senate against Republican candidates Curtis Bashaw.
Kim survived what could have been a brutal primary against New Jersey’s first lady, Tammy Murphy. Murphy, however, dropped out despite having the support of the party, when she decided she did not have a path to victory.
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