Twenty years after he graduated from the University of Chicago, Rep. Andy Kim returned to the Windy City Wednesday as part of a group of speakers at the Democratic National Convention who made the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol a focal point of the convention’s third day.
In a speech that lasted just under three minutes, Kim (D-03) discussed his efforts to clear the Capitol Rotunda of debris after it was ransacked by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The convention gave Kim a chance to introduce himself to a national audience as he seeks a U.S. Senate seat in November.
Kim said when he was a child, his Korean immigrant parents brought him to the Capitol and taught him the building is “sacred ground, a symbol of democracy.” But on Jan. 6, he said, “we saw something unimaginable — a mob tearing down flags, assaulting police officers.”
“The floor was covered in broken glass and garbage, strewn with the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump. And I thought to myself, how did it get this bad? So I did the only thing I could think of — I grabbed a trash bag and started cleaning up,” he said.
Kim has evoked the Jan. 6 riot frequently on the campaign trail, as well as his clean-up effort that garnered him national attention.
“What I learned on January 6 is that all of us are caretakers for our great republic. We can heal this country, but only if we try,” Kim said Wednesday. “Always remember, this chaos that we see, it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Kim faces Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw in November in a race to succeed Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat who resigned in disgrace from the Senate Tuesday following his conviction last month on federal corruption charges. Menendez had intended to seek reelection as an independent in November, but suspended that campaign last week.
Kim ended his speech by calling on the crowd and the country to support the Democratic presidential ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“There is a hunger right now in this country for a new generation of leadership to step up. Let’s choose Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Let’s do this for our kids and our grandkids,” he said.
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