Americans watched in horror as a mob of Trump supporters stormed the nation’s Capitol while legislators worked to certify Joe Biden’s election to the Presidency on January 6, 2021.
Based on false assertions by the President that the election was stolen from him, a group of senators led by Josh Hawley (R-Mo) and Ted Cruz (R-Tx), pushed for an emergency investigation into the electoral process.
Earlier in the day the President himself spoke to his supporters, fomenting their ire with comments including “We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we’re going to have to fight much harder…Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
Unsurprisingly, as a result of President’s words, mobs of his supporters overran the Capitol, smashing in glass, climbing up walls in the rotunda, vandalizing artifacts, draping confederate and Trump flags over the balcony of the Senate, sitting in the legislative leaders’ seats, and invading the offices of Senators, taking selfies all the way.
While the legislators were ultimately able to reconvene and finish their work in the early hours of the morning on January 7, the Capitol building itself was filthy, littered with the evidence of the insurrection.
Amidst the devastation, several people spotted New Jersey Congressman, Andy Kim, who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, on his knees, cleaning up the mess.
“What else could I do?” Kim told the Associated Press.
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski said it was about one in the morning when he saw Kim cleaning.
“There were a couple National Guardsman and I noticed somebody on his hands and knees leaning under a bench to pick something up and it was Andy all by himself, just quietly removing debris and putting it in a plastic bag. He was clearly not doing it for an audience.” Malinowski told the AP.
A number of local Democrats in Cranbury worked to help Kim during his hard-fought election in 2018 where he narrowly defeated two-term Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur in a district Trump won handily in 2016. Kim won the 2018 race by fewer than 4,000 votes. Cranbury supporters worked on Kim’s behalf doing phone banking, writing post-cards, and canvasing.
Congressman Kim’s narrow win in 2018 was followed by his 2020 re-election in which he beat his opponent by more than 30,000 votes, a resounding indication of his success as a representative for his district.
By taking the time to help clear the debris Congressman Kim showed his integrity and patriotism in the midst of chaos and degradation. We count ourselves lucky to have him as a Representative for New Jersey.