Dem Sen. Kim: Trump Causing U.S. to Lose the Idea that We’re Part of Something Bigger

Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President-elect Donald Trump’s leadership was causing the United States to lose the idea that “we’re part of something bigger.”

Host Dana Bash said, “We are coming up on four years since Donald Trump challenged what had been the peaceful transition of power on January 6, you cleaned up trash in the Capitol Rotunda after the devastation. We’re seeing a picture of that now. Are you worried the history of that day has already been rewritten by Donald Trump and his supporters?”

Kim said, “Yes, I worry about it. I worry about this a lot because you know, the way I sort of talk about it is that, you know, our country, we have this great motto of ‘E pluribus unum’ out of many, one. And I’ve often kind of thought through like, how does that happen? You know, There’s a missing verb there. How do you get from many to one?”

He added, “It’s so important that we have a shared sense of this country, its history, its definition. But we’re losing sight of this idea that we’re part of something bigger than all of us. When I see what happened on that day, I mean, you know, we saw it with our own eyes. Those of us that were in Congress, the American people saw people all over the world saw it. And the idea that it’s being papered, papered over and that the people that that attacked the Capitol rioted, that they’re being talked as, as liberators, as, you know, as as prisoners now that are being unfairly treated. We are a nation of rule of law and it just it does break my heart, you know, every day that I go into the Capitol, I go to the Rotunda, I think about what we saw on that day and how we should always commit to never having that happen again. This nation is such a great nation, and we were brought to such a sad moment on that day. We should commit ourselves to never letting that happen again, but instead, we see that, unfortunately, being a different lesson that many are taken away.”

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