NPR’s Michel Martin talks with Democratic Rep. Andy Kim about his marketing campaign to run for the state’s U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who has been indicted on federal corruption prices.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, faces severe prices. He has been accused of receiving tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in money and different valuables in bribes. Menendez denies these accusations and says he’ll struggle them, however he was pressured to step down as Chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, and is going through strain to resign from his political colleagues in his residence state of New Jersey. One has already mentioned he’ll problem Menendez for his seat. That is Consultant Andy Kim, and he is with us now. Good morning.
ANDY KIM: Good morning.
MARTIN: You introduced over the weekend in a put up on X, previously Twitter, that you’d run in opposition to Senator Menendez, saying you felt compelled to run in opposition to him as a result of, and I am quoting you right here, “We can’t jeopardize the Senate or quit our rights.” . Integrity.” What does that imply?
KIM: Effectively, meaning it is essential now for the individuals of New Jersey to have illustration within the Senate, to have illustration in authorities, and that is not what Senator Menendez can ship proper now. He has main prices filed in opposition to him. He’ll should give attention to that. There are loads of issues about his integrity. I consider it will be significant that we do every thing we are able to to revive the American individuals’s belief of their authorities. That’s the reason I’m operating to run in opposition to him.
MARTIN: So he is harmless till confirmed responsible in a courtroom of legislation, and Menendez raised that time in his protection. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic chief, additionally mentioned he has the best to due course of and a good trial. Is your argument that he could be too distracted to do his job? Or is your argument that he’s too tainted to do his job though he has not been convicted of something at this second?
Kim: He was given completely due course of. That is our system. However this can take all his time. You understand, that is one thing we’d like right here in New Jersey, somebody who is ready to focus and really get the job carried out and signify my household and the opposite households right here. And that is one thing that I feel lots of people right here in New Jersey have issues about as properly – these allegations. So, whether or not or not they’ll belief him and belief that he’ll signify them to the very best of his capacity and with the required integrity – is now in query.
MARTIN: So Menendez mentioned – and he is additionally talking in his personal protection – that the plaintiffs misrepresented the conventional working of a congressional workplace. What about that?
KIM: Effectively, the conventional congressional workplace work that I’ve carried out now in my congressional workplace for 5 years is nowhere near the issues that we noticed in these allegations, within the indictment – the gold bullion, the cash, the issues like that I feel had been stunning. To me, from a nationwide safety standpoint, what has been talked about when it comes to his relations with different international locations – most worryingly, Egypt – is irregular. And I can inform you that this does not even come near what I’ve seen when it comes to work in Congress.
MARTIN: That is a part of the issue right here – and I simply need to point out right here that he is been accused of corruption earlier than. This was in 2015. The jury was unable to achieve a verdict, and the costs had been dropped. You may have a look at this in considered one of two methods. You can argue that prosecutors have overstepped their bounds earlier than, been unable to get a conviction, and will have overstepped their bounds once more. I feel that is a part of his argument. One other argument is likely to be that he is getting too near the sting and Democrats cannot threat that. Is that this your viewpoint?
KIM: Effectively, I feel my level is, before everything, the job that we now have in the USA Congress – it is a job that is described in the USA Structure. It’s a very humbling expertise and requires the best requirements of ethics, morals and integrity. One doesn’t even have to come back near that line to see what we noticed within the indictment in opposition to Senator Menendez. I do not care how he tries to say it, you realize, that is simply an evaluation of phrases. This isn’t one thing it’s best to strategy. There needs to be little doubt concerning the integrity of somebody like that. So the truth that he says that reveals that he has a really completely different concept of what it means to be a United States Senator than I do.
MARTIN: That is actor Andy Kim. He’s additionally a Democrat, the identical social gathering as Sen. Bob Menendez. He says he’ll problem Senator Bob Menendez within the upcoming elections, whether or not the senator agrees to resign or not. Consultant Kim, thanks a lot for talking with us right this moment.
Kim: Thanks.
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