Daily Kos is proud to call on New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez to resign and support Representative Andy Kim as his massive replacement.
Personally, I am absolutely furious at Menendez and his clan’s mendacious efforts to use his immigrant background as a shield against corruption, and I can’t think of a better outcome than Senator Andy Kim. And while we’re at it, I’m hoping for a main challenge for Menendez’s baby nepo. son of congressman, Rob. It’s time to root out this endemic corruption from across Congress.
Mendendez has a story of corruption, as well as a history of evading responsibility. So it took breathtaking arrogance to embark on a new wave of alleged corruption while knowing the FBI was watching him. But we see it time and time again, like with Donald Trump: If people repeatedly escape criminal behavior, they somehow think they’re immune.
Now you are probably aware of the new indictment alleging such breathtakingly brazen behavior, it’s incredible that Menendez hasn’t already resigned in shame.
The indictment says Menendez used his influence to intervene in three criminal cases, pressured U.S. agricultural regulators to protect an associate’s business interests and used his position as chairman of the Committee of foreign relations to influence U.S. policy toward Egypt.
Prosecutors say he met with Egyptian military and intelligence officials, passed on nonpublic information about U.S. Embassy employees in Cairo, and wrote a letter on behalf of Egypt asking his Senate colleagues to suspend aid worth $300 million.
Federal agents who searched his home in 2022 found more than $480,000 in cash in envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe, as well as gold bars worth more than $100,000, prosecutors said. Another $70,000 was discovered in his wife’s safe, they said.
The indictment states that after a trip to Egypt in October 2021, Menendez literally Googled: “How much is a kilo of gold?” Now, he complaints that the $480,000 he had stashed in his house was for “emergencies” and that “for 30 years, I withdrew thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I kept in emergency and because of my family history. risks being confiscated in Cuba.
Oh Cuba. And therein lies the crux of Menendez’s defense. You see, he’s supposed to be targeted because he comes from an immigrant family. His son, first-term Rep. Rob Menendez, used his family’s immigrant heritage as a weapon to try to justify his father’s history of corruption. “(In my life, I have seen countless detractors who refuse to believe that a son of Hudson County immigrants could become one of a hundred and yet he has consistently proven them wrong,” said young Menendez. said in a report. “And fortunately, those who know him and what he stood for throughout his career outnumber the naysayers.”
Immigrants already face enough challenges. They don’t need this corruption associated with them. It’s rude and inappropriate. No one “refuses to believe” that Mendendez could be senator. He has been a senator since 2006. Rob himself rode the nepotism wave all the way to Congress. To stand here and scream that this federal indictment stems from some kind of persecution because they come from an immigrant family is absurd. The elder Menendez was born in New York. How many generations manage to pretend “I’m a poor, oppressed immigrant” to protect their wrongdoing?
Yes, thanks to his parents, Bob Menendez had the immigration experience, but that has absolutely no importance to him who now hides gold bars at home as compensation for his alleged corruption.
You know who is not it use his immigrant experience to justify corruption? Representative Andy Kim.
Kim is the son of immigrant parents who successfully instilled true immigrant values: dedication, hard work, integrity and service to one’s nation. He graduated from the University of Chicago and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (where he met and befriended Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg). Working in the State Department, he was a civilian advisor to the general. David Petraeus and John R. Allen in Afghanistan before serving on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council.
He unseated a Republican in his first run for Congress in 2018, despite a racist attack designed for “the other,” as NJ.com reports:
The ad features a photo of several whole fish on ice with the caption “There’s something really fishy about Andy Kim.”
“Real Fishy” and “Andy Kim” are written in a font called “Chop Suey,” according to a Democratic spokeswoman, and is often associated with Chinese food stores or Asian films.
“The Republican Party’s decision to show images of raw fish and use this particular red typeface, which is actually called “Chop Suey” and has long been used to visually convey Asian heritage, shows very clearly what this letter is: a shameful racist message. attack on a qualified and capable public servant,” said Caitlin Mota, spokesperson for the Democratic Party.
Despite typical Republican racism, Kim narrowly defeated the incumbent Republican president. 50-49. Incumbents rarely lose. In 2020 he won re-election 53-45 as President Joe Biden narrowly lost his seat, an astonishing 8 point outperformance. In 2022, in a redrawn district, he won by 12 against a self-funded Republican foe.
On January 6, 2021, Kim went viral for kneeling to clean the Capitol Rotunda following the insurrection. One of these photos appears at the top of this endorsement. NBC News covered behind the scenes of this moment:
When (Kim) finally took a tour of the rotunda – his favorite and arguably the most historically rich room in the building – the dismay left him speechless. Water bottles, broken furniture, tattered Trump flags, pieces of body armor, and clothing were scattered across the marble floor as if it were an abandoned parking lot.
“I was just overwhelmed with emotion,” Kim, 38, told NBC Asian America. “It’s a room that I love so much: it’s the heart of the Capitol, literally the heart of this country. It hurt me so much to see him in this kind of state.
So for an hour and a half, he squatted and filled half a dozen trash bags with debris. When he finished cleaning the rotunda, he began work on the adjacent rooms, including National Statuary Hall and the Capitol crypt below.
Then he returned to the House to debate Pennsylvania’s vote count, a session that lasted until 3 a.m. As of Thursday evening, he had been awake for more than 36 hours.
Many of you know that I too had the experience of being an immigrant family. My father was from Greece and my mother from El Salvador. Although I was born in Chicago, my family moved to El Salvador very early in my life. I didn’t return to the United States until I was 9 years old, when we had to flee because of the civil war. My experience was easier than most: I was a US citizen and my parents had legal status, so I didn’t have to worry about any family member being deported. But I spoke little English, was bullied as a foreigner, and had to assimilate into a foreign culture. This was already hard enough.
But I also saw my parents work hard to build what they had and ensure that my brother and I had every opportunity to succeed in life. They made sacrifices that I only recognized decades later, like paying for two newspaper subscriptions to satisfy my voracious reading appetite. I didn’t realize what a financial challenge paying for just one subscription was for them. And they loved this country in a way few native-born Americans can, including MAGA assholes performatively banging their American flags (literally so for Trump), thinking it triggers liberals.
That, in a nutshell, is what it means to be an immigrant: We are here not because we had the privilege of being born Americans (although I am an anomaly, and I was). We are here because we to want to be here, because we appreciate what this country offers and because we know what the alternative looks like. And it’s a two-way relationship: America gives us so much, and we, as immigrants, in turn owe the country the best of us, including deep appreciation, hard work, and impeccable integrity.
As an immigrant and Latino, I am deeply embarrassed by Senator Bob Menendez. It’s a shame and he needs to go. The legal process may proceed, but we know who and what he is. He doesn’t deserve to be in the Senate. And her nepo baby doesn’t deserve to be in the House.
Kim, on the other hand, shows us the best of what immigration adds to America and is a lovely person to boot.
He brings honor to the House and he will bring honor to the Senate. I’m beyond thrilled that Daily Kos is supporting it. In a Senate chamber where integrity is often lacking, Kim will be a treasure.
Join us in championing a leader who truly values service to the nation. Your $5 donation to Rep. Andy Kim can reshape our Senate.
