Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Donald Trump was responsible for bringing down the civility of politics.
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Let’s talk about the president’s speech to Congress Tuesday night, and more specifically, the reaction of some Democrats, House Democrats on the floor of the chamber, in addition to the extended interruption by Congressman Al Green waving his cane. House Democrats protested the joint address, they wore matching colors, they held up pen paddles with various messages on them.”
Kim said, “Well, you know, this was the third time that I was in the chamber for President Trump giving an address to a joint session. And it’s just getting worse and worse. And it’s just, you know, look what Trump is very good at doing is bringing the rest of this country down to his level. I mean, when we see him start off with just a barrage of personal insults to people, including people in the chamber, you know, he is certainly somebody that set a tone where he is uninterested in civility in this country, in terms of how we proceed and be able to engage with one of us one another.”
He added, “I find that to be really insulting when I get to work a job, he works a job, we work jobs whose job descriptions are in the Constitution of the United States. That should push us to hold ourselves to the highest of standards. So yes, President Trump is bringing the rhetoric and the discourse and the civility in politics down. I don’t like that type of behavior that I see across the board, across the entirety of that chamber, whether it’s what we’ve seen with Marjorie Taylor Greene in the past or people on my side of the aisle. I do think we want to hold ourselves up to a standard, but what we see is that it’s Donald Trump is that’s the one that’s bringing our politics down to a level of incivility that I think the vast majority of Americans can’t stand.”
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