Rep. Andy Kim’s Blue Suit and the Smithsonian
Remembering a true act of service on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
Three years ago, Rep. Andy Kim, a moderate Democrat from New Jersey, comforted many Americans through a simple act. He helped pick up the trash left by people who attacked police in the Capitol to try to derail an election.
As reported in this story written by Mike Catalini of the Associated Press, Kim said he visited the Capitol rotunda shortly after voting to certify Biden’s victory. The rotunda is the round circular room at the heart of the Capitol. Kim saw police officers putting pizza boxes in trash bags, so he asked for one, too, and began cleaning up, according to the AP story.
Catalini’s story quoted New Jersey Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski speaking about spotting Kim: ‘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’.”
In this story, Catalini also quotes Kim directly.
“When you see something you love that’s broken you want to fix it,” Kim told AP’s Catalini. “I love the Capitol. I‘m honored to be there…This building is extraordinary and the rotunda in particular is just awe-inspiring. How many countless generations have been inspired in that room?”
Today I’m reposting a shorter version of a Medium essay I wrote in July 2022 about Kim and the Smithsonian Institution’s subsequent request for the blue suit he wore that day.
You may not know much about Kim. You may only know the famous image of Kim. It’s the one of the congressman cleaning up the mess left by violent rioters who attacked police officers who were trying to end our American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Smithsonian Institution asked Kim to donate the blue J. Crew suit he wore that day.
Or you may never have heard of Kim at all.
The images more commonly associated with the Jan. 6 riots have fallen into two categories, heartbreaking and disgusting. There are the sad photos of rioters attacking police officers. And there are disgusting photos of rioters looting in the Capitol and that attention-hungry guy in the horns.
There’s another reason you have not have heard of Kim.
He is among a key group of Democratic House newcomers who have been overshadowed by more liberal members in terms of press coverage. Many Americans know the names of more left-wing members of Congress who won their seats in 2018. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the most famous of them.
Too many people confuse media prominence with political importance. Ocasio-Cortez brought to Congress great energy and a commitment to fighting climate change and defending the poor. But her 2018 victory over fellow Democrat Joe Crowley in the primary didn’t make any difference in terms of control of the House. Her victory simply traded one Democrat for another.
It was moderates like Andy Kim who gave Democrats control of the House through the 2018 elections. They won seats that had been previously been held by Republicans. Their victories were the reason that Democrats were able to pass the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This law contains some of the most major changes made in years in health and climate policy.
In 2018, Ocasio-Cortez did a brave thing in challenging Crowley, a high-ranking Democrat in the House, in the primary to win the seat in New York’s 14th District.
But that seat was going to be held by a Democrat, no matter what. Crowley last won it with more than 70 percent of the vote, and Ocasio-Cortez has had more than 70 percent of the vote in her 2018 and 2020 wins.
If Teddy Roosevelt came back from the dead and ran in New York’s 14th District as a corporation-fighting Republican with a serious track record for defending conservation, any Democratic candidate would beat him.
I grew up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. I can tell you that a ballot that listed “a Democratic to be named at a later time” versus Roosevelt likely would still result in a defeat for the Republican. That’s true even for one like Roosevelt who gave us the Food and Drug Administration and many of our national parks.
If Ocasio-Cortez had won and Kim and the other moderates had not, the Inflation Reduction Act would not be law today. People may disagree about whether that would be a good or bad thing.
But no sensible person would argue that the policies of the Inflation Reduction Act could have become law without the moderate Democrats winning seats in 2018. And now the House is focused on very different matters, following the Republicans regaining control in the 2022 elections.
Control of the House means control of the agenda. Control of the House is key to shaping national discussion and dialogue.
Tough Battle
Andy Kim, who is now running for the Senate, has represented New Jersey’s 3rd congressional district.
My mother used to lives in Kim’s district. As a former counselor for victims of domestic violence, my mom was a fan of Joe Biden long before he reached the White House. One of Biden’s biggest accomplishments in the Senate was the passage in 1994 of the Violence Against Women Act. She mom volunteered for the Obama-Biden campaigns.
So it was distressing to see one of her neighbors in Kim’s district flying an offensive flag. My mom used to lived in a small house in a development on the Barnegat Bay. When you stepped out the front door of that house, you were greeted by the sight of the neighbor’s flag on a pole across a small lagoon. The flag had an expletive and Biden’s name.
I’m a registered independent. I reported for 10 years from Capitol Hill for a wonderful nonpartisan publication. There are good people in both of our major political parties.
But hear me.
If you are watching tv shows that get you so wound up that you raise a flag with an obscenity and the name of the president of your country, no matter of which party, you need to stop and reconsider things.
