Water bottles, clothing, Trump flags and even an American flag lay on the ground in the Capitol after a gang supporting President Donald Trump ransacked the building.
New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim walked amid the mess shortly after voting to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump – and felt the weight of the day diminish on him – when something motivated him to clean up the mess.
“I was just really moved emotionally. I felt this kind of heightened, kind of supercharged kind of patriotism that I just felt taking over, ”he said in an interview.
It was then that he saw police officers putting pizza boxes in trash bags, so he asked for it too and started cleaning up.
“When you see something you love that is broken, you want to fix it. I like the Capitol. I’m honored to be there, ”he said. “This building is extraordinary and the roundabout in particular is simply impressive. How many countless generations have been inspired in that room?
“It really broke my heart and I just felt compelled to do something. … What else can I do? “
The image of Kim crouching to clean up trash booked a violent, historic day when an angry mob slammed through police lines, smashed windows and wrenched doors open as they besieged the building, not long after Trump said they were “ at a rally ” force ”And fight against the Congressional certification of Biden’s victory.
Kim, a second-term Democrat from a district Trump won twice, was not seeking publicity, according to a colleague who ran into him and initially did not recognize him.
“I think it was 1 am,” said Tom Malinowski, New Jersey co-Democratic representative. “There were a few National Guardsman and I saw someone leaning on their hands and knees 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 clearly wasn’t doing it for an audience.
“It was the most poignant moment of the long night for me.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Kim represents “the very best of New Jersey and our nation”.
Tom MacArthur, the former New Jersey GOP representative who beat Kim in a thrilling race in 2018, was encouraged by the action of his successor. It was MacArthur who helped the GOP attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act through the House and who stood next to Trump and others in the White House to celebrate, although the attempt failed. Kim spoke in part about the popularity of Barack Obama’s signature health law.
Kim represents the 3rd district, stretching from the Philadelphia suburbs along the Delaware River to the west, across the New Jersey pine forests to the Ocean County coast.
He launched his campaign in 2017 and returned to the city of southern New Jersey where he grew up after a career in Washington and abroad.
A graduate of the University of Chicago and Rhodes Scholar, Kim served as director of Iraq for the Obama Administration’s National Security Council from 2013 to 2015.
He was previously the director of Iraq at the Pentagon within the office of the Secretary of Defense. He was also previously a civil adviser to Generals David Petraeus and John Allen in Afghanistan.
The son of Korean immigrant parents, he became the first Asian American to represent New Jersey in Congress after being elected in 2018.
On Thursday, he reflected on how he, a person of color, was cleaning up people who waved white supremacist symbols like the Confederate flag during the melee. He said he hadn’t thought about racing at the time.
But he thought for a moment and added, ‘It’s so hard because we don’t look at each other and see each other as Americans first, be it race or ethnicity or religion or political party that gets in the way of us having those shared identity that our country has forged and is necessary to continue. “