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Why This New Jersey Democrat Is Getting Mocked for Donating His Suit to the Smithsonian

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  July 07, 2021 11:30 AM

Democrats will never let you forget the January 6 Capitol riot, and soon, the Smithsonian won't either. 

In a statement to CBS Philadelphia, Melinda Machado, director for the Office of Communications and Marketing from the National Museum of American History, said the museum is undertaking a "collecting initiative to continue to assess now and in the future what historians and the public will know about Jan. 6, 2021."

While we don't know what the future exhibit will look like exactly, we can take a guess based on the fact that Democratic Rep. Andy Kim's suit will be in it. 

Posing with a photo of him and a blue suit that he donated to the Smithsonian, Kim explained the backstory.

"6 months ago today, I wore this blue suit as I cleaned the Capitol after the insurrection, now I just donated it to the Smithsonian. Jan6 must never be forgotten. While some try to erase history, I will fight to tell the story so it never happens again," he tweeted. 

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"Like my suit, what I did on Jan 6 on its face was unremarkable. I saw a mess and cleaned it. I wanted to right the wrongs of that day as quickly and as tangibly as I could. Neither my suit nor my actions are on their own worthy of memory, but the story didn't end there," he continued. 

"The last time I wore the blue suit wasn’t Jan 6, it was Jan13. I wore it when I walked onto the House floor to cast my vote for impeachment. The suit still had dust on the knees from Jan6. I wore it so I would have no doubt about the truth of what happened. 

"When I got home I vowed to never wear the suit again," he added. "I even considered throwing it away. It only brought back terrible memories. I could never separate that suit from the events of Jan6. I hid it in my closet as I never wanted to see it again. But then something happened.

"In the following days, I started to receive thousands of cards from across the country. Many from kids. Strangers who wanted to tell me how they felt when they saw the photo of me. They talked about the blue suit. The suit meant something different to them than it did to me," Kim said.

"People wrote saying the blue suit gave them a sense of resilience and hope. For me, I was in a tough place. In days after Jan6 I had an unshakable regret that I didn’t do more to keep people safe. But feeling of hope/resilience in the cards helped me feel stronger."

Kim explained that the Smithsonian reached out to him in January about the suit, which made him reflect on what would be in such an exhibit. In addition to the "destruction," there were stories of "hope and resilience" that could be told, he said. 

"It'll be surreal to one day take my kids to the Smithsonian and show them the blue suit behind glass," Kim concluded. "I hope they grow to know the truth of Jan6, but I also hope the story ultimately is one of hope and resilience. I hope that is what they and others see in the blue suit." 

Maybe some will, but certainly not everyone, based on how social media users reacted.