On January 7, 2021, after voting to certify the 2020 presidential election, Kim gained widespread media attention for a photograph of him cleaning up debris from the earlier storming of the U.S. Capitol. He donated the blue suit he wore in the photo to the Smithsonian Institution, which was collecting items from the riot. Kim said, "This suit of mine that’s with the Smithsonian now is not because of some high achievement that I've reached in this country. It was because I unfortunately was at the site of one of the most tragic events in our American democracy."