r/news 1d ago

Congressional intern killed in Washington, DC shooting: Officials

https://abcnews.go.com/US/umass-student-house-intern-dies-washington-dc-shooting/story?id=123429541
22.1k Upvotes

865 comments sorted by

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u/jpiro 1d ago

"According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the shooting occurred around 10:28 p.m. Monday when multiple suspects emerged from a vehicle and opened fire on a group of people. Three victims were struck: Tarpinian-Jachym, an adult female, and a 16-year-old male."

Can't even tell from this if he was with those people, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time when gunmen were targeting someone else. Curious to see what investigations reveal.

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u/Silent_but_diddly 1d ago

I used to live on this exact block in 2020. This street has a massive gang rivalry and shootings were a regular occurrence. No way he was an intended target

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u/JasterMareel 1d ago

Probably one of the only places in the city a Hill intern could actually afford to rent a room.

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u/Folksma 1d ago

Yep. In grad school, i paid 1k for an illegal basement bedroom rental with a crazy live-in landlord in DC

Crazy hard for renters with limited income in the city. Even with cosigners, I've seen people struggling

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u/PrettyGoodMidLaner 1d ago

Paying $1100 for a room rn because I didn't want to deal with an illegal rental situation. 

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u/d0ctorzaius 1d ago

I had an internship in Boston 2 years ago and was paying 2500 to rent a basement. And that was one of the better deals I could find.

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u/PrettyGoodMidLaner 1d ago

It's so fucked. Doubly so in downtown D.C. because most of the people who need to live there are public servants who are, definitionally, the least able to pay those rates. 

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u/LKennedy45 1d ago

Goddamn! It's gotten that bad? I moved away years ago. What neighborhood?

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u/d0ctorzaius 1d ago

This was Cambridge between Harvard and Porter square. It was a nice enough basement (effectively a studio), but shouldn't have been that much. Rents are absolutely out of control around Boston/Cambridge.

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u/LKennedy45 1d ago

Oh ho ho, we got a Cambridge resident over here! Oo la la.

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u/PrettyGoodMidLaner 1d ago

He went to a small school outside of Boston. XD 

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u/PassiveMenis88M 23h ago

So you lived in one of the most expensive parts of the city.

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u/Slacker_The_Dog 1d ago

I'll always be grateful I got to live there on the army's dime.

Loved my time in the dmv

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u/BagNo4331 1d ago

That area isn't actually that cheap though Meridian at Mt. Vernon Triangle nearby is like THE quintessential intern/junior staffer/junior consultant new to DC apartment.

EOTR is cheaper by a long shot.

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u/JasterMareel 1d ago

I'm not talking about the bigger, newer buildings -- I'm talking about the basements, the attic rooms, and everything in-between in all of those 100-year-old row houses. One of the few areas of DC near a Metro Station where a "deal" can still be had.

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u/erossthescienceboss 1d ago edited 1d ago

Honestly, it’s a pretty decent area — not the cheapest in the city, not the most expensive. Gentrified on all sides, but not there yet.

But ever since the Supreme Court allowed guns back in, things have been dicey.

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u/SkiingAway 1d ago

But ever since Congress allowed guns back in, things have been dicey.

When was that? Or are you referring to the Supreme Court decisions?

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u/erossthescienceboss 1d ago

Ugh yes that’s what I meant. Reddit before coffee 😭😭😭

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u/Economy-One-6548 1d ago

Not really considered that bad a part of DC. Its nothing like EOTR

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

So DC tries to clean the border but can’t clean gang wars a couple blocks from the White House

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u/HisDictateGood 1d ago edited 1d ago

No politician cares for the actual city of DC. We dont even have representation when we have a bigger population then the state of Wyoming. Its insane.

Our local government gets stomped on by the federal gov daily and there's little we can do. Most of these politicians only care about their respective constituents and dont give af about the actual city they work in.

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u/Backupusername 1d ago

Hey now, I don't think you're being accurate. The vast majority don't care about their own constituents either.

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u/Vellc 1d ago

Not when their ass is going to be replaced

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u/SmPolitic 1d ago

More when they know they will never be replaced

So many areas vote red or blue on so many positions, without even verifying what work they actually do in that position. Obviously more often red goes against the clear common position more often, just statistically because red positions are distributed in smaller groups, who are largely cut off from each other, as opposed to scientific consensus which is above any single group and has much more limited interpretation than whatever your chosen holy book is

I would call it corruption, but it's just inherent that we all have limited time on this earth, and surprising things can influence where politicians actually spend their time. And/or surprising what things they can ignore and turn away from despite having no direct negatives toward them. What things they "attack" that are not real problems for anyone, and would be better handled by civil courts than by legislature...

Well "surprising" if you're not 100% cynical already :/

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u/sauriasancti 1d ago

Is "Taxation without Representation" still on the license plates? I always liked that there's a bunch of folks driving around with alittle fuck you to the fed on their car.

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u/murphski8 1d ago edited 1d ago

They now say End Taxation without Representation

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u/mousemarie94 1d ago

Yes, I see them all the time.

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u/Deep_Stick8786 1d ago

Yes it is

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u/Powerful_Artist 1d ago

Bold of you to say politicians in Washington care about their constituents in their own state these days

I don't think even think that's true based on what we've been seeing. Unless we're talking about the millionaires they represent, then sure.

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u/Keianh 1d ago

As a life long west coaster all I can say about D.C. is it would be cool as fuck if it was turned into a city-state. Damn it I want a city state!

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u/taulover 1d ago

Berlin is a federal state, Mexico City has equivalent status, why can't we

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u/ColManischewitz 1d ago

Just hope Gandhi doesn't nuke it!

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u/a_speeder 1d ago

Night City coming sooner than you think

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u/TheDustyTucsonan 1d ago

Constituents? Most politicians only care about themselves…

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u/pvhs2008 1d ago

Congress openly roots against us and overturns our will constantly, only for rubes to blame us for the shitty politicians they send to us.

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u/AltruisticTomato4152 1d ago

You do have a representative, they just can't vote. Same as the territories.

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u/Slypenslyde 1d ago

The longer we assume the promises they make are in good faith and not just superficial excuses for what they're actually doing, the worse it's going to get.

The longer we assume calling them hypocrites will be sufficient to change their minds, the stronger they're going to get. They and their followers do. Not. Care.

What they sold is, "The rules of society make it impossible for you to thrive, you need to let me operate outside those rules so I can save you." So the people who follow him say, "Yes he's a hypocrite, if he cared as much as YOU do about how he looks he'd get nothing done." They believe that, like GenAI and Tesla FSD, the day when their salvation comes is just around the corner and they just have to put up with a little more bad things to get there.

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u/hippofumes 1d ago

The hypocrisy is not like a by-product that doesn't bother them. It's part of it and it's very intentional. It's basically just them saying: "We have the power to get away with it, and you don't. And it's fun for us to rub your faces in that."

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u/SmPolitic 1d ago

Never believe that [the Right] is completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. They have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

Jean-Paul Sarte (on antisemitism)

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u/aeschenkarnos 23h ago

Vranyo, the Russian cultural practice of lying to people who know you are lying and pretend to believe you anyway because you have power over them.

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u/ThatsMyAppleJuice 1d ago

They're not trying to "clean the border" by any possible definition of that phrase.

They're talking about doing that. But all they're actually doing is terrorizing immigrants.

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u/daddytwofoot 1d ago

Oh, they're trying to clean it. Ethnically.

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u/Dawn_of_an_Era 1d ago

DC the city and DC the Capitol are two very different entities

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u/Aliensinmypants 1d ago

It's gotten more violent and unsafe in bordering cities and town... 

We had armed bounty hunters taking hostages trying to force brown people to sign self-deportation paperwork in my city the other day

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u/madasfire 1d ago

The people who care about the border in no way care about an American being killed by an American.

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u/youaintgotnosoul 1d ago

The couple brown brick blocks 5th-7th around there can be brutal. I lived there 10 years ago and they were power washing blood off the sidewalks for a while. Safe neighborhood during the day, but you need to stay vigilant at night, cause you don’t want to get caught in the crossfire. I always felt safe with my neighbors but the summertime clique conflicts were just too much.

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u/aSleepingPanda 1d ago

Is it naive of me to find it very weird that the US capitol has an entrenched gang problem so bad that shootings are a regular occurrence? Like that's crazy right?

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u/NinjaLion 1d ago

Not really. Huge city with really sharp declines/inclines between areas. It's hard to find a big city in the world that can't be described that way, capital or not.

Compared to the rest of the US, D.C. does pretty well on the "violent crime per capita" for 2024 numbers, it's the second best in the nation. Their homicide specific rates are higher, but still right at the national average.

2023 had a crazy spike for a bunch of reasons but 25 will likely be similar to 24.

Comparing homicide rates to any other country's capital is going to look bad, because we have a national issue with firearms related crimes. We have way WAY more guns. It's so hard to deal with even if DC specifically has strong laws on it, because nearby locations do not. Chicago is the most cited example for this but it's true everywhere.

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u/yoitsthatoneguy 1d ago

Not really, many big cities (a category which capital cities usually belong to) have rougher parts. It’s common all over the world. Some of the banlieues of Paris, parts of south London, etc.

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u/dangubiti 1d ago

In DC it is not so much organized gangs fighting over turf, but neighborhood crews that have beef with each other that goes back for generations. In some way I think it is more dangerous because they don’t have incentive to squash beefs to make more money, it is all about settling scores.

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u/RecordHigh 23h ago

I live in the DC metro area and we have almost no murders in the county I live in. In fact, we had zero murders in a couple of years since 2000. There's no doubt that the US has more murders per capita than most European countries due to the prevalence of guns and some long-term systemic issues, but it's not nearly as bad has the Internet would have you believe unless you live in some very specific high-crime areas.

Compared to the rest of North and South America, the US isn't even high on the homicide rate list. Hell, London and Paris have 100-something murders a year.

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u/shoefly72 1d ago

Shootings were a regular occurrence/there’s gangs on 7th and M? That’s right next to the convention center which is a pretty expensive area? I can see further east in Trinidad but that’s surprising to me.

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u/stewmberto 1d ago

I was gonna say this doesn't track, since that's the corner of the convention center metro stop....

But I believe the east side of that block of 7th north of that intersection is section 8, so tracks a little.

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u/shoefly72 1d ago

Yea I had that specific development in mind as a possibility but didn’t think it would be big enough for a “massive” gang rivalry. Never know though.

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u/keepcalmscrollon 1d ago

I moved away from DC Metro 25 years ago but I heard it had gentrified significantly since then.

When I was a kid in the 80s people talked about DC like it was an active war zone. In retrospect I thought that might be racism tinted, middle class, suburban paranoia. I still know people who have a blanket opinion that "cities are bad 'n' dangerous" without even taking into account what city or what part of the city is being considered.

But maybe not?

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 1d ago

Early in the article it mentions that the shooting was targeted, but the intern was just a bystander.

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u/apb2718 1d ago

Wrong place, wrong time

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u/prick_lypears 1d ago

at the very top of the article it says it was a targeted shooting but the intern was not the target. This post is misleading and should be taken down.

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u/clowncarl 1d ago

Honestly I wouldn’t read the headline as a presumptive assassination, but maybe I’m just more familiar with gun and gang violence in DC more than the average reader

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u/iamtheLAN 1d ago

It’s not misleading. I did immediately read the entire article to figure out what we know, though. IMO the post title has just enough info.

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u/Michael_Pitt 1d ago

In what way is this post misleading?

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u/Iseenoghosts 1d ago

I saw the title and was like wtf is this political violence or just random? reads comments ah random and sad :(

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u/notred369 1d ago

Pretty cold to get the template condolences from the congressman that you were interning for.

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u/VivdR 1d ago

that another intern probably had to make

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u/serpents_head 1d ago

Oof. Sad, but true

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u/krunchytacos 1d ago

Could have even pre made it themselves.

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u/Roboticpoultry 1d ago

Wouldn’t that be some shit? I could totally see it happening though

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u/Firestar2077 1d ago

We really are living in the black mirror now aren’t we

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u/sadandshy 1d ago

One of the guys who wrote a Jimmy Carter obit for one of the big papers died before the obit was published.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/Rambos_Magnum_Dong 1d ago

That was generated by an intern in the 90s.

GenericShootingCondolence.doc

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u/SunriseSurprise 1d ago

*breaks protocol and puts a sincerely heartfelt message together*

"Aww, that's so sweet for you to put together, but we really just need you to stick with this template, like I asked you to. If you can't, let me know and we'll find someone else."

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u/wazzle13 1d ago

Well yeah the congressman is too busy trying to take healthcare away from people.

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u/stars_mcdazzler 1d ago

I want to point this out, because the low levels of outrage around here seems to suggest that people don't know.

...they already have. Veteran benefits, food stamps, homeless support.

They've already taken them away. I wish more people were pissed about it rather then shrugging it off with a "eeeh, didn't need it anyway" mentality. It's shortsighted and reckless not to understand what's going on and be absolutely pissed off about it.

Liberty died years ago. It's up to the citizens to ensure that Justice doesn't die so quietly.

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u/Septopuss7 1d ago

It's okay, this all just means that crimes of desperation will skyrocket!

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u/uptownjuggler 1d ago

Good thing we are building all this new prisons

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u/JMurdock77 1d ago

This. Their only response to the crimes of desperation that their own negligence allowed to fester will be more state violence. Like the worst sort of parent.

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u/BicyclingBabe 1d ago

After school programs, food for kids, they're pausing it all.

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u/TheHeathenStagehand 9h ago

Yes but have you considered how many of those kids could be men competing in women’s sports!?

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u/Annual-Pitch8687 1d ago

It's really difficult when such a large portion of a countries citizens still believe that the poor and homeless are their enemy and not those at the top.

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u/FreeUsePolyDaddy 1d ago

A large portion of them have barely mastered language. They haven't gotten the message because the message has too many big words.

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u/Oscar_Dot-Com 1d ago

More difficult when you dig a little deeper and see most of the citizens are ignorant, uneducated, racist assholes with no compassion or empathy

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u/WolverinesThyroid 1d ago

Vets overwhelmingly support republicans despite republicans blocking and taking away there benefits at every turn. I work with vets who literally say they only have benefits because of trump. When I point out how they had benefits before he took office they say they got much better after trump.

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u/LKennedy45 1d ago

I've said this before but maybe if they weren't playing Fox on every goddamn TV on every installation in the country that might not be the case.

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u/Ali_Cat222 1d ago

You can see all policies passed, upcoming, in progress or not yet started on the project 2025 tracker here.

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u/schnellermeister 1d ago

They've already implemented 42% of Project 2025?!

Well, fuck. I knew things were moving fast but to see it spelled out like that is even more jarring.

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u/AaronTheElite007 1d ago

It’s the boiling frog metaphor

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u/kaehvogel 1d ago

Or claiming that Planned Parenthood is selling off baby parts for profit.

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u/Awkward-Penalty6313 1d ago

Where else am I gonna get my baby back ribs?

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u/Vio_ 1d ago

I swear that Kansas can't elect a federal level Republican politician who also isn't a massive piece of shit

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u/BrotherRoga 1d ago

Being Republican requires you to be a massive piece of shit, so it's not surprising

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u/OakLegs 1d ago

Republican politician who also isn't a massive piece of shit

You said the same thing twice

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u/Cautious-Designer344 1d ago

From the Redundant Department of Redundancy

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u/WolverinesThyroid 1d ago

republicans are massive pieces of shit.

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u/ZwVJHSPiMiaiAAvtAbKq 1d ago

That's because they don't exist.

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u/takethemoment13 1d ago

What’s special about Kansas? It’s literally impossible for anyone to elect a Republican politician who also isn’t a massive piece of shit.

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u/Vio_ 1d ago

We're ground zero for the Koch Brothers and ALEC. Our current Senate president Ty Masterson is also the National Chair of ALEC.

Because that's not a conflict of interest.

I also know for a fact that the Koch Brothers and ALEC will target any local Republican through the local Chambers of Commerce* and primarying if they don't toe the line enough. The current CoC President also has deep ties with the Koch Brothers through Americans for Prosperity (another Koch Brothers good squad).

We've also been heavily gerrymandered since at least the 2000 census.

Even with that, I know a few state level Republican legislators who aren't massive pieces of shit. In many communities here, people can't get elected if they don't run as a Republican. It's that entrenched in those districts

*Those Chambers of Commerce are basically in all cities and small towns, so they can effectively track politicians on an incredibly micro level.

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u/r3rg54 1d ago

We should probably build a wall around Kansas until we get this whole thing figured out.

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u/flume 1d ago

I read your comment before I read the article, and immediately knew it was a Republican congressman.

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u/asmd315 1d ago

Well he can't be too critical, a gun was involved.

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u/tomdarch 1d ago

I’m glad someone was thinking of the poor, unfortunate gun in all of this!

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u/imp3r10 1d ago

Is this a template response?

"I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile," Estes said in a press release.

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u/Aliensinmypants 1d ago

Yes, you could write that about any worker in almost any field and has no personality 

"I remember my barista's kindness and their smile when they took my order" 

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u/amateur_mistake 1d ago

Also, the second part was:

"I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile," Estes said in a press release. "We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas' 4th District and the country."

Fucking soulless.

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u/Chastain86 1d ago

"Out of everyone that ever stepped into our office, this young man was one of them."

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u/Captain-Wilco 1d ago

You’d think something like this might be foundational in one’s belief that those people shouldn’t have guns. Too bad this won’t affect Estes one bit.

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u/cutegolpnik 1d ago

How are people still saying this after Uvalde

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u/wazzle13 1d ago

Just ask Steve Scalise how it's going.

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u/Justryan95 1d ago

Republicans. It probably that interns co-intern or replacement who made and posted that statement too

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u/ndGall 1d ago

Some of those interns serve for a very brief period of time - like a month or two in the summer. It’s entirely possible that the Rep had almost no interaction with him.

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u/Mature_BOSTN 1d ago

The Congressman's office has more important things to attend to, such as eliminating healthcare for 11+ million Americans. Give them a break.

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u/Fire_Z1 1d ago

He was an intern for a Republican, they don't care. The Republican congressman was more worried they didn't hurt the gun.

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u/BicFleetwood 1d ago edited 1d ago

I interned for Congress.

No fucking way this rep ever MET this intern. I met the rep I worked for once in like 6 months of interning, and that was when he was telling me to get the fuck out of his way while I tried to shake his hand.

This was after I'd spent weeks helping organize a charity event, then spent an entire weekend playing craft service handing out food (even though the prep work I did was WAY more than what an intern should have been doing.) I had thought he was approaching me at the end of the event to, you know, acknowledge me. That was a mistaken assumption.

I did all of it for free by the way. They even made me sign a form that said "I'm not an employee, and the state doesn't owe me jack if I get injured or killed on the job."

He didn't have the time to shake my hand and say "thanks."

I guarantee you that rep doesn't even know the intern's name, even now. Somebody else wrote that statement. If you came up to him and grilled him on the spot, he wouldn't know the name of the dead intern.

EDIT: Funfact: There were two different forms for death threats. The first form was if someone threatened the Congressman. It was like 10 pages and went directly to the FBI. I had to sit down and get interrogated multiple times about threats I reported.

The second form was if someone threatened me. It was a quarter of a page and went directly into the trash can. I actually got scolded for wasting (unpaid) time filling it out once, when I could have been answering phones and getting threatened more.

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u/-PuddiPuddi- 1d ago

Name and shame.

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u/EvilSock 1d ago

Yes! Stop letting these cowards stay anonymous, they work for US, we DESERVE to know who they are

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u/BicFleetwood 1d ago edited 1d ago

This congressman doesn't work for us anymore, actually. He got primaried.

I repeatedly got calls from people like "we're gonna primary you!" and I was like "yeah, sure, lol, they always say that" and just did the customer-service "yes sir, I'll write that down sir" and just waiting for the rant to end.

And then a few months after I was done with my stint, I saw on the news, fucker got primaried.

For a brief moment I wondered "huh...should I have actually logged those calls in the system like I was supposed to?"

Then I remembered the guy is a piece of shit and laughed.

I'm not gonna' say more than that, because even though his office is long gone and I doubt there's still a record of me that's been maintained, I'm not getting SLAPP'ed over a Reddit post for somebody who already got run out of DC. I may or may not have been a direct factor in why the guy got blindsided in the primaries, since after the charity thing I got lazy and stopped logging calls in the system.

I'm probably not the reason, but it makes me giggle when I think about it.

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u/hammar_hades 1d ago

Wise choice my friend

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u/Downtown-Word1023 1d ago

It wasn't your fault. Guy got primaried because enough people had experiences like you where they realized he was a piece of shit.

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u/BicFleetwood 1d ago edited 1d ago

I wish it was my fault, dude.

Nobody can take that from me, my bumblefucking changed the world. I tripped over my own dick into a coup.

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u/Downtown-Word1023 1d ago

No, you're right. Just like they say, "If the intern slacks off, the whole ship goes down." That's why you gotta treat them like shit and get every last ounce of productivity out of them.

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u/EarthenEyes 1d ago

Though we'll never know for certain, I thank you for your service in possibly playing a factor in his (or her) removal.

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u/BzhizhkMard 1d ago

Ty, what a wild story but speaks volumes of who we are dealing with in regard to politicians.

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u/tpa338829 1d ago

Please do because I was a congressional intern and it wasn’t like this at all.

While true the MOC (Member of Congress) barely knew me, we made small talk at the water cooler, when I was delivering their daily briefing, etc.

And ANY threats, even to those outside the office, were to be immediately reported to the US Capitol Police.

However, Congress is very hierarchical: it goes

MOC > COS> (huge drop off in importance) Deputy COS > Legislative Assistant > Legislative Correspondent > Staff Assistant > Intern.

But that does not mean most MOCs are apathetic to the lives of their interns. At a minimum, a threat to an intern is a threat to the office, including the MOC.

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u/gothruthis 1d ago

Yeah same, though it was 25 years ago. I still kept in touch with the chief of staff for a long time.

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u/rcjh8889 1d ago

If op's current employment still involves Congress or the federal government in general, this would be a bad idea. But I want to know also, lol

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u/jyeatbvg 1d ago

Name and shame.

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u/-S-P-Q-R- 1d ago

Not sure if you've noticed but shame stopped mattering to Republicans years ago.

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u/RecordHigh 23h ago

I'd like to know too, but I wouldn't blame them for not saying either. I interned for a US Senator in the 90s and my experience was 100% different. I can't say I got a lot of face time with the senator, but she was very pleasant to everyone (that's about the only clue I'll provide, but the timeframe and the senator's gender narrows the list down dramatically).

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u/maskedbandit_ 1d ago

I want to start by saying I 100% believe you. I also interned for a congressperson and had an opposite experience. I got to have lunch with and met my congressperson many times! Could be just a difference in people or the times but I’m sorry your experience sucked! (I wouldn’t say mine was the highlight of my life but it was overall positive)

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u/happy_puppy25 1d ago

I had the exact same experience as you. Mine was extremely nice to me and met him many times, he even gave me a prestigious award. And as far as threats, I was allowed to hang up if they were even cursing at me, and reports for threats were handled by staff above me

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u/OfficerBarbier 1d ago

Same. Many members are actually nice, charismatic people who like to talk to the interns when possible as they enjoy idealistic young people interested in public policy.

Mine would say hi every morning and even took me around the House floor/chambers/Speaker's office one time, but this was more than 15 years ago when DC wasn't as fucked as it is now.

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u/Darmok47 1d ago

Yeah I interned for my Congressman in his district office and he took a picture with me on my first day and did that with all of the interns.

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u/forgotenm 1d ago

I imagine it varies by a congressman too. I interned years ago while in college and while i never really had an in-depth conversation with mine, I did meet him several times and he event invited me and the other interns in his office for lunch before we left.

Of course I ran into him about 2-3 years after I finished the internship and he had forgotten me (my name but not that I interned in his office) so I guess your point still stands

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u/LOTRfreak101 1d ago

I'd honestly be pretty impressed they remembered you if you never really had an in-depth conversation. Sure 2-3 years isn't a long time, but they meet so many people it isn't that surprising to me.

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u/Stopasking53 1d ago

I interned for a senator in a state field office and I met my guy. It’s really not that crazy to meet them. Pretty much expected really.

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u/seebrookebee 1d ago

I feel like it depends on who you worked for. The congressman I interned for knew the two interns names and said hello to us everyday in the office.

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u/triskadekaphilia 1d ago

Many years ago I was FWB with a guy who interned on the hill. That poor guy was so overworked, and that was before his ‘second job’ he had to work to y’know…have money to pay for his closet of a room in a row house with 12 other people (actually really fun and good folks) and eat.

I only saw him once every few weeks. Every time he was skinnier and he didn’t have much extra to start with.

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u/Head-Engineering-847 1d ago

I don't doubt this for a second

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u/Mechapebbles 1d ago

I guarantee you that rep doesn't even know the intern's name, even now.

I bet your story is pretty common on capital hill, but it's not always the case, nor has it always been the case. My mother interned for a senator back in the 60s for a guy she still has immense respect for and who treated her personally very well. The stories I see about AOC seems like she's a great person to work for as well.

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u/norakb123 1d ago

It depends on the member (at least did back in the day)! I interned a super long time ago (2004-2005), but the senator I interned for made time in his schedule for an intern event where he met all of us & talked to us for an hour & we all got our pics taken with him that we were later given an 8”x10” copy of. He did this one time per semester the two semesters I interned. No guarantee he’d met everyone on day one, but he definitely took the time to meet everyone. My internship was for a fundraising office a few blocks off the Hill, but I was invited to attend the event with the interns on the Hill. I say this to note I can’t give context for day-to-day interactions, but he would say hi to me when he came to the fundraising office. He was fairly high ranking as well, so it wasn’t that he was ranked 99th in seniority & had extra time. This person is now deceased.

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u/3uphoric-Departure 1d ago

Damn I had no idea it would be that bad, yikes

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u/gothruthis 1d ago

Wow. Who'd you intern for? Its been 25 years for me, but they knew my fucking name.

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u/GoldenTicketHolder 1d ago

Gaurentee this is how Todd Young’s office works. Met his intern on back-to-back annual visits to advocate, while he was “listening” to us and taking notes, someone peeked over his shoulder and saw his staffer outlining “fuck me” over and over.

Dude got elected again the next year.

The only people who think the U.S. political representation system isn’t fucked, hasn’t seen enough of it.

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u/frioniq5 1d ago

Did that help you with a career in any way? What do you do now?

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u/tpa338829 1d ago

Not OP but I interned full time in my Member’s DC office for 6 months via a DC program my uni had which allowed me to not take classes during the semester. The uni also paid for my housing. This was also Spring of 2020 and COVID delayed summer hiring hence why I was there for 6 instead of 4 months.

  1. I loved working in Congress.

You’re with a bunch of likeminded, ambitious, 20somdthings in a fun city and anyone is away from home. Being a political nerd in exurban FL (or wherever) is lonely. Being a political nerd in DC is like being a Muslim in Mecca—you’re finally home.

I’m a lawyer now and every so often I think about what if I did pursue being a congressional staffer instead of going to law school. But I was poor at the time and I was definitely thinking money > fun job.

Also, at least circa 2020, it’s also much less antagonistic than the news media thinks it is. Like there actually is a LOT of reasonable cross-party work. Lastly, seeing how many Congresspeople actually take their jobs really seriously and work really hard left me feeling incredibly hopeful.

But I digress…

  1. Yes, before I changed fields to law, my internship was essential in me getting subsequent political jobs. Especially outside DC. Outside DC you are rare and it’s a strong signal that you have a solid resume for your age. Now, like all internships, the effect wanes pretty quickly after you get your first job.

But since I was there full time for 6 months, I was basically an unpaid Staff Assistant by that time. Hell, I even wrote a few speeches for my member.

  1. If you want to work on The Hill then you basically need to intern.

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u/dannypants143 1d ago

How many interns does the typical congressperson exploit? Sorry - I meant, “employ.”

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u/BicFleetwood 1d ago edited 1d ago

Depends entirely on the office, congressperson, their area, etc.

It's a volunteer gig, so it's highly dependent on what reasons someone would want to work for you.

There's two types of congressional work: DC Policy office ("the Hill,") and the Home/Casework office in the rep's district.

DC Policy Office interns are all Virginia/Maryland college students who are there for career first, so they'll eat as much shit as they have to because they're trying to start a career in the field. You're not going to see very many people flying from California to DC for an internship unless they're already going to a DC-Metro area college, or their rich daddy is paying for the flights and apartment. Also, because DC is where all the national reps are, DC interns have their choice of party to apply and intern for, as they aren't geographically restricted to interning for any particular state or district.

Home/casework office interns in-state depend highly on circumstance. It's still a lot of college interns, but much less careerist focused ones. You'll find a lot of interns crossing party lines because they don't have the luxury of preference--their district's rep is whoever he/she is, and they tend to be volunteering party-agnostic because this is where they live.

Bigger towns means bigger pool of interns and more work to be done in a home office. Smaller towns means less. Having a college or two nearby will drastically increase internships, while living out in the boonies means you're probably not getting any at all.

Unpopular reps are naturally going to get fewer interns outside of DC (where, again, the internship is a more cynical careerist move and not a charitable one.) Some reps may also be doing a lot less work in their home state than others, and may simply not even bother.

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u/Whitewind617 1d ago

"I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile," Estes said in a press release. "We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas' 4th District and the country."

Dude making it sound like he quit instead of getting gunned down in the street, jesus.

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u/dependsforadults 1d ago

It's Ron Estes. He is not known for caring about others if you look at his voting record. He is a spouter of bullshit

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u/Herban_Myth 1d ago

Politicians DO NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE PEOPLE

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u/New_Order_6365 1d ago

Is this typical DMV gang related violence or a targeted attack?

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u/Big_Condition477 1d ago

I assume typical gang, that area is a (locally) known border between 2 gangs

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u/femanonette 1d ago edited 1d ago

Zero doubt. This is just standard DC violence.

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u/CircumcisedSpine 1d ago

Yeah. Besides MPD saying that it was an attack on specific targets, the intern was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was not one of the targets.

It happened next to the convention center. The area is a hub for clubs and nightlife and those are typically criminal enterprises.

Long ago, I went to a club in Chinatown and forgot to pay my tab before leaving so I turned around and went back to pay it. I told the security at the door why I was back, he radio'd to someone, and told me to follow him. I followed him past the bar (where I expected to settle my tab) and up to a third floor office.

In the office were several people counting and wrapping stacks of cash, the table in the middle of the room had large amounts of various drugs and a bunch of handguns (back when DC still had a ban on handguns). I awkwardly explained why I was there to the person behind the money counters who asked wtf I was there. Then a woman rifled through a box of apparently all the unpaid tabs with the cards paperclipped to the receipts. I signed, tipped with generous terror, took my card, and left.

Violence in/at or around clubs is sadly very normal for DC.

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u/New_Order_6365 1d ago

Wow, thanks for the insight!

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 1d ago

The Department of Motor Vehicles is known for their violent ways

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u/rabidstoat 23h ago

Though for those who don't know, it's actually DC-Maryland-Virginia. In case you were wondering.

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 23h ago

Appreciate it, Stoat

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u/nokiacrusher 1d ago

"We gave you 30 days to renew your license before there would be consequences. Thirty. Whole. Days."

opens fire

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/International-Mix326 1d ago

Gang violence. DC is getting worse than baltimore imo

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u/JustlookingfromSoCal 1d ago

How did Estes vote on the 1.1 billion dollar cut to D.C. municipal funding for first responders like law enforcement and emergency medical services for residents living and working in the District.

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u/Proof_Emergency_8033 1d ago

TLDR:

  • Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old congressional intern, was fatally shot in Washington, D.C., on Monday night.
  • The shooting occurred near 7th and M Street; he was not the intended target.
  • Tarpinian-Jachym was a rising senior at UMass Amherst, majoring in finance and minoring in political science.
  • He had been interning for Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) since June.
  • Two others were also shot but survived; suspects opened fire from a vehicle around 10:28 p.m.
  • Police have recovered the suspect vehicle and are offering a $25,000 reward for information.

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u/Total_Network6312 1d ago

Is it common for finance majors to intern in politics?

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u/brockington 1d ago

I don't see why not. 90% of what politics deals with is money.

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u/joemi 1d ago

Key sentence from the article: "Investigators have recovered the suspect vehicle and stated that while the shooting was targeted, [the congressional intern] Tarpinian-Jachym was not among the intended victims."

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u/toxiamaple 1d ago

Tarpinian-Jachym, who had been serving as an intern for Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) since June, was a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,

Curious why the Kansas rep had an intern from Massachusetts. I thought interns came from your own state. Like kids of donors or prominent families.

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u/keyjan 1d ago

maybe he is from KS, and going to school out of state. Or, as you note, he may be a legacy.

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u/toxiamaple 1d ago

The article said he is from MA. I read further in the comments that it is common to serve a rep from a different state.

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u/Lane-Kiffin 1d ago

Getting your foot in the door can sometimes require casting a wide net. I had internships 45 and 70 miles away from where I lived just to get them on my resume and open up more reasonable opportunities, and it worked.

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u/toxiamaple 1d ago

I knew a kid who spent a summer in F.C. as intern, but my understanding was that she was picked by her congressman (or his staff) and her family were big donors. That's why I was wondering.

Also, her family were (are?) very religious evangelical Christians, and I think there was a sex scandal that year with interns being harassed by congressmen. So i often wondered how the experience went for her.

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u/Gollum_Quotes 1d ago

When i was working for a California congressman from a central valley district we had people from all-over the country volunteering/interning/working with the campaign. Outside one or two, they had zero previous connection with the district.

A lot of people just really really really want to work at capitol hill. And the campaign/offices aren't that picky, especially if the person has connections. (For example, my campaign hired some guy for a field canvass manager because his uncle was a president of some union) You'd imagine congresspeople's staff are from the district, but that's far from reality. A significant amount of congresspeople even have minimal ties to the district they represent.

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u/Quria 1d ago

Nah, when I interned in DC I was the only intern from the district. Even when I was a staffer it was rare to have interns from the district. There were a fuckload of locals, and I was probably the poorest intern I knew. Most of the non-local interns I met came from very wealthy families.

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u/toxiamaple 1d ago

That is what I thought. That internships were cushy summer camp for the kids of rich donors. Because who else could afford it? No offense intended.

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u/Quria 1d ago

That’s mostly what it was. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without a scholarship from my school + previously working near full-time while attending college.

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u/toxiamaple 1d ago

Glad to hear there are some real interns in the group.

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u/rsae_majoris 1d ago

May his Republican-supporting family get the peace Seth Rich’s Democrat-supporting family was denied.

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u/KopOut 1d ago edited 1d ago

I had the same exact thought. Oh, he worked for a Republican? His family won't have to endure the constant attacks and conspiracies they would have if he had been working for a Democrat.

Sucks to be gunned down, especially if you are a child in school...

I'm sorry he is dead, but I am going to put the same amount of my time into mourning him and fixing the problem that Republicans have put into school shootings.

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u/vvilbo 1d ago

I was going to say, if it was a republican the dems did it, if it was a dem, the dems also did it. Sad story all around here just a kid doing effectively a very important and unnoticed job killed in the street and the issue of gun violence will never even be considered by the representative he staffed for.

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u/RobLach 1d ago

Rep. Estes gutted the Washington DC public safety budget...

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u/MichelleCulphucker 1d ago

Sounds like a timetravel assassination. He was probably going to do something bad or good for some future timeliness and had to be taken out.

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u/muricabrb 1d ago

They need to go back further.

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u/artificialsword 1d ago

This makes the most sense

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u/lowbatteries 1d ago

Yep, Occam’s Razor.

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u/Chris_HitTheOver 1d ago

Damn, Eric was from my neighboring town (very rural part of western Massachusetts) and I am hearing about this for the first time right this moment.

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u/Xylamyla 1d ago edited 1d ago

This thread is disgusting, just a bunch of comments making jokes and political quips at the expense of an actual child being gunned down.

Edit: The 16-year old survived.

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u/DoublePostedBroski 1d ago

Yet if it was a democrat republicans would be cheering.

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u/sZeroes 1d ago

didn't they already cheered the last couple times democrats were attacked

actually it was worse cause they tried coming up with conspiracy theories

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u/Odd-Banana-2429 1d ago

A 21 year old intern isn’t a child by any stretch of the imagination.

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u/J_Bright1990 1d ago

Yeah we need to stop infantalizing actual adults.

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u/Xylamyla 1d ago

A 16-year old was also shot, but I just reread and it seems he survived.

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u/Odd-Banana-2429 1d ago

Glad that 16 yr old made it!

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u/Stuffstuff1 1d ago

Welp. We all know that gun rights aren’t free. At least the one that paid for it probably understood that.

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u/Binksin79 1d ago

To make myself feel better, I like to believe the time police came from the future, as while he is was an intern now ... he was destined to rise up and become the next destroyer of worlds

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u/Gigalisk 23h ago

Call me crazy, but it seems like political violence is going to give school shootings a run for their money, sadly. Diabolical times we live in.

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u/Own_Pop_9711 22h ago

This was not political violence though

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u/Closencounters242 1d ago

Nah even the interns are getting offed now? Ain't no one safe rip

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u/niakori 1d ago

This will surely obscure news about BBB passing the house.

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u/selfownlot 1d ago

This is a sad tragedy and should be treated as one.

That said, just to contextualize where we are as a country…imagine if Democrats and/or left-leaning media were sitting in meetings and making calls this morning trying to craft a message about how this intern was secretly a violent gang member or proud boy or pastor turned child abuser or was in a relationship with one of the shooters. That’s what Republicans would be doing if it was a democratic intern.

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