CNN's Audie Cornish audibly shuddered on air during a discussion of House Speaker Mike Johnson's message to lawmakers on dating.
Cornish and her "CNN This Morning" panelists were discussing Thursday Johnson's (R-LA) public backing a ban on members of Congress having romantic or sexual relationships with Capitol Hill staffers, which came after two House members resigned over sexual misconduct allegations.
"There's so much overlap between politicians, members of the media and staffers," said TMZ's Jacob Wasserman. "When you go out to bars, there are all these bars around D.C., and everyone's hanging out with each other, and it's like loosening the tie and it just feels like you get alcohol in the mix and, you know, the rules are off point."
Cornish pointed out that reporters often cultivated sources over drinks with lawmakers and their staffers, and Axios' Alex Thompson jumped in to argue Congress should tighten up its rules that currently ban members from having sexual relationships with staffers in their own office.
"Mike Johnson is right," Thompson said. "The era of workplace romances ended in corporate America post-MeToo, but it has not hit Capitol Hill, in part because you have this, you know, at times, boozy culture, endless happy hours and, you know, on Congress, it seemed that they had an out. Now, Mike Johnson, you know, comes from a pretty conservative, culturally conservative place."
"He says he's not worried," Cornish interjected.
Thomas argued it would be worth keeping an eye on the nay-sayers.
"It's going to be curious if there's any... members of Congress that vocally come out against this and be like, 'Well, I still wanted to have a little bit of a dating life,'" Thompson said. "'And it's been conspicuous.'"
This spurred a visceral reaction from Cornish.
"Ugh," she said. "Blech."
Cornish then pivoted to her own past experience as a Capitol Hill reporter, saying she felt compelled to wear high heels and a sheath dress while on the job.
"So I'm shimmying around in this sheath dress, destroying my knee cartilage for why, for what?" Cornish said. "You know what I mean, and it was this sense that you were part of a display of all the staffers were hot, and it was confusing to me what I was a part of."
Meghan Hays, who served as a communications staffer under former President Joe Biden, reported similar experiences working in the nation's capital.
"One of my first jobs in Washington, my boss told me they prefer us to wear dresses – the shorter the better," Hays said. "That is not unusual here. I do think that the thing that's a little bit unfortunate that we even have to have this conversation, like, why can't you be the leader that you're elected to be by the people, and I think that's what's different than in corporate America."
Hays added, "That Johnson even has to do this or even talked about it is sort of gross."
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