Life With Nia | ONC 2020

Chapter 7

April 4th, 2019

I haven't been able to do much more than work, eat, and sleep for the past couple of days. Last week, it was because Senator Harris kept the senior staff up past ten o'clock every night, preparing for her campaign announcement. She announced her candidacy four days ago in New Orleans. I thought about visiting my family while we were there, but there was no time; we flew back to D.C. that evening.

Since then, I've been putting in ten-hour days at the Russell Building, where the senator's office is located. I haven't had more than fifteen minutes to myself without someone on the speechwriting team bursting into my office with edits, or one of the senator's aides bringing me notes on a city the senator plans to visit, or an issue the senator wants to address.

This afternoon alone, my attempted lunch was thwarted four times. I had finally gotten to take my cartons of rice and chicken out of the Chinese takeout bag when the last person knocked on my door. I groaned inwardly. "Come in!"

The door swung open. When I saw who was on the other side, I sat down at my desk and started pulling the utensils out of their packaging. "Oh, it's just you. Hey, Leo."

"Eating at your desk?" he asked, as he closed the door behind him. "That can't be healthy." He sat in one of the chairs on the opposite side of my desk and shrugged his satchel off his shoulder.

"What really is 'healthy'?" I asked, through a mouthful of sweet and sour chicken.

He arched his eyebrows. "Those sound like the words of a great philosopher. Socrates? Aristotle?"

"Nia James."

"Never heard of her."

I rolled my eyes and motioned to the satchel next to my desk. "You have questions for me?"

"That depends on whether I can objectively ask my big sister tough questions, and whether she can objectively answer them."

"Definitely not. Besides, no reporter has been able to get an exclusive with a member of the senior staff. If I talked to you on the record, it would be favoritism."

He made a pfft noise. "Oh, please. It's not favoritism. It's nepotism. Like how Jake has been handling you on his show the past few weeks."

I stopped in the middle of taking a drink of water and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You haven't heard?" He nodded at my computer. "Go to The Washington Post's website. Try searching Jake Smith and Nia James."

The article was titled, "Two Things: Personal Relationships and Honest Journalism," by Robin Benson. I scanned the first couple of paragraphs and found this sentence: "It is evident to any journalist, and to many viewers, that Jake Smith's past relationship with Nia James hinders him from engaging in the substantive questioning for which he is known."

I turned to Leo. "How come I haven't heard about this?"

"They just published it this morning."

"Well, if they want to talk about bad journalism, this is bad journalism," I said, jabbing my fork at the desktop monitor.

"It's an op-ed."

"I guess." I shoveled a spoonful of rice into my mouth. "I don't think he's treated me differently from anyone else on the panel," I started, and though I was speaking aloud, I was mostly talking to myself. "He's kind to everyone, and he doesn't get 'tough' with anyone."

"Arnette Thomas, two days ago. He asked her about Governor Ryan's opposition to gun reform seventy different ways before she finally had to admit that Ryan hasn't always been on the right side of gun legislation in the eyes of the Democratic Party."