Reality: After being filmed having gay sex in Senate hearing room, Democratic congressional staffer gets fired by employer.
NBC News version of reality: Democratic senator parts ways with staffer after Republicans Pounce™ on report in conservative media about him allegedly doing, you know, something untoward.
Yes, that’s a bit of hyperbole, but only a bit. As you may or may not have heard — but hopefully haven’t seen — a staffer for Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin is jobless after he was identified as one party in a two-man sex tape filmed in a room used by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The story was initially broken by The Daily Caller, which didn’t speculate on his identity. He was later positively identified by numerous outlets as 24-year-old Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a man who might have to legally change his name to G. Gordon Liddy to get past the résumé part of the hiring process.
Both Maese-Czeropski and Cardin’s office seem to have confirmed he was indeed involved by issuing nondenial nondenials.
“While some of my actions in the past have shown poor judgment, I love my job and would never disrespect my workplace,” Maese-Czeropski wrote on LinkedIn, according to Politico. “Any attempts to characterize my actions otherwise are fabricated and I will be exploring what legal options are available to me in these matters.”
As for Cardin’s office, its statement was a bit more impersonal.
“Aidan Maese-Czeropski is no longer employed by the U.S. Senate,” the senator’s office said in a statement, according to the Washington Examiner. “We will have no further comment on this personnel matter.”
Yes, probably because 1) Cardin once railed against the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion by calling the Capitol a “sacred space” and 2) a report in The Post Millennial indicated that Maese-Czeropski had a history of posting graphic material on social media that could have been easily identified with the scantest bit of vetting.
Should this staffer face criminal charges?
Give it to the normally liberal Politico, after quoting Maese-Czeropski’s statement that he’d “be exploring what legal options are available to me in these matters”: “Yeah, we’d definitely advise finding a lawyer,” the outlet noted, not without a twinge of sarcasm.
Over at NBC News, however, the language used on social media to describe the order of events was on another level:
“Sen. Ben Cardin’s office has parted ways with a staffer who conservative news outlets alleged was shown in a leaked video having sex in a Senate hearing room.”
Sen. Ben Cardin’s office has parted ways with a staffer who conservative news outlets alleged was shown in a leaked video having sex in a Senate hearing room. https://t.co/TQqhzlri5g
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 16, 2023
Note the order of events and the language used here by NBC News, signifying what’s important: “Sen. Ben Cardin’s office [no party mentioned] has parted ways [language indicating a mutual separation] with a staffer who conservative news outlets [REPUBLICANS POUNCE!] alleged [hardly just an ‘allegation’ when this was posted at a little before 4 p.m. Eastern on Saturday] was shown in a leaked video having sex [wow, this very pertinent fact is situated pretty late in the sentence] in a Senate hearing room [even later!].’”
For those of you unfamiliar with the “Republicans Pounce!” trope, it’s basically how establishment media organs will use language that takes Democratic scandals, weaknesses and/or other perfidies and instead blame Republicans or conservatives — in this case, conservative media outlets — for noticing. Examples:
New “Republicans pounce” just dropped: pic.twitter.com/HT7jrSBZnB
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) December 11, 2023
Here’s how @USATODAY addressed the anti white bigot #MichelleWu‘s white exclusion party email, of course:
“republicans pounce” 👌🏾#RepublicansPounce https://t.co/KC4XljorHQ @MattWalshBlog @benshapiro @michaeljknowles @realDailyWire @adamcarolla @AnthonyCumia pic.twitter.com/LGoE1FAla2
— Steve Sheeston (@sheeston1979) December 16, 2023
GOP smells blood in the water in elite school antisemitism controversy https://t.co/Qru6vfWcSs pic.twitter.com/YWnqrUiYgO
— The Hill (@thehill) December 12, 2023
And, indeed, social media users certainly noticed this vibe with the NBC News story, as well:
Republicans pounce pic.twitter.com/dpIlddbGKK
— Mark Patient (@MarkPatient) December 16, 2023
So it was the conservative outlets fault that that guy filmed gay sex in a Senate hearing room? NBC News is run by clowns.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) December 16, 2023
Conservatives didn’t video him, he did and posted it online.
— @amuse (@amuse) December 16, 2023
As for the story itself, it’s scarcely any better. The lede sets the tone, placing reportage before the reported act: “Sen. Ben Cardin’s office has parted ways with a staffer who conservative news outlets alleged was shown in a leaked video having sex in a Senate hearing room.”
Then came the terse statement from Cardin’s office in which the senator was finally identified as a Democrat, then more reporting on the reporting as opposed to reporting on an explicit video featuring two men having sex inside the “sacred space” that is the Capitol:
“On Friday, The Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet, published what it said was video showing a congressional staffer having ‘sex with an unknown man in the Senate hearing room.’ It added that the video was shared ‘in a private group for gay men in politics.’
“Conservative outlets then alleged that Maese-Czeropski, a legislative aide for Cardin, was one of the men in the video.
“NBC News has not confirmed the authenticity of the video or the identities of the participants.”
This, by the way, leads right into Maese-Czeropski’s LinkedIn statement — which strongly suggests he’s the guy in the video.
How daft does one need to be? If the video is inauthentic or didn’t feature the Cardin staffer, he would have said one of those two things — not issued a vague apology on LinkedIn.
One doesn’t implicitly apologize publicly for something one didn’t do, particularly if it’s an allegation of being a star in an amateur porn clip filmed inside the Capitol. That’s a pretty easy thing to deny if you haven’t done it.
But no: It’s “REPUBLICANS POUNCE!” all over again. Quelle surprise.
