Last week, there was a bit of a stir surrounding Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) upbraiding a House staffer riding with her in a “members only” elevator. Foxx reportedly said to the staffer, “This is a ‘members-only’ elevator; can you read?” before demanding the aide exit at the next floor.
For the record, the signs at the elevators say they are reserved for members of Congress “during votes.” Foxx, according to The Hill report, didn’t care.
As it turns out, the article brought out others who faced similar treatment (via Jamison Foser).
One tipster recalls it was either the first or second week of his congressional internship in October of last year when he was running an errand to a committee room, and still had a “healthy fear of the members-only elevator.”
But after seeing a parcel deliveryman hop on one of the lifts in the Longworth House Office Building, our source stepped on, too. The deliveryman got off on the next floor, and that’s when Foxx got on.
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Our insider says the congresswoman asked if he had seen the “members-only” sign outside the elevator before demanding his name and the office he worked for.
The aide added, “She walked up to a [Capitol] police officer and told on me for riding on her elevator, and he was as dumbfounded as I was.”
Then another House staffer said he, too, was reprimanded by Foxx in the members-only elevator, in which she asked whether he could read and demanded his congressional ID.
Raise your hand if you think Virginia Foxx cares just a little too much about elevators.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
