Amy Rutkin has been around Congress long enough to remember something like friendliness between the two parties.
For much of her career, and even as recently as the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, Rutkin recalls Republican and Democratic staffers commiserating.
“We would have weekly meetings with both,” said Rutkin, who is Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s longtime chief of staff, as well as his right hand on the House Judiciary Committee. “It’s sort of like it’s the staff against the members. There’s a kind of camaraderie. We have to orchestrate these hearings and these markups. And we would do a kind of friendly gaming-out of how things would work.”
