Aidan Maese-Czeropski, the Democratic staffer fired for making a gay sex tape in a Senate hearing room, filmed his backdoor love romp in the same office building where President Joe Biden said the n-word in 1985.
The former legislative aide to Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) had bragged on social media about getting "some thick German sausage & a jager sauce finish" in the same room—Hart 216—where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer had her confirmation hearing, and former FBI director James Comey testified about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Several decades earlier, then-Sen. Joe Biden (D., Del.) said the n-word in a room also located in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. "We already have a n----- mayor, we don’t need any more n----- big shots!" Biden said during the confirmation hearing for U.S. deputy attorney general William Bradford Reynolds.
When Biden's comments resurfaced during the 2020 election, mainstream media outlets rushed to the Democrat's defense. The Associated Press, among others, said it was "false" "misinformation" to suggest that Biden had said the n-word because he was simply quoting someone else—a state legislator in Louisiana—and social media users were "twisting" Biden's remarks.
In fact, Biden did say the n-word, even if he was quoting someone else. Mainstream media outlets weren't as forgiving when New York Times reporter Don McNeil quoted someone else using the n-word while chaperoning a group of entitled high school students on a trip to Peru in 2019.
When McNeil's comments were reported in 2021, more than 150 Times staffers signed a letter denouncing the paper's leadership for giving "a prominent platform ... to someone who chose to use language that is offensive and unacceptable." McNeil subsequently resigned.
Hours before his termination was announced over the weekend, Maese-Czeropski acknowledged in a LinkedIn post that some of his "actions in the past have shown poor judgment," but insisted he "would never disrespect" his place of work. The staffer also denied accosting Rep. Max Miller (R., Ohio) in the Capitol complex by shouting "Free Palestine," a territory renowned for its progressive stance on gay sex tapes.