Thread by @ashtonpittman

This clip, starting at 11 seconds, where @CindyHydeSmith talks about entering politics as a woman & the "crusty old buzzards" who didn't want hear there, is the kind of human story I hoped she'd share with me when I begged her campaign for a sit-down interview in 2018. 1/

https://twitter.com/jallen1985/status/1376989548929024000

Both of her opponents that year, a Republican and a Democrat, sat & talked with me for hours both about issues and about who they were.

But Sen. Hyde-Smith's campaign didn't trust that she, our first woman senator, to withstand a prolonged interview with a journalist. 2/

So I never got that chance to do a sit-down interview with Sen. Hyde-Smith & let her share her ideas and her human side and stories.

The closest I ever got was her swearing on her daughter's life (while side-hugging her) that she'd never voted for Hillary Clinton. (Disputed) 3/

And then Sen. Hyde-Smith made her infamous "public hanging" remark and I started searching to figure out where that came from and reported on her segregation academy. 4/
jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/nov/…

And then Sen. Hyde-Smith's campaign, who blocked her from doing meaningful long-form interviews (except easy ones with partisan brown nosing ones), make clear with this tweet what they thought of me and other journalists. 🤷🏻‍♂️ 5/

https://twitter.com/TeamHydeSmith/status/1067631051504304129

But yeah, having the chance to have had a sit-down with the friendly, thoughtful-sounding person in the video above after the first 10 seconds would've been nice.

But folks made other decisions. 6/