Thread by @Brandi_Buchman

Before I embark on whatever it is that comes next in my career, I have pulled together some of my stories and live-tweet threads from the last five years for your convenience. Reflecting on the 1,400+ stories I wrote, I'll say this: I would do it again. And then some. Away we go.

https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1424836143066062854

When I first started tweeting it began in earnest with my coverage of all things Paul Manafort. When former Pres. Trump pardoned him, it prompted me to reflect on that experience and I shared much of my key coverage in a thread. That starts here:

https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1342143143483944971?s=20

It was an exhilarating experience to cover Manafort's trial though incredibly taxing. The highlight for me? When I crashed the CNS website because of my live coverage:

Here's something I didn't share after Manafort's verdict came in. I had been sick for most of the trial. Intense migraines, poor nutrition, little sleep, high stress, long days. Typical. But quite literally right after I published that day, I packed up my computer...

I left the courthouse and headed right to the local emergency clinic. Got to the clinic, plopped down in a chair and promptly passed out. When I came to, I was told I was dehydrated and exhausted. It took me four days to recuperate. Would I do it again? Sure, but w/ more snacks

I also cannot emphasize enough how key it is to have a co-worker around who remembers to feed and water you like a damn houseplant. My colleagues Tim Ryan and Jack Rodgers always took care of me when we collaborated. Seriously. They are angels.
But I digress.

I covered dozens of congressional hearings and dissected dozens of reports and legal records tied to the Mueller probe. If Mueller was on the Hill, I was there:
courthousenews.com/house-presses-…

I know a lot of people and reporters aren't terribly fond of a congressional committee. But I, unabashedly, love them. The song and dance of it, truths that can squeak or thunder out, all things depending. The maneuvering, angling. I love looking for signals. I love procedure.

I covered a lot, and I mean a lot of congressional committee hearings. Typically, my beats involved House Oversight, Judiciary, Environment/Public Works, Civil Rights, Foreign Policy and National Security.

Much of my congressional hearing coverage for the Trump admin revolved around probes into his conduct, Russian interference or the seemingly unending cascade of the administration's firings and hirings. Keeping a close eye mattered then and now, exhibit A:
courthousenews.com/trumps-biggest…

Now, admittedly, oversight of Trump's conduct sucked up most of the air in DC. But Congress still worked on a massive legislative agenda for the duration. A lot of the committee work was key because it gave Americans a chance to better understand how policy impacted people.

For example, this hearing will be seared into my brain forever.
courthousenews.com/immigrant-mom-…

Another hearing that lives rent free forever... when Parkland shooting Survivors came to the House.
courthousenews.com/senate-hears-f…

In light of the recent IPCC report on climate change, let me say: I have written more of the following stories than I can now count on two hands. Experts must keep coming, but testimony on facts alone is just a small drop in an already overflowing bucket:
courthousenews.com/expert-tells-h…

I also wrote a litany of stories involving ethics scandals and congressional oversight of officials like former EPA head Scott Pruitt: courthousenews.com/lawmakers-assa…

In the run-up to Trump's impeachment inquiry (Part One), my marching orders were: cover everything, cover every filing, every movement. So that's what I did.

Now, there could come a time when I'll parse out the lived experience of Impeachment I. For now, suffice it to say: I was up well before dawn every day, in the room every day, live-tweeting minute by minute every day and writing late into every night

https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1195327867430813696?s=20

But that is what you do when you are a reporter and history is being made. courthousenews.com/trump-becomes-…

When the Senate acquitted Trump in 2020, it was expected. It was all but a certainty. When I filed this story below, I didn't necessarily doubt he would be impeached again. His conduct foretold that. I just didn't think it would come so soon.
courthousenews.com/in-lock-step-w…

Trump was emboldened by that acquittal. Daily life became an even bumpier sleigh ride featuring more obstruction and evasion from on high. Meanwhile, we were barreling toward a pandemic.

One of the best interviews, one of the best conversations, actually, I had, during the early stages of the pandemic was with Dr. Robert Gallo. Only 110K people had died worldwide at that time. I worked hard to communicate what he shared w/me:
courthousenews.com/bent-curve-isn…

The pandemic also created a new professional task for me and one that would become a daily ritual I would usually only *start* after a full day on the Hill or at court and usually at 5PM: The Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefings.

Those briefings were one of the few events in Washington I did not live-tweet at length. I made that choice because I felt my final reports would be the way I would be able to best unwind real-time disinformation accurately and do the least harm.

Call me crazy (get in line) but I genuinely would be up late at night, wrestling with myself over whether that decision was the best one. But ultimately, today, I think it was the right call for me and my audience. Not casting aspersions on anyone else. Can only speak for me.

I strive to put context in my stories. And on this day, when Deborah Birx was seen visibly collapsing into her chair as the president suggested people ingest bleach to cure Covid, I started my story where we were: dealing with quack medicine and con men.
courthousenews.com/trump-spitball…

The bleach debacle, as I referred to it in my notes, was just a month or so before George Floyd would be killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. That tragedy triggered a national response and it solidified in my mind what I wanted to do with what little platform I had.

I wanted to talk openly with people about police brutality. I wanted to talk openly and honestly with people about racism. I wanted to write openly and honestly about protest and its function and purpose. This felt critical given the disinformation flowing around protesters.

So late one night, I was talking shop with my D.C. cohort Jack Rodgers and protests were erupting in Washington. He wanted to document. I wanted to document. We had hesitations. But we piled into my car, drove into DC and kicked off what would be weeks in the streets reporting.

I took hundreds and hundreds of photos. We walked everywhere, no helmets, no gear, just a camera, our phones, a first aid kit, granola and a mutual willingness to go to jail if that's how it was going to be.

On May 30, we were pepper-sprayed by police along with others. Fortunately, we made out a lot better than most but it was still a jarring and heart pounding experience as we were chased out of a public area by a cop on a motorbike.

I kept snapping photos, interviewing, listening, trying to convey that what we were seeing in D.C., despite the presidential disinfo tweets, was overwhelmingly peaceful. I decided to post a photo diary. I hope to feature these properly somewhere one day:

https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1267433190488227846?s=20

"I couldn’t sit at home and watch, when I heard that man yell for his mother."

A taste of our coverage from the protests:
courthousenews.com/people-are-tir…

This day will always stick out to me. Never underestimate the healing powers of good music when you are sweaty, dirty, tired and emotionally spent.
courthousenews.com/demonstrators-…

D.C. is a protest town. Before Floyd, I covered protests at SCOTUS when Kavanaugh was up for the seat: courthousenews.com/hundreds-march…

And when thousands flocked to D.C. to protest the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in '17, I became a better reporter by talking to people directly impacted. Many drove a long way from home to exercise their 1A.
courthousenews.com/thousands-join…

This was a moment.
And arguably, if not for this moment and others a lot like it during the protests in response to Floyd, the nation may have left police reform completely ignored.
The story:
courthousenews.com/from-the-white…

When I turned in my sneakers from street reporting and went back indoors, police reform took over Congress. An example of my live-tweeting from when the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was up for debate in committee. (See! Committees!)

https://twitter.com/Brandi_Buchman/status/1273214405501689856?s=20

And when the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed in the House in 2020 (before being summarily ignored by the Republican-controlled Senate), we had extensive coverage.
courthousenews.com/house-passes-b…

Talks of police reform in the months since, however, have stalled and should I return to Capitol Hill as a journalist, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be pressing on this. Infrastructure, pandemic, all important - so is police reform.

A little more than a month before the anniversary of George Floyd's death, I pitched a retrospective piece on Floyd. I wanted to spend weeks probing lawmakers, getting analysis, devoting my energy to something I didn't want to see die on the national news vine.

My pitch was denied. It happens. But, on the day of the anniversary, my former employer rolled out its new podcast. That episode? A George Floyd retrospective.
I still wrote that day but my story didn't go as deep as I wanted because I was left scrambling and spread thin.

Regardless of this story not being quite everything I wanted it to be, I'll reshare it with you now. I sincerely hope to revisit the subject of police reform in my next venture:
courthousenews.com/one-year-since…

The pandemic continued to deepen and my daily focus on the White House response to the pandemic increased as well, including coverage of the select committee investigating the pandemic response chaired by Rep. Clyburn.

Meanwhile, Trump was on the stump trying to stay in power. By October, his already yearslong messaging about "theft" and "hoaxes" was saturating everything. The lede in my story from 10/3/20 feels particularly eerie in retrospect of what would come
courthousenews.com/election-dispu…

And in light of what we now know about Jan. 6 and especially in light of what we *do not know* about that day and the events leading up to it, I offer this from my portfolio:
courthousenews.com/house-unveils-…

I took a break over the election. I was burnt out. I was physically and emotionally exhausted and had been going almost nonstop for four years by this point. My mom was dying of cancer and all of these stories, all of these tweets, I wrote while taking care of her full time.

So, on election night, I took off my reporter hat and I baked bread in my kitchen all night. I listened to the new anyway and I considered what life would be like for someone like her, for someone like me, if the nation reelected the president.

By the time we got to January 2021, I had spent weeks anticipating a dust-up or worse because of the obstinance from the White House on who won the election. Biden did. But like I said earlier, D.C. is a protest town. I knew people were coming. I was worried.

On Jan. 6, I hit the streets early in D.C., camera in tow, ready to report on the election certification. A series of mishaps and until this day, a dead camera battery I can't explain (I charged it overnight! I brought back ups!) kept me out of immediate danger. Dumb, dumb luck.

And for an entire day and almost an entire night, insurrection be damned, my colleague and I covered the certification process knowing that impeachment couldn't be far behind.
courthousenews.com/congress-recon…

Turns out, impeachment wasn't far behind.
courthousenews.com/trump-impeache…

I have reported on a twice-impeached, twice acquitted president.
That's pretty surreal, folks, I'm not going to lie to you.
courthousenews.com/senate-acquits…

Right after the insurrection, there was a Saturday where I sat in my office and made a list of every lawmaker I wanted to talk to about Jan. 6.
I wanted a probe.
I am as hungry now as I have ever been to see this story told. I want answers.

I reported for weeks on the Jan. 6 committee's formation, the negotiations over appointments to the body, the votes, the floor debate. My preview ahead of the first public hearing of the select committee aimed to sum that up and carve a path forward
courthousenews.com/in-their-own-w…

For the first-ever hearing of the select committee probing the 1/6 attack, I joined a small group of reporters allowed into the hearing. That day imprinted itself on me. And today, it drives my desire for transparency.
courthousenews.com/committee-kick…

While this long thread this weekend provides a sample of my work, it is by no means comprehensive. I am proud of a lot of what I did and there is a lot I wish I could have done more with, no question.

I have regrets over the last few years but almost all of them have to do with my mother. I know I did all I could there. I know that. I do. But the days when she sat by my side, in pain from chemo, or patiently waited for me to finish so we could talk or I could cook, it stings

But, deep down, I also know, she was a team player. She never ever made me feel guilty. The opposite. She was immensely proud of me. And if I do nothing else in my life, I will at least keep trying to make Maggie proud. The rest, as she so often said, is icing on the cake.

Thanks to everyone who joined me anew today and in recent days. I've been floored by the support. I sincerely appreciate you and I look forward to being back on the beat, one way or another, soon. For now, I am going to take the advice given to me repeatedly of late and relax..