Call it a mea culpa.
A veteran Capitol Hill reporter on Monday said the Washington press corps was collectively “guilty” for missing the story of Texas Rep. Kay Granger’s lengthy absence from Congress.
It was revealed over the weekend by The Dallas Express that 81-year-old Granger, who was set to retire in January and hadn’t cast a vote since July, had been living in a retirement facility that provides memory care.
Hans Nichols, an Axios Capitol Hill reporter, admitted that he and the rest of his colleagues dropped the ball on the story.
“We’re still, as reporters, have limited resources and limited time to report all these stories out. That said, we should have gotten the Kay Granger story. I mean, I’ll own part of that, as someone that spends some time on the Hill,” Nichols said on CNN. “Collectively we’re all guilty. You know, individually, it’s hard to parse out guilt.”
He then went on to say that it was “pretty obvious in retrospect,” but there wasn’t enough time or resources to do it in the bustling landscape of Capitol Hill news.
“It’s on the press corps and we just have to figure out how to figure it out. And it takes real reporting, right? This is real resources, you have to get the story,” Nichols said. “Not impossible to do.”
In the wake of the bombshell revelation, Granger, a Republican, released a statement that read, “As many of my family, friends, and colleagues have known, I have been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year.”
Her son later revealed that she had been battling “dementia issues.”
Fellow Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez also went on Face the Nation on Sunday to say he was unaware of Granger’s whereabouts.
“There’s no doubt a lot of us knew that she was gaining in age, like a lot of members do. And sadly, you know, some of these members wait until it’s too long to things have gone too far,” Gonzalez said.
