I interned in Helms' committee office when Pletka worked there. The Senator & his staff made routine, racist & anti-Semitic comments at the lunch table & in daily interactions, including in the presence of the 1 Jewish & the 1 Latino staffers. It was horrifying. https://twitter.com/ichotiner/status/1307683118321729536

See these comments: https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/1307712679939698688

I did not work directly with Pletka. Most of what I remember of her is that she screamed a lot.

This was summer 2001. Steve Biegun was chief of staff, until he, like most of the staff, left because they got appointments in the Bush administration. I remember being weirded out with how obsessed the staff was with finding a reason to reinvade Iraq & take down Saddam Hussein.

Do with that what you will.

This was the context in which Helms introduced me to his old friend Ian Smith, former white minority leader of Rhodesia. In doing so, he told me Smith was a "prophet" for predicting that Zimbabwe would fall apart under Black rule.

I got the internship through a family connection & even as my views were changing from my evangelical upbringing, I had thought it wouldn't be that bad. Boy, was I wrong. It was a racist & toxic workplace that changed me forever. That summer made me a committed Democrat.

I can't confirm or disconfirm any of what Pletka told Chotiner. All I can say is that it was a deeply racist workspace & that anyone who signed up to work for Helms, myself included, knew they were working for an unrepentant racist. My mistake was believing it wouldn't affect me.

Despite that, I don't regret taking the internship. I learned so much that summer, about the Senate's workings, about myself, & most importantly, about who I did not want to become or be associated with. It was life-changing.