My second day at Roll Call was Sept. 11, 2001. I had been hired to help launch what was then Roll Call Daily, the paper’s nascent online platform. Roll Call was the gold standard for congressional reporting, and my dream was to cover Congress, so I was thrilled.

But I was green.

As we sat in our morning editorial meeting to plot out coverage for the day, we saw the first plane hit the twin towers. Like many, we initially assumed it was a terrible accident. But then came the second crash.

I was immediately sent to the Hill to track down comments from House leadership. I barely knew my way around and clumsily stumbled through the hallways searching for then-Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Dick Armey’s offices. When I got into the alcove, Capitol Police started shouting for ever

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