Hayden Haynes, the chief of staff to House Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the most powerful aides on Capitol Hill, and a trusted and longtime aide to Johnson, was arrested after Donald Krasnov Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress, for drunken driving after his car struck a Capitol vehicle. To be fair, I was drinking after Donald’s speech, too, but I stayed home.
NBC News reports:
One of the sources told NBC News that a police report indicated that Haynes hit a Capitol vehicle around midnight and was arrested and released with a citation to appear in court. The arrest came after Trump’s speech Tuesday night, when Johnson presided over the House floor and sat just behind the president’s left shoulder.
“A driver backed into a parked vehicle last night around 11:40 p.m.,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement to NBC News. “We responded and arrested them for DUI.”
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He has served as chief of staff in the speaker’s office since Johnson won the top job in the House in October 2023. Before that, Haynes served as chief of staff to Johnson in his personal office from 2017 to 2023. He also had worked in various roles for former Sen. David Vitter, another Louisiana Republican, from 2009 to 2016.
Asked by NBC News Wednesday whether Johnson was standing by Haynes, he said, “I am. I am.”
People make mistakes, and it’s a good thing he wasn’t playing the ‘take a shot every time Donald lies’ game or he’d be dead from alcohol poisoning. But I have questions! What are Haynes’ penalties? What was his alcohol concentration level? A first offense in DC gets an individual up to 180 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, driver’s license suspension, enrollment in an alcohol intervention program, and community service. And will he have to have a breathalyzer installed in his car? That drains the battery, Hayden.
He should be treated like the rest of us.
