If only the answer to all our problems was: BEER.
In an attempt to make friends, freshman Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) tried to bring a six-pack of beer onto the House floor just before noon on Friday. Politico reporter Laura Barrón-López spotted him in the act. Unfortunately the powers that be stopped him.
“It’s Friday too,” the reporter quoted him, adding that he was “laughing as he turned around.”
Making friends when you’re a freshman is hard and I thought I’d grease the skids with some Lowcountry beer. Thankfully @RepPeterDeFazio got it in the end! Can I join the beer caucus now? https://t.co/RtW6InDfTK
— Rep. Joe Cunningham (@RepCunningham) January 11, 2019
The congressman’s beer, initially thought to be Bud Light, was actually craft beer from Westbrook brewing company in South Carolina.
Washington Post investigative reporter David Farenthold asked on Twitter, “As a prop? Or is he starting happy hour before noon?”
A follower cracked, “It’s Mueller time.”
Agence Free Presse reporter Michael Mathes joked, “I heard Dems are feeling drunk on power in the new House majority but I mean…”
Beer seems to be a big deal in politics as of late.
Most recently, possible White House hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was trying to exude coolness, or some sort of everyman (or woman), by drinking a beer on Instagram Live. (RELATED: Warren Drinks Beer, Cooks On Instagram)
In 2004, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) did shots of vodka with the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during a congressional codel to Estonia.
In 2008, when she was running for president, she once again bellied up to a bar in Indiana to do a whiskey shot and down a large mug of beer.