Democratic Capitol Hill Interns Share Their Own Selfie in Response to Paul Ryan's

staff@people.com (Lindsay Kimble)
Updated

Democratic Capitol Hill interns attempted to dispel the diversity controversy caused by House Speaker Paul Ryan's group selfie last week, by sharing a new photo of their own.

In the image, snapped by Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's intern Audra Jackson Tuesday, hundreds of interns of a variety of ethnicities gathered on the U.S. Capitol building steps.

"My intern Audra Jackson led Democratic Interns in their own selfie 2day showing #DemInternDiversity #DemInternSelfie," Johnson wrote on Twitter. Of other posed photos of the interns, she added, "The picture of the Democratic interns look a lot different than the #speakerselfie #DemInternSelfie #Diversity."




The photo directly references Ryan's "#SpeakerSelfie" with more than 100 Capitol Hill interns – which was called out on the Internet for featuring an overwhelmingly white group.



Johnson's image is a little misleading, however: the Ryan photo does not feature only Republican interns, as the Congresswoman seems to assert.

Democratic Capitol Hill Interns Share Their Own Selfie in Response to Paul Ryan's| 2016 Presidential Elections, politics, Paul Ryan
Democratic Capitol Hill Interns Share Their Own Selfie in Response to Paul Ryan's| 2016 Presidential Elections, politics, Paul Ryan

Ryan took the selfie at an event for the 2016 Congressional Summer Intern Lecture Series – which is open to interns across both aisles, RJ Khalaf, an intern for Congressman André Carson told USA Today.

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Khalaf said interns were randomly selected to attend the event though a lottery, and charged that the lack of diversity was not Ryan's fault.

He told USA Today, "It's a better representation of the fact that so many interns on the Hill are not people of color."