It started witha flub by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. It wasn't a big deal. As one of his spokespeple suggested, even the substitution of the word "era" for "days" would have helped his cause quite a bit. Most other politicians would not have been called on this, but, for Blumenthal, it fits kind of a narrative some people have about him.
But his Chief of Staff made a big boo-boo when she told the Connecticut Mirror reporter, "We'll remember this."
Evena snarling political animal knows better than to threaten the press.
Now it's a story. In general, it's a mistake to give something like this more legs than it had.