A staffer described Rep. George Santos (R-NY) as a "borderline genius" despite lies he told to win the 2022 election.
In an interview with Business Insider, Santos' press secretary, 24-year-old Gabrielle Lipsky, said that she has received threats from constituents because the lawmaker has refused to step down.
"[F]or Lipsky, representing potentially the most scandal-ridden freshman congressman in generations, days are spent fielding endless requests for comment about the latest lie Santos has been caught in, or calls from angry constituents demanding his resignation," Insider noted.
Lipsky described her "normal day as a pinball machine."
"It's a lot," she said of calls from constituents. "They curse us out, they threaten us. There are so many times when people ask me: 'How could you work for somebody like that?'"
Lipsky was careful with her response.
"At the end of the day, the congressman has a job to do and he needs people to help him do that," she explained. "Someone's got to do it."
The staffer has also faced allegations of nepotism because her father and mother donated thousands to Santos on the same day in 2021.
"It's no secret that my parents are donors to many members of the Republican Party, like many other thousands of freedom-loving Americans," Lipsky insisted in her defense. "They know how much politics means to me, as well as the future of the state of New York, and out of their love and support for me, they help candidates and they are political advocates in any way that they can."
Lipsky said she gets angry looks from staffers for other members of Congress.
"I see the looks we get in the hallway, the selfies being taken in front of the office, and I know people think that the staff is radioactive," Lipsky confirmed. "I like to call it the 'perfect storm' because we're setting up a freshman office right in the middle of all of this."
"At the end of the day, each and every single person that works in this office is going to come out battle-tested," she concluded.
