A Republican congressman was caught on camera at a Washington DC holiday party on Thursday threatening a former staffer in an expletive-filled tirade.
Rep Brandon Williams, who represents part of upstate New York, was seen jabbing his finger at Michael Gordon, his former campaign manager, during the event at the International Spy Museum.
As Mr Gordon protests, Rep Williams shouts at him: “You f*** with my family, I’ll end every relationship you have.”
The former staffer continues to deny any wrongdoing as his onetime boss squares up to him still shouting.
“Do you understand me? You think I don’t know?” the New York congressman continues.
A woman’s voice is then heard to interrupt, saying: “Excuse me? Hello?”
Appearing to realise the scene he is causing in public, Mr Williams steps back from confronting Mr Gordon and roughly pushes away a camera that captured the moment.
As he storms off, he says: “Hey, why don’t you get the police in?”
A spokesperson for the congressman told The Daily Mail that the row concerned the behaviour of Mr Gordon and another former staffer.
According to the spokesperson they were fired earlier this year for disparaging female members of Mr Williams’s family.
“What you are seeing is two former staffers who were fired by the congressman earlier this year,” they said.
“Both individuals, the one being confronted by the Congressman and the one filming, made rude comments about the female members of the congressman’s family.
“These individuals planted stories with the media and one of them physically shoved the congressman at a holiday event (edited from the video).
“As a former nuclear submarine officer known for his temperament and poise, tonight should be a lesson to all, never go after this Navy Nuke’s family,” the statement concluded.
It has been quite a week for the New York Republican party, as the event, hosted by a lobbying group, took place shortly before the expulsion of fellow New York rep George Santos.
Mr Williams was a proponent of expelling the Long Island congressman, telling CNN the day before the vote: “We don’t know who he is at all. He’s a dedicated, committed con man in the halls of Congress and has access to government secrets, to a lot of things that could be damaging to this country. He has to go.”
Naturally Mr Santos, in his apparent newly discovered role as a crusader against congressional corruption, couldn’t resist commenting, posting the video to his account on X.
“Hey @Brandon4ny22 this you? Attacking people is not cool or ethical!” he said.
In a later post, he called on New York rep Andrew Garbarino, a member of the House ethics committee, to take action.
Mr Santos has begun to take revenge on his former colleagues, making allegations against four of them so far on his X account and saying he will file ethics complaints on Monday.
