U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Run to be Houston’s next mayorHe expressed regret and said “everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect” after an unverified recording was released in which the longtime Democratic lawmaker purportedly berated him with a series of expletives. staff member.
In a recording sent anonymously to multiple news organizations on Friday, a woman who sounds like Jackson Lee can be heard criticizing a male staffer after he told her she was looking Some of the information comes from another staff member. It’s unclear when the recording was made.
“I hope you have a (expletive) brain. I hope you read it. I want you to say, ‘Congresswoman, this is such-and-such date. This is what I want. This is the staff I want to have. ,” the woman can be heard saying.
During the remainder of the 95-second recording, the woman berated the staff member she was speaking to and another staff member, whom she called a “fat, stupid idiot.”
“Two fucking big-ass kids, (expletive) idiots, with no damn purpose. No management of anyone, no one respecting them, no one giving a shit about what you’re doing (expletive) and what you’re not doing ( Swearing) was an example of this,” the woman said.
In a statement released Monday night, Jackson Lee stopped short of directly acknowledging that the woman in the recording was her, but said she wanted to express to “the people of Houston that I firmly believe that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, and that includes my own employees.”
“I know I am not perfect. I recognize that in my passion to serve my constituents in every way possible, there is no excuse for my having fallen short of my own standards in the past,” he has said since 1995 said Jackson Lee, who serves in Congress.
Many of her employees, she said, “have gone on to bigger and better opportunities, and others have come back to work with me.”
She blamed her main rival in the mayoral race, state Sen. John Whitmire, for the release of the recording, which came just days before early voting begins for the Nov. 7 election. of.
“For anyone who listened to this recording with concern, I’m sorry and ask that you don’t judge me by something concocted by my political opponents to take advantage of this,” Lee said.
Sue Davis, a spokesperson for Whitmire, said the state senator’s campaign had nothing to do with the recording.
“It’s a sign of a desperate, failed campaign to make this feeble attempt to change the narrative in the recording,” Davis said.
Jackson Lee is one of 18 candidates vying to lead the nation’s fourth-largest city.
They are seeking to replace Mayor Sylvester Turner, who has served eight years and is unable to run again due to term limits.
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