Gay Republican U.S. Rep. George Santos's former communications director has started her apology and rehabilitation tour by writing an opinion piece that reads like a long cover letter for a job application.
Naysa Woomer penned an essay for The Hillin which she cast herself as a loyal professional who was inspired by the promise of what his election meant. “I was attracted to his story of a moderate gay Republican winning over a blue district in New York,” she wrote.
She indicated that in fewer than two weeks after taking on the comms role for the congressman-elect, news of Santos’ lies became known after the New York Times published an expose outlining his many falsehoods.
After Santos and his staff moved into their Capitol Hill offices, Woomer played gatekeeper between the lying lawmaker and media members hungry to speak with him.
“I took on the thankless job (and arguably one of the toughest in D.C.) and could be seen walking the halls of Congress with Santos (perhaps you’ve seen my resting b*** face), along with a handful of reporters following both mine and Santos’s every move,” she wrote.
Woomer framed her decision to speak on behalf of Santos as her aspiring to join the ranks of conservative press professionals like “Peggy Noonan, Ari Fleischer, Mari Will, and Karen Hughes.”
Having staked her professional credibility on a politician caught repeatedly lying and indicted on federal fraud charges, Woomer then absolved herself of the tarnish that a stint as the spokesperson for a serial liar would hold.
“That is why my five-month tenure with a member of Congress who has been indicted on 13 federal counts of money laundering and wire fraud will never define my 15-plus years in the political arena,” she wrote, noting that Hill staffers who take an oath to the Constitution do so not because of inspiration from the 2000s political drama West Wing, but “because we believe in the importance of public service.”
She added that she quit “when I could no longer tolerate his lack of honor, office dysfunction, and unmanageable chaotic behavior.”
Then, Woomer cast herself as the defender of democracy.
“I had to do my small part to try to uphold the integrity of the congressional system by guiding a scandal-stricken freshman politician into a functioning member of Congress who could serve the people with the respect and, yes, integrity they deserve,” she wrote.
“My intentions during this unprecedented crisis were to put that congressional seat — and our very democratic system — on a path to regain the trust of Santos’s colleagues, party, and most importantly, his constituents,” Woomer claimed.
She predicted that in the future, political science classes would study the phenomenon of the gay, Republican, one-time drag queen New York congressman.
“I have held previous communications jobs that were a baptism by fire. With apologies to Robert Oppenheimer, this was a baptism by atomic bomb,” Woomer wrote.
As her writing ended, Woomer pitched herself to potential employers.
“I had to handle an unprecedented crisis that made the typical political or corporate office look like a day at the beach,” she wrote. “I learned to navigate through murky water while putting out day-to-day press releases, drafting talking points, and messaging on upcoming legislation.”
She concluded, “The next chapter of my career has yet to be written. But I now have the kind of crisis communications skills and experiences you could never learn in a classroom.”