Every member of staff who worked in South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R) congressional office in November have bailed on her.
According to the Daily Beast, in the three months since November 1, Mace’s office has undergone a 100 percent turnover rate.
Eight members of Mace’s staff have quit and one, her former chief of staff Dan Hanlon, has been fired. Hanlon has since filed to run against Mace in the GOP primary in South Carolina’s first congressional district.
Now the former staffers are speaking out, calling their old boss “delusional,” “abusive” and said the work environment was “toxic.”
“Nancy is delusional as a boss,” a former aide said. “She says nothing publicly without her consultants or senior staffers telling her to, but takes credit for everything. She’s a walking teleprompter.”
Mace “has no idea what it actually means to be a member of Congress and is too scared and self-conscious to deal with other people, so she accomplished nothing,” another staffer said. “This is why pretty much every staffer and fellow member on the Hill thinks she’s a joke. Also a big reason why she’s only able to hire former George Santos staffers right now.”
“For Mace it was all about control,” said another ex-staffer. “She didn’t see the staff as people but as property.”
In a statement, Mace’s new chief of staff, Lori Khatod called the unusually high turnover rate a “non-issue.”
“New coach, new team in the DC office,” Khatod added.
According to the Daily Beast, Khatod contributed to the toxic work environment herself. In December, she called the Capitol Police on Hanlon when he returned to drop off his keys shortly after he was fired. It’s unclear why officers were called to the office in the first place.
“At that moment, I felt the most unsafe I ever had on the Hill, when I realized she was using the Capitol Police to intimidate staff,” an ex-staffer who witness the event said.
