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In a dramatic turn of events, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a formidable candidate in the race to become Houston’s next mayor, found herself embroiled in controversy as an unverified audio recording, allegedly featuring the veteran Democratic lawmaker berating her staff with a torrent of expletives, was unleashed into the public sphere.

The bombshell recording, purportedly sent anonymously to several news outlets last Friday, captures a woman sounding eerily like Jackson Lee lambasting a male staffer. The trigger for her ire? The staffer’s response was that the information she sought was in the hands of another colleague. The exact timing of this recording remains shrouded in mystery.

In the recording, a fiery Jackson Lee can be heard scolding the staff member in question, demanding, “I want you to have a (expletive) brain. I want you to have read it. I want you to say, ‘Congresswoman, it was such and such date. That’s what I want. That’s the kind of staff that I want to have.'”

As the 95-second clip unfolds, the Congresswoman doesn’t stop at just one target. She launches a vitriolic diatribe against the individual she’s confronting, branding them as a “fat ass stupid idiot.” Not stopping there, she goes on to lambast another staff member, deriding them as “two goddamn big ass children, (expletive) idiots who serve no goddamn purpose. Ain’t managing nobody, nobody’s respecting them, nobody gives a (expletive) about what you’re doing and you ain’t doing (expletive) and this is an example of it.”

Jackson Lee, who has served in Congress since 1995, responded to the controversy on Monday evening with a statement that while not explicitly confirming her presence in the recording, offered an expression of remorse and a commitment to dignity and respect for all. She conveyed, “I strongly believe that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and that includes my own staff. I know that I am not perfect. I recognize that in my zeal to do everything possible to deliver for my constituents, I have in the past fallen short of my own standards, and there is no excuse for that.”

The Congresswoman also highlighted that many of her former staff members had gone on to pursue “bigger and better opportunities,” while some had returned to work with her, implying that her working environment was not as toxic as the recording might suggest.

Blaming the release of the recording squarely on her primary mayoral race rival, state Sen. John Whitmire, Jackson Lee asserted, “To anyone who has listened to this recording with concern, I am regretful and hope you will judge me not by something trotted out by a political opponent, that worked to exploit this.”

However, Whitmire’s camp has vehemently denied any involvement in the release of the recording. Sue Davis, a spokesperson for Whitmire, dismissed the accusation as a desperate ploy by Jackson Lee’s campaign, saying, “It’s the mark of a desperate, losing campaign to make this weak attempt to try to change the narrative from what is on the recording.”

This scandal couldn’t have erupted at a more pivotal time. With early voting for the November 7 election commencing, Jackson Lee remains one of 18 contenders aiming to take the helm of the fourth-largest city in the United States, looking to succeed the outgoing Mayor Sylvester Turner, who’s reached the end of his tenure due to term limits.

But Jackson Lee didn’t receive the fallout from the explosive audio revelation that her competition expected. The community has rallied behind Jackson Lee on social media sharing that they couldn’t care one way or the other.

Take a look at what social media users are saying and tell us what you think in the comments below.