Key Points
- The man who raged at a holiday party, threatening to destroy a former staffer’s relationships and knocking a phone from another’s hand, now oversees America’s nuclear arsenal as NNSA Administrator.
- Behavior that would have ended a Navy career is now rewarded with stewardship of nuclear weapons, deterrence, and nonproliferation.
- Temperament and judgment matter most in nuclear security. Volatility is not a quirk; it’s a risk the American people cannot afford.
Update – January 2026
Since the incident described below, Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY-22) lost his 2024 re-election bid to Democrat John Mannion. In September 2025, he was appointed by President Trump as Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at the U.S. Department of Energy. In this role, Williams oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, nonproliferation efforts, naval nuclear propulsion, and related national security programs, placing him in charge of America’s nuclear arsenal.
The Holiday Party Incident
Native Texan and first-term congressman from the Syracuse, NY area, Rep. Brandon Williams, is shown verbally abusing his former chief of staff and campaign manager, Michael Gordon.
Williams and Gordon attended a holiday charity event in November 2023 at the International Spy Museum. The event was sponsored by the Washington, DC, lobbying firm BGR Group.
Transcript from video of Williams’ tirade at a holiday party:
Williams (his index finger in Gordon’s face): “Just so you know…”
Gordon, visibly frightened by the ferocity of Williams verbal assault: “I haven’t done anything…”
Williams: “Everything…You fuck with my family…”
Gordon, raising his left arm to fend off Williams: “I haven’t done anything…”
Williams: “I’ll end every relationship that you have.”
Gordon: “I haven’t done …I didn’t do…”
Williams: “Every single friend.”
Gordon: “I didn’t do…”
Williams, pushes his arm and index finger into Gordon’s face: “Do you understand me?”
Gordon: “I don’t know…”
Williams: “Do you understand me? You think I don’t know?”
Woman, both turn away and face a woman alarmed at William’s tirade: “Excuse me! Hello!”
Williams (to woman): “Hey, why don’t you get the police in?”
Williams, turns to the person recording the conversation and knocks the cell phone out of their hand.
“It was very traumatic. I thought he was going to take a swing at me.”
A second former staffer in Williams’ office, Ryan Sweeney, recorded the confrontation. Rep. Williams deliberately knocked Sweeney’s cell phone out of his hand onto the floor.
Williams communications director, Taylor Weyeneth, defended his boss by disparaging Gordon and Sweeney as recently fired employees. According to Weyeneth, “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.”
Unlike Weyeneth’s claim, the video shows that Williams’ has a volatile temperament. Is this what he was known for in the nuclear Navy?
Like Williams’ tirade to Gordon and his swipe at Sweeney’s phone, Weyeneth’s statement, “…should be a lesson to all, never go…” is a not-so veiled threat.
Williams, to his credit, served five years in the U.S. Navy from 1991-96, and he was stationed aboard the nuclear submarine USS Georgia as the strategic missile officer. Twenty-eight years later, he still uses a graphic of a submarine in his office logo.
However, Weyeneth is wrong when he implies Williams’ behavior would be acceptable in the Navy.
As a former Navy officer stationed in two different submarine support facilities for three years, I saw submariners as highly professional. Williams’ behavior in this video would be abhorrent to the officers I knew. I never saw an officer bully subordinates or fellow officers. The contrast between Williams’ past service and his current behavior is stark and disappointing.
Williams was the strategic missile officer on the USS Georgia with his finger on the trigger to launch nuclear missiles. Would we want someone like Williams exhibiting that kind of behavior to have his finger on the nuclear trigger? The thought is not just terrifying, it’s potentially catastrophic.
If Williams had done this when he was in uniform, he would have been disciplined, his judgment would have been questioned, his security clearance might have been lost, He’d be re-assigned off nukes, and his career in the Navy would have been over. I personally witnessed submariners lose their jobs and careers for less egregious behavior.
Unlike Congress, the Navy has no tolerance for this type of shenanigans. Witness the reduction in rank of former Trump White House physician and current Republican Texas congressman Ronny Jackson (TX13). Dr. Jackson retired from the Navy as a Rear Admiral, but following an investigation by the DOD’s Inspector General, he was demoted to Captain for drinking while on duty and for routinely screaming at subordinates.
"He’s done similar to this to my staff inside an embassy event…"
The public screaming episode at the BGR Group holiday event may be emblematic of Williams’ personnel management skills, or lack thereof. In October 2023, it was reported that Williams had the third highest staff turnover of all the 435 House members. Six of 13 staffers were fired or resigned, including a chief of staff, two legislative directors, a communications director, and an operations director.
Williams’ staff turnover continued into the next year. In March, 2024 his second chief of staff quit, and he hired his third chief of staff in a year. Williams has lost key staff at about triple the average for a House member.
"Williams’ remarkable decision to go public about the feud is a bet that his political future will be improved by laying out its highly personal details."
Williams Involves His Family
The saddest part of this whole episode is the “family” justification offered by Williams’ office – “never go after this Navy Nuke’s family” – from his then communications director, recently promoted to chief of staff. The family angle is part of Williams’ damage control scheme to justify his disturbing behavior and the national attention it received.
Whatever happened, whatever the cause of his feud with Gordon and Sweeney, he didn’t need to involve his daughter. That was a cynical and politically calculated decision. According to Politico, “Williams’ remarkable decision to go public about the feud is a bet that his political future will be improved by laying out its highly personal details.“
It’s hard to believe that Williams pursued this strategy without input from the Republican House leadership – Speaker Johnson, Leader Scalise, Whip Emmer. The stakes are high. The Republicans are desperate to retain control of the House and to gain control of the Senate and the Presidency to pursue their Project 2025 agenda. The Republicans held a very slim margin in the House, so every seat counted. (Note in the election where Williams lost his seat, Republicans won control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.)
There’s a David Mamet movie called “Spartan.” It’s a dark political thriller. In the film, the president’s college-age daughter is kidnapped because he pulled her protective Secret Service detail to cover up his extramarital affair. The hero, played by Val Kilmer, discloses the president’s involvement to a female Secret Service agent assigned to protect the first family. The agent, who has a strong emotional attachment to the kidnapped daughter, says, “If it comes out, they lose the election” … “Those people are savages.”
The most alarming irony is this: the same man who, in a fit of rage, threatened to “end every relationship” of a former staffer and knocked a phone from another’s hand now holds one of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—overseeing America’s nuclear arsenal as Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
A leader who cannot control his temper at a holiday party has been entrusted with stewardship of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, naval reactors, and nonproliferation programs. Temperament matters. Judgment matters. In the nuclear realm, volatility is not a quirk—it is a risk. Congress may tolerate such behavior, but the American people should not.
