Vish_Burra

Vish Burra

Vish Burra

American political operative (born 1991)

Viswanag (Vish) Burra (born 1991) is an American political operative. He was director of operations for US representative George Santos. Previously, he was a regular on right-wing podcasts and web broadcasts, and had a role in the Hunter Biden laptop saga. He has also worked closely with figures such as Steve Bannon and Republican Matt Gaetz,[1] and is currently the Executive Secretary of the New York Young Republican Club.[2]

Personal

Burra is the son of South Indian immigrants. He currently lives in the Rosebank, Staten Island, New York City with his parents. He has a brother.[3]

Early career

Burra sold illegal narcotics in his early career. In 2014 he was arrested and convicted of possessing 2.5 lb of marijuana and a certain amount of psychedelic mushrooms. He was sentenced to three years probation.[3]

He then obtained technical training and worked in IT.[3]

Political career

Burra became interested in politics during the 2016 presidential election. He was disillusioned with Hillary Clinton and liked what he was hearing from Donald Trump.[3]

Burra then joined the Staten Island Young Republicans club and became active in their main branch in Manhattan (i.e., New York Young Republican Club). This led to a job as an assistant for Steve Bannon, where he helped produce Bannon's War Room podcast and was involved in the handling of Hunter Biden's hard drive.[3] Bannon fired him for going to a Young Republicans party instead of working.[3]

After being fired by Bannon, Burra was hired by Matt Gaetz in 2021 to help rebuild his reputation following a Department of Justice investigation into his relationship with an underage girl. Burra helped Gaetz set up a podcast and organized public appearances to regain public support.[3]

Burra also worked for Carl Paladino, a Republican from western New York who praised Adolf Hitler. Burra was responsible for controlling Paladino's message and managing his public image.[3][4]

Prior to Santos' resignation from the House in a cloud of fraud and multiple indictments, Burra worked for Representative George Santos as his "director of operations". He joined Santos's team after Santos was exposed as a fraud and was working on a strategy to turn Santos into a figurehead for the MAGA wing of the party.[3] In 2023, Burra targeted a Long Island reporter named Jacqueline Sweet on social media with a series of menacing tweets in response to her coverage of Santos' indictment. The tweets escalated from denials of the accusations to suggestions of sexual violence against the reporter.[5]

References

  1. [1]
    Walker, Hunter (January 28, 2023). "Meet Vish Burra, The Chaos Agent Behind The Most Scandalous Member Of Congress". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  2. [2]
    Bidgood, Jess (2024-04-15). "Donald Trump, the Defendant". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  3. [3]
    McCreesh, Shawn (March 2, 2023). "George Santos, MAGA 'It' Girl". Intelligencer.
  4. [4]
    Fandos, Nicholas (2022-06-09). "Paladino Draws Backlash for Calling Hitler 'the Kind of Leader We Need'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  5. [5]
    Rohrlich, Justin (May 12, 2023). "George Santos Staffer Faces Discipline for Menacing Sexual Comments to Reporter". The Daily Beast.
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