Rep.-Elect John D. Santos: A Deep Shameful Blazar for the State’s First Congressional Determarcation
The New York Republican who has faced calls for his resignation for false statements – including regarding his professional experience, education history and identity – is a member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Small Business. Federal prosecutors are also investigating Santos’ finances, and he continues to face a myriad of questions about his personal finances.
Santos has admitted to fabricating sections of his resume – including his past work experience and education – and has apologized but says he intends to serve in Congress.
“As a Navy man who campaigned on restoring accountability and integrity to our government, I believe a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required,” GOP Rep.-elect Nick LaLota said in a statement that marks the sharpest rebuke yet from a Republican coming to Congress or currently serving.
It is unlikely House Republican leadership will refuse to seat Santos, who is scheduled to be sworn in with the rest of the new members of Congress next Tuesday. The House has the power under the Constitution to expel any member with a two-thirds vote, but doing so is extremely rare and only five lawmakers have been expelled in US history.
IfSantos is referred to the House Ethics Committee, other options for dealing include not giving him any committee assignments, something that would be up to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
When it came to bad behavior before one was a member of Congress, the California Republican has shown little appetite for punishing his members. McCarthy has also declined to weigh in when members are under investigation, arguing he will let the probes play out before determining how to proceed.
“This will not deter me from being an effective member of the United States Congress in the 118th session,” Santos told City & State in an interview posted Monday night.
Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph G. Cairo, Jr., said Tuesday that Santos “has broken the public trust” and “has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of voters.”
“I am deeply disappointed in Mr. Santos, and I expected more than just a blanket apology,” Cairo said in a statement. “The damage that his lies have caused to many people, especially those who have been impacted by the Holocaust, are profound.”
Beyond his resume, Santos invented a life story that has also come under question, including claims that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.”
“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos told the New York Post on Monday. “I am Catholic. I said I was jew-ish because I discovered my maternal family was Jewish.
The Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday said the incoming congressman had “misrepresented his heritage” and “will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”
CNN Detects More Falsehoods from Congressman-elect John N. Santos: Insights from the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office
The man who claimed he had degrees from New York University and the Bronx College confessed to not having a degree from any college.
He admitted to lying about working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as well as having earned a degree in finance and economics from Baruch College in New York.
CNN’s KFile uncovered even more falsehoods from Santos, including claims he was forced to leave a New York City private school when his family’s real estate assets took a downturn and stating he represented Goldman Sachs at a top financial conference.
CBS News first reported the federal probe, which comes as the Nassau County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it was looking into fabrications from Santos.
The Nassau County District Attorney said that there were numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-electSantos.
She said that residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district need an honest and accountable representative in Congress. “If a crime is committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”
There were records that show that in 2008 a criminal investigation was opened in Brazil over allegations that he used stolen check to buy items at a clothing shop. The time would have been 19 years old forSantos. The Times quoted local prosecutors as saying the case was dormant because Santos had never appeared in court.
Rep.-elect Mike Lawler, also a soon-to-be freshman member from New York, urged his fellow Republican cooperate with any investigations and called on Santos to apologize, calling the whole controversy a “distraction.” By downplaying action’s,Santos is making things worse.
Despite intensifying doubt about his fitness to hold federal office, Santos has shown no signs of stepping aside — even as he publicly admitted to a long list of lies.
An investigation into the lies of Yrep-Elect George Santos for lying about his past and future: A New York Times article by Brosh
He is scheduled to be sworn in next Tuesday, when the U.S. House reconvenes. He could be in trouble with the House Committee on ethics if he takes office.
The Republican has admitted to lying about having Jewish ancestry, a Wall Street pedigree and a college degree, but he has yet to address other lingering questions — including the source of what appears to be a quickly amassed fortune despite recent financial problems, including evictions and owing thousands in back rent.
The office of the Nassau County district attorney is looking into the matter, according to Brendan Brosh. It was not immediately clear what the scope of the investigation was.
After The New York Times examined the narrative that Santos presented to voters during his successful campaign for a congressional seat that straddles the north shore suburbs of Long Island and a small part of Queens, questions intensified.
In an interview with the New York Post, Santos apologized for his fabrications and downplayed them as “sins.” He said that we do stupid things in life.
He backtracked on that claim, saying he never intended to claim Jewish heritage, which would have likely raised his appeal among his district’s significant ranks of Jewish voters.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/29/1145950468/n-y-rep-elect-george-santos-is-being-investigated-for-lying-about-his-past
When Kevin McCarthy vowed to end the culpability war in 2020, he didn’t care about his political legacy — nor did he tell Fox News or Fox News about the Santos story
In its opposition research on Santos, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised several red flags about the Republican’s record — but also accepted some of his assertions, including his educational record, as fact. The 87-page dossier sought to tie him to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and his support for baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The report also sought to depict him as a far-right candidate. He was left thousands of dollars in debt when the DCCC raised issues about his shakyfinancial standing and his multiple evictions.
His Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman, also tried to raise Santos’ misrepresentations during his losing campaign, but it didn’t gain much traction.
Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” Follow him on social media. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. There is more opinion on CNN.
It isn’t the first time McCarthy has shown his willingness to abandon principle in the pursuit of power. The most glaring example was his flip-flop on Trump’s culpability over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. McCarthy had claimed that the President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. McCarthy added, “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
Matt Gaetz wrote in an op-ed that every Republican in Congress knows that Kevin doesn’t actually believe in any core values and that’s why he ran for House speaker. He doesn’t have an ideology.
McCarthy was outspoken about many political issues after The New York Times article aboutSantos. McCarthy slammed the January 6 committee on December 21 saying it was focused on political theater and posturing. That same day, McCarthy vowed on Fox News that Republicans “can eliminate waste and wokeism” when they take control of Congress.
McCarthy has also criticized the Biden administration’s border policy and played up accusations on Fox Business that the FBI worked to suppress news stories hurtful to Democrats.
Yet not a peep about the Santos story — which even caused an uproar on Fox News on December 27 when former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as a guest host confronted Santos about his fabrications, asking: “Do you have no shame?”
Rep.-elect George Santos of New York is scheduled to be sworn in to Congress on Tuesday as he faces mounting scrutiny and condemnation over lies about his biography and amid an investigation by federal prosecutors into his finances.
All incoming members of the 118th Congress are scheduled to be sworn in following the vote for House speaker at the US Capitol, which is set to begin after noon ET on Tuesday.
Against Politics: How John Santos stepped down from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in October 2021 to “Become Back on the Committee”
A number of questions have been posed to Santos regarding his campaign finances in recent days, including inquiries about donors as well as campaign disbursements, and dozens of expenses his campaign has reported at exactly $199.99, which is not above the threshold above which the campaign is required to retain receipts.
They said they will seek a response from him related to the theft of a checkbook that police had been unable to locate for nearly a decade.
Democrats have cited the mounting false statements and scrutiny facing Santos as an example of hypocrisy for Republicans booting Omar and two other House Democrats – California Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell – off committee assignments. While Schiff and Swalwell were able to be ejected from the House Intelligence Committee unilaterally by McCarthy, Omar’s position on House Foreign Affairs will need a vote on the House floor, one that Republican leaders have yet to force.
He thought there was a lot of drama going on with regard to the situation and what we were doing to remove Ilhan from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams, a Republican from Texas, said that he thinks Santos “probably made the right decision” to step down from his committee assignments until the questions about his past and his financial irregularities are resolved.
The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC that described his disbursements as “strange and seemingly impossible”. It notes that one of the $199.99 expenses was purported to be for a “hotel stay” at the luxury W Hotel South Beach in Florida in October 2021, where the lowest-price room typically would have cost more than $700.
Last week, he amended his reports with the FEC, adding to the confusion about who provided the loans to his campaign.
“We just finished the conference and George voluntarily withdrew himself from committees, so he can concentrate on what he does best,” said Stefanik, the GOP conference chair.
“There’s a threshold that he feels like [where] he’s not the issue anymore and when he hits that, it sounds like he wants to get back on committees and get going,” Williams told reporters.
“For a while, the question I was getting asked by [the press] is ‘Where you gonna put him? Can he do this?’ – it became about him,” Williams said. “It’s not about him. He’s going to get back on when we’re done with so many things to do. He has met the thresholds that he has set, and then let’s go.
“Half-measures like voluntarily taking himself off his committee assignments are not good enough for the people of New York’s third congressional district, or for the American people,” Torres said in a statement. He was a poor person yesterday. He’s a disgrace. Tomorrow, he’s going to be a disgrace. He should resign from office immediately.”
He doesn’t should be in the Nassau County Republican Committee, he shouldn’t be in public service or as an elected official. “He’s not welcome here at Republican headquarters for meetings or at any of our events.”
Rep. Mitt Romney: ‘You don’t belong here,” he told the New York Times during a press conference Tuesday night
An investigation by The New York Times could not prove many of the claims bySantos, including his work for Goldman and Citigroup.
“The voters have elected George Santos,” McCarthy said during an early January press conference. “If there is a concern, he will go through ethics. If there is something that is found, he will be dealt with in that manner.”
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told GOP Rep. George Santos of New York: “You don’t belong here,” according to a member who witnessed the tense exchange in the House of Representatives chamber Tuesday night.
After the speech, Romney told CNN he criticized Santos for standing in the front aisle “trying to shake hands” with the president and senators “given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation.”
“He should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room,” he said, noting that Santos may have responded to his remark but he “didn’t hear.”
“He says he, you know, that he embellished his record. The Senator said that embellishing was saying you got an A when you got an A-. You have been accused of graduating from a college you did not attend and shouldn’t be in Congress.
“And they’re gonna go through the process and hopefully get him out. .. But he shouldn’t be there and if he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”