House of Representatives
Subterms
More stories
- in US Politics
Six urgent questions TikTok’s CEO needs to answer for US lawmakers
TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, will be questioned by lawmakers in Washington on Thursday with the app’s US future in severe doubt. The Biden administration wants TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the business or face a complete ban in the US. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.TikTok says such a move would not “solve the problem”. Under a plan dubbed Project Texas, which the White House now appears to have rejected, TikTok is moving its US user data to third party servers and is allowing its source code to be scrutinised by Oracle, a US tech firm which will also vet its app updates.For the White House and many US lawmakers, this does not go far enough to answer concerns about whether TikTok’s data, from more than 1 billion users, can be accessed by the Chinese state and whether TikTok’s recommendation algorithm could be manipulated by the security services in order to influence what users see.Here are some the questions that Chew, a Singaporean former Goldman Sachs banker, could be asked at the House energy and commerce committee hearing, which starts at 10am ET Thursday.Has the Chinese government ever sought to access TikTok user data?The regular answer to this question by TikTok is no. “TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, US user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request,” Chew will say on Thursday, according to written testimony released by the committee. Indeed, the energy and commerce committee’s press release states that as well as asking Chew about TikTok’s privacy and data security practices, it will ask him about TikTok’s “relationship with the Chinese Communist Party”.Suspicions about the use of TikTok data, which critics say could be used to create profiles of people of interest like government employees, centre on Chinese security laws. These include the National Intelligence Law of 2017, which states that all organisations and citizens shall “support, assist and cooperate” with national intelligence efforts. The shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon off the east coast of the US in February has not helped. Trust was also severely damaged last year by revelations that ByteDance employees had used TikTok to spy on reporters.Will TikTok shed its Chinese ownership?TikTok says the Biden administration has asked its Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the business. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is located in Beijing and its ownership is divided as such: 60% by external investors including KKR, the US private equity firm; 20% by employees and 20% by its founders, Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo, who carry stronger voting rights than the other shareholders.TikTok points to the fact that its US user data is stored on Oracle servers but the only option now appears to be a sale, which could raise around $50bn. However, the Chinese government could object to a deal that would put a prized tech asset in foreign hands, including TikTok’s successful recommendation algorithm. When Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok, and sell control of its US operation, he was stymied by legal action brought by the app and we can expect any renewed attempt at a ban to end up in court.Can the Toutiao app interfere with TikTok data flows?A former TikTok risk manager turned whistleblower has told congressional investigators that the Project Texas plan is deeply flawed. The former employee has shown the Washington Post a piece of code that shows TikTok could connect with systems linked to Toutiao, a Chinese news app owned by ByteDance. The whistleblower claims this could allow for interference in the flow of data from US users. TikTok says the Toutiao code does not link back to China.The whistleblower claims he was fired after warning Chew in a letter that senior TikTok managers were “intentionally lying” to US government officials about how the Project Texas controls had been tested and verified.Are US data controls much weaker than the company says they are?Another TikTok whistleblower has told the office of Republican senator Josh Hawley that TikTok’s access controls on US user data are much weaker than the company says. According to a report by Axios, the whistleblower allegations suggest that TikTok overstates its separation from ByteDance and uses Chinese software that could have backdoors. In a letter to the US treasury secretary Janet Yellen, Hawley details the whistleblower allegations including a claim that TikTok and ByteDance employees can switch between Chinese and US data at the click of a button.TikTok says the whistleblower allegations describes tools that are “primarily analytic tools” that don’t independently grant direct access to data. It adds that neither TikTok nor ByteDance engineers have access to US user data stored by Oracle.Can Project Texas answer lawmakers’ concerns about TikTok?The committee on foreign investment in the US, a multiagency task force that scrutinises foreign investments in American companies, is so unconvinced by the Texas proposals that it has demanded TikTok shed its Chinese ownership. But aside from taking the Biden administration to court, it is the only option that TikTok has. Alongside Oracle storing US user data, the Texas proposals include Oracle looking at TikTok’s source code and vetting its app updates, Chew will argue that Project Texas, and not a sale process, is the answer to lawmakers’ concerns.“The idea behind Project Texas is it won’t matter what the Chinese law or any law says, because we’re taking US user data and we’re putting it out of their reach,” Chew told the Wall Street Journal last week.What is TikTok doing to protect children from harmful content?The committee chair, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, says tech companies like TikTok use “harmful algorithms to exploit children for profit and expose them to dangerous content online”. So although data security will feature strongly in the hearing, expect questions about the protection of children online. TikTok has over 1 billion users worldwide and more than 100 million in the US, many of them under 18. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, TikTok’s recommendation algorithm pushes self-harm and eating disorder content to teenagers within minutes of them expressing interest in the topics.TikTok announced a “comprehensive” update to its content guidelines this month, including placing age restrictions on “mature content” such as videos of cosmetic surgery. It will also make content that is inappropriate for a “broader audience” ineligible for recommendation in its main For You feed. Expect Chew to refer to these guideline updates. More
- in Elections
House Republicans Target Bragg Ahead of Expected Trump Indictment
Three Republican committee chairmen sought to use their investigative power to involve themselves in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal inquiry into the former president.ORLANDO, Fla. — House Republicans rallied around former President Donald J. Trump on Monday ahead of his expected indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, using their investigative power to scrutinize active criminal inquiries targeting him as at least one other G.O.P. lawmaker endorsed his 2024 presidential campaign.Three Republican committee chairmen demanded on Monday morning that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who is said to be close to indicting Mr. Trump, provide communications, documents and testimony about his investigation, an extraordinary move by Congress to involve itself in an active criminal inquiry.“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.” wrote Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio of the Judiciary Committee, James R. Comer of Kentucky of the Oversight and Accountability Committee and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin of the Administration Committee. “If these reports are accurate, your actions will erode the confidence in the evenhanded application of justice and unalterably interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election.”They demanded “all documents and communications referring or relating to the New York County District Attorney Office’s receipt and use of federal funds.”That office receives very little funding from the federal government, according to its most recent budget, but the letter also served as a warning to the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, which is also considering prosecutions of Mr. Trump.The letter was House Republicans’ latest effort to use their investigatory powers to defend Mr. Trump. They have authorized a new subcommittee to scrutinize criminal investigations into Mr. Trump’s conduct and quietly wound down a congressional inquiry into his finances and conflicts of interest as president.The Justice Department has so far resisted what federal prosecutors view as unnecessary intrusions into their work, citing longstanding department policy. Mr. Bragg was anticipated to be unlikely to allow Republicans access to materials related to an active case.“We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process,” Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg’s office, said on Monday, adding: “In every prosecution, we follow the law without fear or favor to uncover the truth. Our skilled, honest and dedicated lawyers remain hard at work.”Still, Mr. Trump’s lawyers have quietly urged the Republican-led House to interfere. Last month, Mr. Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina wrote to Mr. Jordan calling on Congress to investigate the “egregious abuse of power” by what he called a “rogue local district attorney,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.But Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Accountability Committee, said it was Republicans who were abusing their power. “These committee chairs have acted totally outside their proper powers to try to influence a pending criminal investigation at the state level,” he said in a statement.The news of the Republicans’ letter came as House G.O.P. lawmakers, who have gathered for a retreat in Orlando to plot out their policy agenda, were facing fresh political calculations about how to position themselves as Mr. Trump confronts new challenges and a potentially divisive presidential primary looms.Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who has been loyal to both Mr. Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, announced her official endorsement of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign on Monday, indicating that the expected indictment had pushed her to unequivocally choose sides.“I support President Trump,” Ms. Luna said in a statement to The New York Times. In explaining her support, she said that Mr. Bragg was “trying to cook up charges outside of the statute of limitation against Trump” and that “this is unheard-of, and Americans should see it for what it is: an abuse of power and fascist overreach of the justice system.”.css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.Ms. Luna indicated to Politico last week that she would lean toward Mr. Trump in a presidential matchup against Mr. DeSantis. But her full-throated endorsement underscored the forces pulling at Republicans as Mr. Trump riles up his base to support him in what he is framing as a politically motivated indictment.Mr. Trump, until now, has been more ignored than embraced by House Republicans who have preferred not to choose sides in the still-developing 2024 presidential primary.Ms. Luna, 33, was elected in November after being endorsed by both Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis, who also campaigned with her in the general election and called her a “principled fighter.” In the past, while trying to stay out of the brewing dogfight between the two Republican leaders, she has noted that “it’s not uncommon now to see Trump-DeSantis 2024 flags.”But with Mr. Trump claiming he would be arrested on Tuesday and agitating for people to “protest,” and Republican leaders rushing to defend him, Ms. Luna came off the sidelines.“I’m sick of the press trying to create an enemy out of someone who actually had our country in a good place from an economic and policy perspective,” she said. “Save me the virtue signaling. Trump 2024.”At the retreat here on Monday, Republicans across the board denounced Mr. Bragg and defended Mr. Trump.Representative Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida said on Monday that Mr. Bragg was a “rogue, left-wing, radical prosecutor who now has decided for political reasons to go after a former president.” He said he condoned peaceful protests in response and added of the expected indictment: “We’re used to seeing that in third-world countries. That’s something that doesn’t happen in this country.”Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California also said on Sunday that Mr. Bragg was politically motivated but argued against protests. “It’s interesting to me that he spent his whole time as a D.A. lowering felonies not to prosecute,” Mr. McCarthy said of Mr. Bragg. “Republicans and Democrats alike hate this kind of justice.” (Ms. Filson said homicides and shootings had declined under Mr. Bragg.)In an interview, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, one of Mr. Trump’s most fervent defenders and the only party leader to endorse him, said the expected indictment “only strengthens President Trump moving forward.” And she did not discourage people from protesting, as he has urged them to do. “I do believe people have a constitutional right of freedom of speech to speak up when they disagree,” she said.Ms. Luna, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, was one of the few freshman lawmakers to join a group of rebels who voted against Mr. McCarthy during his protracted fight to win the gavel in January. She did not attend the retreat in her home state.But in a lengthy statement, Ms. Luna accused President Biden of overseeing a “botched withdrawal from Afghanistan” and pursuing a “soft-on-China approach” and charged that his family corruptly profited from the Chinese government. “And yet people are clutching their pearls and still parroting the ‘orange man bad’ mentality?” she said.Most House Republicans have remained neutral in the 2024 presidential race. Last week, Representative Chip Roy of Texas pre-emptively endorsed Mr. DeSantis, even though he has yet to officially start a presidential campaign. And Representative Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, endorsed Nikki Haley, the state’s former governor.A handful of Trump loyalists, including Ms. Stefanik and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have endorsed the former president. But most have seen little benefit to expressing a preference in the race at this early stage.That decision has been that much harder for members of the Florida delegation — until the expected indictment prompted at least one of them to intensify their defense of Mr. Trump.“DeSantis is a great leader for Florida,” Ms. Luna said, “and I will continue to support him as my governor.”Annie Karni More
- in US Politics
‘Let’s make these folks famous’: the leftwing push to raise 18 Republicans’ profiles
Juan Ciscomani. Tom Kean Jr. Brian Fitzpatrick. Marc Molinaro. David Schweikert. Brandon Williams … Many Americans would struggle to identify who these people are or what they do.They are all, in fact, Republican members of Congress. And progressive activists argue that their fate is more crucial to the future of American democracy than more high-profile rightwing political figures such as Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.Indivisible, a leftwing political umbrella movement founded in response to Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016, has launched a campaign to unseat 18 Republican members of the House of Representatives from districts that Joe Biden won in the election of 2020.The “Unrepresentatives” initiative is based on the premise that these 18 districts – not the safe, deep red ones of Gaetz and Greene – will determine if Republicans maintain control of the US lower chamber next year. They are the “Achilles heel” of the Maga (Make America great again) House.“These are folks who are not in the headlines,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, acknowledging that the sole exception is Congressman George Santos because of his outlandish lies. “But the other 17, I would guess practically no Americans have ever heard of and are not hearing of right now because they have a different pathway to re-election. They understand this. They’re not dummies.”Although the 18 are in swing districts, they are not really moderates. They are under pressure to raise money for their next election campaign. That means they have to make commitments to donors about how they will vote in Congress – which is in line with Greene and the Maga wing of the party about 95% of the time.Speaking from Austin, Texas, Levin explained: “They are basically Marjorie Taylor Greenes in how they vote. But then that gets to the third step: they’ve got to convince the constituents in their own districts that, while Congress is messed up and there’s a lot of dysfunction there, they’re normal, everyday folks who just want the best for their constituents.”“It’s tricky to do that when you have a voting record that looks like Marjorie Taylor Greene. But that is the strategy. The way you accomplish that is by keeping your head down, by not making a lot of headlines, by not advertising every vote you take that looks like Marjorie Taylor Greene’s vote.”These Republicans work hard to cultivate a low profile away from the bright lights of Fox News or other rightwing media, steering clear of hot button topics such as abortion or Maga circuses such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).But now Levin, a former congressional staffer, intends to shine a light on them and ensure they have no hiding place.“We have a clear goal and that is: let’s make these folks famous – famous locally, specifically. Let’s make it as clear as possible to their constituents that they are in fact backing up the Maga majority.”Indivisible is coordinating groups in the battleground districts across eight states and supporting them with training, media training and public relations help, and funding for billboards and ads, props and costumes.The effort includes rapid response-style protests calling attention to Republicans’ votes and pressuring them to publicly condemn their fellow Republicans’ worst positions, highlighting such instances in local media.Levin hopes that this might sometimes persuade the 18 Republicans to flip their votes, for example on lifting the debt ceiling: six would be enough to stave off a default.“The second possible outcome is that you don’t flip their vote but everybody knows then in the district that they voted with the Magas. If you accomplish that, then they’re more easy to defeat next year because they’ll have a harder time accomplishing that last step in their re-election strategy, which is trying to convince their constituents that they are not indeed part of the Maga problem.”Democrats fared much better than widely expected in last year’s midterm elections, maintaining control of the Senate and only narrowly losing the House – even that outcome might have been avoided if only the party had not underperformed badly in New York. A third of Indivisible’s targets are in the Empire state, traditionally a Democratic stronghold.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“In New York many folks on the Democratic side played up an artificial rise in crime,” Levin recalled. “The dominant story was not how extreme these Republicans are and how they’re coming after your freedoms, your abortion rights, your schools, your community, your democracy. It was fought on an entirely different field. We fought on the field that the Republicans chose and I do think that was a mistake. That is a shame because had we taken all those Biden-won seats, there would be a Democratic trifecta right now.”Even so, Levin found plenty of grounds for optimism in the midterms as Republicans fell short of expectations and Trump-endorsed extremists were wiped out in Arizona, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. He did not approve of Democrats’ efforts to boost election deniers in Republican primaries – “playing with fire, a dangerous strategy” – but believes the 2024 landscape is propitious.“I see these 18 Democratic districts currently represented by Republicans, eminently winnable. I see a presidential contest in which the Republican party is tearing itself apart with [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis or Trump or folks who are trying to take both of them on.“And I see a Senate map that is indisputably tougher than the presidential and the House map but one that is quite winnable. You look at the polling that we’re seeing now in Montana, in Ohio, in West Virginia, in Arizona, some of these tough seats that we’d better hold, and they look pretty darn good for us, which is why for Indivisible’s political work, our north star is retake the House, hold the Senate, hold the presidency.”Levin argues that, should Democrats replace the Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent who has defended a Senate procedural rule known as the filibuster, with challenger Ruben Gallego, they have a shot at reforming the filibuster and working towards the codification of Roe v Wade, the recently overturned supreme court ruling that enshrined a woman’s right to abortion.Biden is an important part of that equation. Levin notes that the president was widely criticised for focusing on abortion rights and democracy in his last two speeches of the midterms campaign. “He got a ton of flak for that. There were folks even on our side calling it a strategic blunder. And yet he did indeed double down on that strategy and the proof is in the pudding. It was the best midterm margins arguably in modern American history.”There is no sign of the Republican fever breaking for now. Greene has risen to prominence in the House and appears to wield influence over the speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Trump and DeSantis are racing to the right ahead of the Republican presidential primary.But Levin keeps faith in the survival of US democracy. “I do believe that the Republican party can be saved. It’s got to be drilled into their heads that as long as the Marjorie Taylor Greenes are wielding the gavel, they’re going to have at best a tenuous grip on power. That is doable.“The vast majority of Republicans were privately and publicly predicting a massive red wave in 2022. They are not dummies. The folks who look at the same numbers I look at know the reason why they lost is because, when the folks got into the voting booth, they looked at the names on the list and they thought, well, the Republicans are being driven by folks who are coming after my schools, my communities, my freedoms, abortion rights, my family, I can’t empower them.”Levin added: “Their brand is in the gutter because they’re empowering the Marjorie Taylor Greenes. They don’t currently have the latitude to kick folks like them out of the party. There’s a reason why George Santos is still a member of the House of Representatives. But if they suffer enough electoral defeats they will be forced into moderation and the dream: to have two pro-democracy parties in the Congress. We’re not there right now but I do think it’s an achievable outcome.” More
- in Elections
George Santos Signals Intention to Seek Re-election in 2024
The move by Mr. Santos allows him to continue fund-raising as a prospective candidate and to spend campaign funds.Representative George Santos, the embattled Republican from New York facing criminal inquiries and ethics investigations, filed paperwork on Tuesday indicating his intent to run for re-election.The statement of candidacy filed with the Federal Election Commission does not guarantee that Mr. Santos, a first-term lawmaker representing parts of Long Island and Queens, will run for office next year.But it allows Mr. Santos to continue to raise money and spend it on various campaign-related expenses, including paying back the roughly $700,000 he lent to his campaign and paying any potential legal fees connected to the inquiries that he is currently facing.The filing also offers a clear signal that Mr. Santos is leaving the door open to defending his seat in Congress, even as he has been besieged by calls to resign from his constituents, a handful of local Republican officials in his district and fellow House members, including representatives from his own party.Mr. Santos did not respond to a message seeking comment.Mr. Santos’s political future has been severely questioned after revelations in The New York Times that he lied to voters about graduating from college, working for prestigious Wall Street firms and boasting an extensive real estate portfolio. Subsequent reporting by The Times and other outlets has also raised questions about his campaign’s fund-raising and spending practices.Federal prosecutors have been examining Mr. Santos’s campaign finances and personal business dealings, and local prosecutors in New York have been exploring Mr. Santos’s behavior during his campaign. Last month, the House Ethics Committee said it would investigate whether Mr. Santos broke laws tied to his campaign filings or his personal business.While Mr. Santos has admitted to fabricating parts of his résumé and biography, he has denied any criminal wrongdoing. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has maintained that Mr. Santos was duly elected, and that the House would only take action if its Ethics Committee found cause.Yet many rank-and-file Republicans have raised concerns about Mr. Santos’s ability to properly serve constituents. Republicans in Nassau County on Long Island have said they would circumvent his office whenever possible, and 10 House Republicans have called on Mr. Santos to resign. Other Republican representatives have said they were hesitant to collaborate with Mr. Santos on legislation or party business.Mr. Santos has said he would not leave office unless all those voters who supported his campaign last year called on him to do so. A poll in January by Newsday and Siena College found that 78 percent of voters in Mr. Santos’s district wanted him to step down, including 71 percent of Republicans surveyed.Still, Mr. Santos appeared to bow to pressure in January, when he said he would temporarily recuse himself from sitting on two congressional committees. Mr. McCarthy said that he and Mr. Santos reached the decision jointly.But Mr. Santos has repeatedly declined to answer questions about whether he planned to run for re-election.In January, he repeatedly told reporters asking about his future plans that it was “too early” to answer. Last month, he told the Fox station in New York that he had not yet decided whether he would run in 2024.Mr. McCarthy — who endorsed Mr. Santos and helped his campaign in 2022 — told reporters in Washington that he would “probably have a little difficulty” supporting Mr. Santos in a re-election bid.Local Republicans have also voiced their opposition to re-electing Mr. Santos: The Nassau County Republican Committee, a powerful local party organization, has resolutely said it would not support him in 2024.The committee’s chairman, Joseph G. Cairo Jr., reiterated on Tuesday that Mr. Santos would not receive its endorsement.“If he decides to run, we will oppose and beat him,” Mr. Cairo said in a statement.The Federal Election Commission requires candidates to register if they raise or spend more than $5,000 toward an election, a threshold that Mr. Santos passed at the end of last year, according to campaign finance reports.Incumbent politicians are generally quick to register regardless of whether they have decided to run again, so they can continue to accept donations that can be used to pay old campaign debts.Those debts can include personal loans that candidates make to fund their campaigns, experts said. A Supreme Court decision last year cleared the way for candidates to be repaid well after their elections.Brett G. Kappel, an election lawyer, said that the commission’s guidance was also “pretty liberal” regarding the use of campaign money for legal expenses. Candidates can use funds for legal fees tied to “any investigation related to your status as an officeholder or candidate.” The inquiries into Mr. Santos’s campaign finances would likely qualify, he said.So far, only one other candidate has registered with the commission to fill Mr. Santos’s seat: Josh Lafazan, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully in last year’s primary. More
- in US Politics
George Santos: Republican fabulist praises ‘genuine’ actors in Oscars picks
George Santos: Republican fabulist praises ‘genuine’ actors in Oscars picksNew Yorker with mostly made-up CV and multiple investigations calls nominee Angela Bassett ‘Meryl Streep, the Black version’Asked for his Oscars predictions, the Republican congressman and fabulist George Santos said he liked actors who were “genuine”.“I have my favorite actors,” said the New Yorker, who has been shown to have made up most of his résumé and whose behaviour before and after entering politics is the subject of multiple investigations.Oscars 2023: final predictions, timetable and how to watchRead more“And then I have the actors I think are charismatic. JLo, The Rock. Melissa McCarthy. They’re genuine.”None of them were however nominated for the Academy Awards set to be handed out in Hollywood on Sunday night.Santos has admitted “embellishing” a résumé shown to include false claims about his family, educational and professional background, fueling questions about his very identity, given activities under another name, Anthony Devolder.He has repeatedly said he has done nothing illegal, even as his campaign finances, an allegation of sexual harassment and multiple claims of financial wrongdoing are investigated at local, state, federal, congressional and international levels.He has rebuffed calls to resign from constituents in Queens and Long Island as well as Democrats in Congress and his fellow New York Republicans.He withdrew from committee assignments but retains the support of Republican leaders, after backing Kevin McCarthy through 15 votes for House speaker, a role the Californian must play with a narrow majority, prey to rightwing rebellion.Santos discussed the Oscars and his film tastes with Matthew Foldi, a reporter who has also interviewed him for the Spectator, in an interview published on Sunday on Pirate Wires, a site “focused on the intersection of technology, politics, and culture”.The discussion started with “the Slap”, the moment last year when Will Smith left the Oscars audience to hit the host, Chris Rock, over a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Smith’s wife.“Quite frankly, it was fucking stupid,” Santos said. “Chris Rock is a genius.”Santos said he would not watch the Oscars this year, because “they won’t really put box [office] sellers there” and he did not want to see a celebration of “fancy people” and “elitists” such as Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron.Those two directors and Steven Spielberg (who has three nominees for The Fabelmans to one for Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water) had “fallen to the woke”, Santos said.Santos said he liked comedy and horror films, adding: “Let’s be honest, Saw was a fucking great horror movie. But the Oscars don’t have a horror category. Resident Evil, great cinematics. Milla Jovovich is arguably one of my favorite actresses of all time. It’s her, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett and Gerard Butler.”Bassett is nominated this year for best supporting actress, for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Santos said she should be up for best actress, because: “I’m not trying to be racist, but she’s Meryl Streep, the Black version. She’s just as good. She’s fantastic.”The congressman lamented the academy’s relative neglect of Leonardo DiCaprio (who won best actor for The Revenant in 2016) but criticised Tom Cruise, producer and star of Top Gun: Maverick, a best picture nominee this year.“Tom Cruise has given me enough evidence of what he thinks of America to make me not like him,” Santos said, going on to criticise the actor Jane Fonda in similar terms, for “decid[ing] to make her entire life political”.The professional politician professed not to know the “political beliefs” of actors including Bassett, Freeman, Denzel Washington and Mel Gibson, “because they don’t share them. And you know why that is? Because we look to them for entertainment. I appreciate these people so much because they’re not activists.”Of Gibson, Foldi wrote: “We do know his views on Jews … and they are not favorable.”Santos’s claim to be Jewish has been debunked. Openly gay, he was once married to a woman. Accusing Hollywood of caving to Chinese censors – although “as a good old capitalist, I don’t blame them” – he told Foldi: “Woke wants everything gay, and pro-China-beholden-Hollywood can’t have that.“To me, it becomes a cannibalistic event that I would actually enjoy watching. That’s a movie I would watch. Woke Hollywood takes on Chinese-influenced Hollywood.”Santos also lamented the declining fortunes of other favourites including Steven Seagal, the pro-Putin action star who Santos said once shone in “hyper-action police movies” but was out of favour because “instead of giving the police a platform, we just want to defund them and burn them to the ground”.In comedy, Santos said, “You’re not going to see another Adam Sandler or Vince Vaughn or Chris Rock or Kevin Hart. Well, Kevin Hart survives because – I guess he gets a pass because he’s a little Black guy. People aren’t gonna want to make his life miserable.”Towards the end of the interview, Foldi said, the man whose performance as a politician has captured the national spotlight “turned reflective”.“I’m very, very close-minded about actors these days,” Santos said. “Because the more I learn about your non-performative career, the less interested I am in you.”A spokesperson for Santos did not immediately reply to a request for comment.TopicsGeorge SantosOscarsOscars 2023Awards and prizesUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesReuse this content More
