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      George Santos a ‘bad guy’ who did ‘bad things’ but should not be forced out, top Republican says

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      George Santos a ‘bad guy’ who did ‘bad things’ but should not be forced out, top Republican saysNew York congressman’s résumé is largely fiction and campaign finance questions abide but support is vital for speaker McCarthy The New York Republican congressman George Santos, whose résumé has been shown to be largely fictional, whose campaign finances are the subject of increasing scrutiny and who is under local, federal and international investigation, is a “bad guy” who has done “really bad” things, the new House oversight committee chairman said on Sunday.McCarthy may be speaker, but Trump is the real leader of House RepublicansRead moreBut Santos should not be forced to quit, James Comer said.“He’s a bad guy,” the Kentuckian told CNN’ State of the Union. “This is something that you know, it’s really bad … but look, George Santos was a duly elected by the people. He’s going to be … examined thoroughly. It’s his decision whether or not he should resign.”Saying Santos was “not the first politician unfortunately to be in Congress to lie”, Comer said he had not introduced himself to Santos, “because it’s pretty despicable the lies that he told”. But he said only proven campaign finance violations should lead to Santos’s removal.Santos was going to be investigated, Comer said, “not necessarily for lies but for potential campaign finance violations … It’s his decision whether or not he should resign.”Santos won New York’s third district, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens, in November. Since then his biography has been shown to be largely made-up and his campaign finances scrutinised amid questions about his personal wealth.This week, Democrats in Congress requested an ethics committee campaign finance investigation and a nonpartisan watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center, filed its own request for an investigation by the Federal Election Commission.The CLC complaint said: “Particularly in light of Santos’s mountain of lies about his life and qualifications for office, the [FEC] should thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.”Santos’s district party has disowned him and New York Republicans in Congress have called on him to resign. Santos has said he will not.Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker who Santos supported through 15 rounds of voting earlier this month, and who must operate with a small majority, has not taken action, instead pointing to a House ethics office his party is attempting to gut.On Sunday Don Bacon of Nebraska, a Republican moderate, told ABC’s This Week: “You know, if that was me, I would resign. I wouldn’t be able to face my voters.”But Bacon still followed the party line: “This is between him and his constituents, largely. They’ve elected him and they have to deal with him on that. I don’t think his re-election chances would be that promising.”One of the Democrats who demanded an investigation said he had written to McCarthy and other senior Republicans.Dan Goldman, also of New York, told CBS’s Face the Nation: “The speaker of the House indicated that he would support an ethics investigation.“And in fact this morning, Congressman [Ritchie] Torres and I sent a letter to Speaker McCarthy, [Republican] chairwoman [Elise] Stefanik and the head of the Congressional Leadership Fund, Kevin McCarthy’s super Pac, because there’s really, really bombshell … reporting from the New York Times that they all knew about Mr Santos’s lies prior to the election.”Goldman said he and Torres were calling on Republicans “to be fully cooperative with the investigators, both in Congress and outside of Congress to disclose exactly what they knew about Mr Santos’s lies, and whether they were complicit in this scheme to defraud voters.“George Santos is a complete and total fraud … nearly everything has proven to be a lie. His financial disclosures have clear false statements and omissions. And that’s what we refer to the ethics committee for an investigation to get to the bottom of whether he broke the law.“Eight Republican Congress members have called on him to resign … This is a scheme to defraud the voters of the third district in New York, and this needs to be investigated intensively. And Mr Santos needs to think twice about whether he belongs in Congress. And more importantly, the speaker needs to think twice about whether Mr Santos is fit to serve in Congress.”On Saturday, a prominent GOP right-winger – and ringleader of the attempt to stop McCarthy becoming speaker – offered Santos support.Speaking to CNN, Matt Gaetz of Florida said: “George Santos represents over 700,000 people in New York. And whether people like that or not, those people deserve to have members of Congress collaborating with the person who serves them.“George Santos will have to go through the congressional ethics process. I don’t want to prejudge that process, but I think he deserves the chance to at least make his case.”Serial liar George Santos is the politician Americans deserve | Moira DoneganRead moreEarlier this week, Gaetz spoke to Santos on the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast. Asked about his wealth, Santos nodded to Republican claims about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, saying: “I’ll tell you where it didn’t come from – it didn’t come from China, Ukraine or Burisma.”Santos is under investigation in Brazil, over the use of a stolen chequebook, and in the US over claims about his college history, business career and family background shown to be untrue. Santos has admitted “embellishing” his résumé but insisted he has done nothing wrong or unethical.On Bannon’s podcast, Gaetz said: “Embellishing one’s résumé isn’t a crime. It’s frankly, how a lot of people get to Congress. And we want everyone to be honest.”Writing for the Guardian, the columnist Moira Donegan pointed to Santos’s rise in a Republican party led by Donald Trump.“It would be a mistake to think that George Santos’s pathologies are his alone,” she wrote. “His lies are the product of a political system that incentivises dishonesty, punishes sincerity and is rife with opportunities for petty crooks.“In that sense, Santos is the politician that we deserve.”TopicsGeorge SantosRepublicansUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesNew YorknewsReuse this content More

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      More Republicans call for George Santos to resign over fictional résumé

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      More Republicans call for George Santos to resign over fictional résuméNewly elected New York congressman insists he will not step down despite lies about background and education being exposed Republican members of Congress have joined state party officials in calling for the New York representative George Santos to resign, heaping more pressure on the disgraced politician who won election in November with a largely fictional biography.In Santos’s district, reactions to brazen lies remain mixed: ‘I might let him slide’Read moreAnthony D’Esposito, who represents New York’s fourth congressional district, neighbouring Santos in the third, said on Wednesday Santos had lost the faith of voters and did “not have the ability” to represent them, the New York Times reported.Santos, whose lies about his family background, education and work history were exposed by the Times, has insisted he will not resign, despite a slew of investigations and a complaint to the Federal Election Committee over his campaign finances.D’Esposito told reporters he would actively encourage “other representatives in the House of Representatives to join me in rejecting” Santos.He was joined in short order by three other first-term Republican congressmen from New York, the Times said. Two more weighed in on Thursday.The three were Nick LaLota, who like Santos and D’Esposito represents parts of Long Island; Nick Langworthy, the New York party chair who represents part of the upstate southern tier; and Brandon Williams, from a district near Syracuse.LaLota was particularly scathing, according to Axios.“I definitely share their sentiments,” he said of state party officials’ calls for Santos to give up his seat. “What he’s done is disgraceful, dishonorable and unworthy of the office. I think he should resign.”Williams tweeted a statement.“As more revelations become public, I concur with the Nassau Republicans’ decision to request George Santos’ resignation,” he wrote.“The constituents in NY-3 elected Representative Santos in part due to his biographical exaggerations and apparent deceptions. He must resign.”On Thursday morning, CNN’s chief congressional reporter, Manu Raju, tweeted that he had spoken with two more Republican New Yorkers, Marcus Molinaro and Mike Lawler, who concurred with their fellow congressmen.“There’s no way I believe [Santos] can fully fulfill his responsibilities,” Molinaro was quoted as saying.Santos has admitted “embellishing” his résumé, including lying about his college record – he did not attend Baruch and New York University – and saying a “poor choice of words” created the impression he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.He has claimed a tragic link to the Pulse nightclub shooting and said the attacks on New York on 11 September 2001 “claimed my mother’s life”. His mother died in 2016.He has claimed to have Jewish roots and to be descended from Holocaust survivors. He has claimed to be part Black, but while voting for Kevin McCarthy to be House speaker last week, he appeared to flash a “white power” sign.He is under investigation in New York and in Brazil, in the latter case over the use of a stolen checkbook.On Thursday, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House and another New Yorker, had stern words for Republican leaders.Santos, Jeffries said, was “a complete and total fraud. He lied to the voters of the third congressional district in New York. He deceived and connived his way into Congress, and is now the responsibility of House Republicans to do something about it.“This is not a partisan issue, but it is an issue that Republicans need to handle. Clean up your house. You can start with George Santos.”Earlier this week, two New York Democrats, Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, hand-delivered to Santos their request for an investigation of his campaign finances.Jeffries said: “I was well aware of their decision to do so. But any matters before the ethics committee … should be resolved by members of the ethics committee.”Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker, was also asked about Santos on Thursday. He told reporters: “What I find is that voters have elected George Santos. If there is a concern he will go through ethics. If there is something that is found it will be dealt with in that manner. But they [voters] have a voice in this process.”Santos remains defiant – even after being disowned by his own district Republican party.On Wednesday, Joseph Cairo, chair of the Nassau county Republican committee, criticized Santos for running a campaign of “deceit, lies and fabrication”.“He’s disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople,” Cairo told reporters. “Today, on behalf of the Nassau county Republican committee, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”Cairo even said Santos did not just claim to have attended colleges he did not attend, but claimed to have been “a star on the Baruch volleyball team and that they won the league championship”.In response, Santos tweeted: “I was elected to serve the people of the New York third district not the party and politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living.“I will NOT resign!”TopicsRepublicansGeorge SantosUS politicsNew YorknewsReuse this content More

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      ‘It’s been rough’: passengers weather another day of chaos at US airports

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      ‘It’s been rough’: passengers weather another day of chaos at US airportsFrom weather disruptions to computer problems to crew shortages, customers are once again caught in travel limbo After an $8bn makeover, New York’s new LaGuardia airport complex is finally an airport the city can be proud of. Unfortunately the same can not be said for the industry it serves.For the second time in almost two weeks thousands of flights were canceled across the US on Wednesday – this time because of what appears to be a snafu with an antiquated computer system. Passengers have had enough.“It’s been rough this last couple of years,” said Deb Alexis, who had traveled to New York from Orlando. “The flight was great but now there’s stress because the bags haven’t come. Seems like there’s a lot of confusion and delays nowadays.”‘A wild Christmas eve’: strangers stranded by airline chaos team up for road tripsRead moreAsked if airline travel is becoming altogether too much trouble, Danny Dividu, on his way to Georgia when his Southwest plane was canceled, said simply: “Hell yes. Now I’ve got to go back upstairs to check in again. I usually go Greyhound. Best way to go. I hate flying. It’s too much hassle, always has been.”Another day, another crisis at US airports.It might have been the cascading weather-related disruptions the US experienced over the holidays, or computer issues, scheduling, pilot or crew shortages but the outcome was familiar: customers left in a helpless state of air travel limbo.Whatever the precise cause of Wednesday’s issues, they are part of a wider set of problems for travelers, airlines and the FAA, said Robert Mann, a former airline executive who now runs the consulting firm RW Mann & Company.“The FAA runs on hardware and software that is in many cases decades old,” he said. “And it’s a multi-year effort to build and install them.”Even a small, regional failure can have knock-on effects for the entire network, he said, but this “seems to be a system failure” and travelers could expect more issues unless something is done.The FAA estimates that delayed and canceled flights cost the US economy $33bn in 2019. “Everyone – the department of transportation, the general accounting office, Congress – agree that there is a significant cost to this but nobody does anything about it,” Mann said.Congress is set to debate the funding of the FAA this year and the hearings are expected to be heated. The FAA is currently without a leader and has been since last March.Biden has nominated Phillip Washington, currently the chief executive of Denver International Airport, to the position. But his nomination has been clouded by criticism of his lack of experience in the aviation industry and ties to a corruption scandal.With Republicans now in charge of the House, Biden’s nomination looks more uncertain and the latest mess will expose the transport secretary, Pete Buttigieg, to more criticism following the chaos at US airports over the holidays.After the flight restrictions were lifted, Buttigieg said his department was not ruling out the possibility that nefarious activity was to blame for the computer system outage.“We’re not prepared to rule that out,” Buttigieg said in an interview on MSNBC. “There is no direct indication of any kind of external or nefarious activity, but we are not yet prepared to rule that out,” Buttigieg said.After the incident senator Ted Cruz, the top Republican on the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, called for congressional reforms to the FAA.Southwest Airlines under investigation as more flights canceled after stormRead more“The flying public deserves safety in the sky,” the Texas senator said in a statement. “The administration needs to explain to Congress what happened, and Congress should enact reforms in this year’s FAA reauthorization legislation.”Wednesday’s incident, Cruz added, “highlights why the public needs a competent, proven leader with substantive aviation experience leading the FAA”.By mid-morning, the FAA issued its fifth bulletin. “Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the United States following an overnight outage,” the agency said in a statement.By then, it was too late for many passengers. Jordan Cousins, 25, on his way to Nashville on Southwest from New York’s LaGuardia, said his Southwest flight had been delayed twice and then canceled entirely.“It’s this and then it’s that. You never know. You may have a smooth flight or there may be a problem. It may be at the counter, with the plane, or something,” he said. “Plans never go as planned.”TopicsAirline industryUS politicsNew YorkAir transportfeaturesReuse this content More

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      George Santos says he won’t resign as fellow Republicans call on him to quit

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      George Santos says he won’t resign as fellow Republicans call on him to quitChair of Nassau county committee says Santos ran ‘a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication’ to win third district The Republican George Santos said on Wednesday he would not resign from Congress less than a week after being sworn in, despite calls to do so from the chairman of his district committee and a fellow New York representative, amid continuing scrutiny of Santos’s mostly made-up résumé and growing calls for campaign finance investigations.In Santos’s district, reactions to brazen lies remain mixed: ‘I might let him slide’Read moreIn a tweet, Santos said: “I was elected to serve the people of the New York third district not the party and politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living.“I will NOT resign!”He was responding to remarks to reporters by Joseph Cairo, chair of the Nassau county Republican committee, who said Santos ran “a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication” to win the third district last year.At the same time, a first sitting Republican congressman, Anthony D’Esposito, also of New York, called on Santos to quit.Santos has faced a barrage of negative coverage.He has admitted to “embellishing” his résumé, including lying about his college record – he did not attend Baruch and New York University – and saying a “poor choice of words” created the impression he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.He has claimed a tragic link to the Pulse nightclub shooting and said the attacks on New York on 11 September 2001 “claimed my mother’s life”. His mother died in 2016.He has claimed to have Jewish roots and to be descended from Holocaust survivors.He is under investigation in New York and in Brazil, in the latter case over the use of a stolen chequebook.His Democratic predecessor in the third district has called him a “conman”.Cairo said Santos “deceived the voters of the third congressional district, he deceived the members of the Nassau county Republican committee, elected officials, his colleagues, candidates, his opponents and even some of the media.“His lies were not mere fibs. He disgraced the House of Representatives. In particular, his fabrications went too far. Many groups were hurt. Specifically, those families that were touched by the horrors of the Holocaust. I feel for them.“He has no place in the Nassau county Republican committee, nor should he serve in public service nor as an elected official. He is not welcome here at Republican headquarters for meetings or at any of our events. As I said, he’s disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople.“Today, on behalf of the Nassau county Republican committee. I am calling for his immediate resignation.”In his own statement, to Politico, D’Esposito said Santos’s “many hurtful lies and mistruths … have irreparably broken the trust of the residents he is sworn to serve. For his betrayal of the public’s trust, I call on [him] to resign”.Santos was sworn into Congress last weekend, almost a week late after backing Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, through 15 votes for speaker.Casting one vote, Santos appeared to flash a “white power” sign. He has previously claimed to be partly Black. He also told the New York Post he was “Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish’.”Another newly elected New York Republican, Nick LaLota, has called for an investigation. On Tuesday, two New York Democrats who hand-delivered a request for an ethics investigation of Santos, Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, said they had heard from Republicans who supported such a step.But Republican leaders have not acted.On Tuesday, Politico reported that Republicans were discussing what to do. Santos told the site he expected to be given committee assignments. On Wednesday, asked if Santos would sit on top committees, McCarthy said: “No.”Seizing on Cairo’s remarks, Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted that McCarthy’s “spine found a new home in Nassau county”.Harrison added: “It is shameful that a New York county party chair has to protect and defend the honor of the House of Representatives against the lies of Santos while McCarthy is too scared to even utter his name.”In Washington on Tuesday, Goldman and Torres delivered to Santos their demand for an investigation by the House ethics committee.Goldman, like Santos elected last November, said: “Santos, we have a complaint for you.”Santos said: “Sure.”In their complaint, Goldman and Torres cited “extensive public reporting – as well as Santos’s own admissions … that Mr Santos misled voters in his district about his ethnicity, his religion, his education, and his employment and professional history, among other things”.They requested an investigation of Santos for “failing to file timely, accurate and complete financial disclosure reports as required by law”.Santos’s campaign finances are the subject of a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a non-partisan watchdog.George Santos scandal: Democratic predecessor calls him a ‘conman’Read moreThe CLC complaint questions the source of Santos’s personal wealth and the propriety of loans to his own campaign.Torres and Goldman called Santos’s financial reports for a failed run in 2020 and his win in 2022 “sparse and perplexing”, adding: “At a minimum it is apparent he did not file timely disclosure reports for his most recent campaign.”They wrote: “If Mr Santos’s 2020 and 2022 financial disclosures are to be believed, his salary increased from $55,000 in 2020 to $750,000 in 2021 and 2022, of which he gave a whopping $705,000 to his campaign.“The committee should investigate the veracity of these claims and whether Mr Santos has engaged in fraudulent activity.”Santos told reporters that though Goldman and Torres were “free to do whatever they want to do”, he was not concerned, as he had “done nothing unethical”.Asked if he had done anything wrong, he said: “I have not.”Torres and Goldman also said Santos had “failed to uphold the integrity expected of members of the House of Representatives”.TopicsGeorge SantosRepublicansDemocratsNew YorkUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesUS political financingnewsReuse this content More

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      Federal prosecutors subpoena Giuliani over Trump campaign payments

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      Federal prosecutors subpoena Giuliani over Trump campaign paymentsThe order, issued in November, also asks the former New York mayor to provide testimony Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, who helped to amplify Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors seeking documents about payments he received from Trump or his presidential campaign, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.Grand jury in Georgia’s Trump 2020 election investigation finishes workRead moreThe subpoena, which was issued in November, also asks Giuliani to provide testimony, said the person, who declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.The nature of the inquiry by the US attorney in Washington DC, which began before special counsel Jack Smith was appointed to oversee investigations into Trump, remains largely under wraps.Giuliani, who has served as Trump’s personal attorney, did not respond to requests by Reuters for comment.A spokeswoman for the US attorney for the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The source said the subpoena sought, among other things, copies of any retainer agreements between Trump and Giuliani, or the Trump campaign and Giuliani, and records of payments and who made those payments.In December, a District of Columbia attorney ethics committee said Giuliani violated at least one attorney ethics rule in his work on a failed lawsuit by Trump challenging the 2020 election results.Giuliani’s New York state law license was suspended in June 2021 after a state appeals court found he had made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the 2020 election won by his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.TopicsRudy GiulianiDonald TrumpWashington DCNew YorkUS elections 2020newsReuse this content More

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      In Santos’s district, reactions to brazen lies remain mixed: ‘I might let him slide’

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      In Santos’s district, reactions to brazen lies remain mixed: ‘I might let him slide’In the New York Republican’s district, some people defend the serial fibber, while others are adamant George Santos must quit It was only after George Santos was elected to Congress that the news broke: the New York Republican had told lies during his campaign.But these weren’t just little lies, or white lies. Santos appears to have lied brazenly, with abandon, about almost everything it’s possible to lie about: his career, his education, his faith, his relationships, his finances, 9/11.Santos, who in his telling is a real estate magnate and animal charity founder who graduated in economics and previously worked for Goldman Sachs – none of this is true – has refused to step down from the House of Representatives, despite calls for him to resign and criticism from his own party.But in Santos’s congressional district, which covers part of Queens, in New York City, and much of the neighboring Nassau county, in Long Island, the reaction has been more varied. Some people have defended the serial fibber, while others are adamant Santos must quit.“If you lie about one thing, that is OK,” said Gary Dhindsa, who owns One Stop Cards and Convenience in Farmingdale, Nassau county.“Anybody can expect that – maybe he misspoke or something. But if you lie about 100% of everything, people cannot expect that.“Politicians, when they speak they try to embellish their things. But not like this, when everything they tell you is totally bullshit.”It was the New York Times, in December, which broke the story of Santos’s web of deceit.Santos claimed that he graduated from Baruch College and New York University, only to later admit he hadn’t. He said he had worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but after both firms said they had no record of his employment, Santos said he had “never worked directly” for either institution. Santos tweeted in February 2021 that he and his family owned 13 properties, before confessing to the New York Post that he does not own any properties.During his campaign, Santos had referred to himself as a “proud American Jew”, but later said he had “never claimed to be Jewish”, only “Jew-ish”. He said four of his employees were killed during the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Florida, but the New York Times found that “none of the 49 victims appear to have worked at the various firms named in [Santos’s] biography”.Santos also claimed to have founded a charity called Friends of Pets United, but according to the Times: “The Internal Revenue Service could locate no record of a registered charity with that name.”The Republican had also claimed his mother was “in her office in the South Tower” in New York on the day of the 9/11 attacks, and that she died a few years later: “9/11 claimed my mother’s life,” he wrote on Twitter in July 2021. His mother had actually died in 2016, and the New York Times could find no evidence that she worked at the World Trade Center.“People are betrayed,” Dhindsa said.“They are feeling betrayed because he told complete lies. He manipulated everything. Not one or two things. Everything.”Santos had visited Farmingdale in the run-up to the election, and posted an Instagram photo of him enjoying an ice-cream at Charlotte’s, a couple of doors down from One Stop Cards and Convenience.On Wednesday, the owner of Charlotte’s remembered Santos as “very nice”, but had some questions.“On the surface of it, it sounds like he should resign,” Nick DeVito said.“He made up a bunch of stuff and got his job under false pretenses. That’s what it sounds like. But I would like to just hear him, you know, give us his side of the story, I guess, and after I heard that I would make my determination,” he said.DeVito said he had offered the ice-cream to Santos for free, but Santos had insisted on paying. DeVito voted for Santos a few days later, but said the newly elected politician needs to fully address the fabrication controversy.“If they are bold-faced lies, then I think he should resign and somebody else should take the spot. If he’s got some kind of an explanation, even a half-assed explanation. I might let him slide.”In the meantime, DeVito said: “He’s welcome back here. But I don’t know if I would give him anything for free.”Further along Farmingdale’s Main Street, florist Emily Ring was more dead-set in her Santos support.“There’s so many liars with politicians, it’s like: they all do, to a certain degree. But he got caught,” Ring said.“I don’t think he should resign.”Ultimately, it might not be Santos’s choice as to whether his political career continues. The Republican, who was due to be sworn in on Tuesday only for the GOP’s bonfire in the House to cause a delay, will take office amid a swarm of investigations.Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Santos’s finances, while a local investigation in Nassau county began examining Santos in late December. The New York Times reported that “questions remain” about how Santos was able to loan his campaign $700,000.“I made a mistake, and I think humans are flawed and we all make mistakes,” Santos said in an interview with Fox News on 27 December.“The reality is that I remain committed to doing everything I set forward in my campaign. I’m not a fraud. I’m not a fake.”Asked if he feels “no shame” about telling “blatant lies” to the electorate, Santos said:“I can say the same thing about the Democrats and the party, look at Joe Biden. Joe Biden has been lying to the American people for 40 years, he’s the president of the United States,” he said.That excuse didn’t carry much weight with Marylou Albertini, a resident of the affluent Port Washington neighborhood in Long Island.“I think he’s a crumb,” Albertini said.“It’s really like he’s saying it’s OK to do it. Which is really wrong.”Albertini said she believed most politicians to be “crooks”, but said Santos’s actions went further than the usual political obfuscations.“​​I heard him say basically: ‘Why should that matter, because other politicians lie,’” Albertini said.“Well this isn’t about them. It’s about you, stupid.”TopicsNew YorkUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      George Santos scandal: Democratic predecessor calls him a ‘con man’

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      George Santos scandal: Democratic predecessor calls him a ‘con man’Tom Suozzi, Santos’s forerunner for New York’s third district, says the Republican winner should be ‘removed by Congress’ The Democrat who vacated the US House seat won by the controversial Republican George Santos said on Tuesday Congress was letting in “a con man”.George Santos: Brazil reactivates fraud case against fabulist congressman-electRead moreTom Suozzi won New York’s third district, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens, in 2016, but stepped down in 2022 in order to run for governor. Santos lost to Suozzi in 2020 but beat Robert Zimmerman for the vacant seat.Since Santos’s victory, almost every part of his campaign biography has been called into question.Intense scrutiny has been applied to his claims about his education and career in business and to elements of his personal story, including his supposed descent from Holocaust survivors and a claim that his mother died as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Santos has admitted to some inaccuracies.But even after prosecutors in Brazil reactivated a criminal fraud investigation regarding the use of a stolen chequebook, and amid reports that federal prosecutors in New York are examining Santos’s background and financial dealings, Republicans in Congress have not acted.On Tuesday, as the new Congress gathered, Suozzi pointed out in a column for the New York Times that on being sworn in, Santos would take “an oath to ‘bear true faith’ to the constitution and [to] take this obligation without any ‘purpose of evasion’”.Suozzi wrote: “I’ve lost track of how many evasions and lies Mr Santos has told about himself, his finances and his history and relationship with our stretch of Long Island and north-eastern Queens.”Santos being seated in Congress, Suozzi said, would “diminish our Congress, our country and … his constituents.“It saddens me that after 30 years of public service rooted in hard work and service to the people of this area, I’m being succeeded by a con man.”When Santos arrived on Capitol Hill, he ignored questions from a scrum of reporters. Before being sworn in, he supported Kevin McCarthy for speaker. He could not be formally sworn in until the speakership had been decided. That process was delayed until Wednesday at least, an overnight adjournment having followed three inconclusive votes.Suozzi said Santos could still be held to account by “our democracy, our free press and the rule of law” as well as “the voters of the third district”.Those voters, he wrote, “believe in the rule of law, in playing by the rules. They like authenticity in their leaders and pride themselves on having a good BS detector.“The fact is that Mr Santos’s behavior went beyond BS: he fabricated the basics of his biography to an extent that most voters wouldn’t have thought possible. The shame would be too great, right?”Lamenting the rise of political shamelessness, Suozzi pointed to Donald Trump’s famous 2016 claim that “he could ‘shoot somebody’ on Fifth Avenue and still not lose supporters”.Suozzi wrote: “If we are going to subdue the tyranny of unchecked liars and their lies then Mr Santos must be held accountable: he must be removed by Congress or by prosecutors, because there is no indication that he will be moved by conscience to voluntarily resign.”Suozzi likened Santos to Sam Bankman-Fried and Bernie Madoff, the former a cryptocurrency magnate who has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, the latter sentenced to 150 years in 2009 over the largest Ponzi scheme in history.Top Republicans remain silent over George Santos campaign liesRead moreSuozzi said: “Not unlike them, [Santos] appears to have conducted his finances in highly unusual, if not unlawful, ways. But I have to wonder, having seen his delight for attention and his self-regard, if he loves that everyone now knows his name – even though it’s because of yet another big lie.”Suozzi insisted Santos would be held accountable.“The people of my district are holding rallies, signing petitions and calling on the Republican leadership to act,” he wrote.Calling the district “a model for moderation … a 50-50 district with constituents who embrace a get-it-done attitude” and “value tell-it-like-it-is leadership”, Suozzi said those voters now found themselves “saddled with a slippery, inexperienced liar who tells it like it isn’t”.Such New Yorkers, Suozzi said, were now “counting on the press to keep digging in, law enforcement to keep investigating and the political pressure to keep building on the House”, in order to remove Santos from Congress.TopicsUS newsUS CongressNew YorkUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Do you have no shame?’: Tulsi Gabbard grills congressman-elect George Santos

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      ‘Do you have no shame?’: Tulsi Gabbard grills congressman-elect George SantosThe former presidential candidate called resume-inflating Santos’s claims ‘blatant lies’ in Fox News interview In a Fox News interview with former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday, Republican congressman-elect George Santos claimed he is not a “fraud” when questioned about the recent revelations – and his eventual admission – that his claims about his career and identity are riddled with lies and fabricated records.First Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost says he’s part of the ‘mass shooting generation’Read moreThe Fox interview came the same day as fresh allegations that he falsely claimed a Jewish identity.Even though Santos told the New York Post that he never claimed to be Jewish, there is documentation proving otherwise. Santos had been loud about his identity as a “proud American Jew”, and enjoyed coverage in Jewish media where he was celebrated as the “only Jewish Republican member of New York’s House delegation”.He regularly attended events with rabbis and campaigned in Jewish neighborhoods, according to the New York Times.When asked about this, Santos told Gabbard that he has Jewish heritage but was raised Catholic. He said he has joked that he is “Jew-ish”.Santos, who has also admitted to lying about graduating from Baruch College and working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, said he was not “a fake” and that “everybody wants to nitpick” at him now.But Gabbard put Santos on the spot by asking him how he defines “integrity”.Santos initially talked about the role of integrity for politicians, but Gabbard pushed back: “What does it mean though? … Because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice.”In Tuesday’s interview, he claimed he was courageous to be admitting this on national television, but fell short of an apology.He insisted that somehow this “courage” in his admission would make him fit to serve his district, to which Gabbard asked: “Do you have no shame?”“Do you have no shame [inaudible] the people who are now you’re asking to trust you to go and be their voice for them, their families and their kids in Washington?” she asked, after clarifying that what he keeps referring to as “embellishments” on his resume are much bigger, “blatant lies”.Santos responded, once again deflecting the answer, this time to Democrats and Joe Biden, who he claimed has been “lying to the American people for 40 years”.When Gabbard confronted him further about his lies regarding his work at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and how he can expect his constituents to trust him, Santos said the lies on his resume are “debatable” and “not false at all”.He added that he could easily explain how things such as private equity work.“We can have this discussion that can go way above the American people’s head”, he said, “but that’s not what I campaigned on”.“Wow,” Gabbard responded. “You just kind of highlighted, I think my concerns and the concerns people at home have – you’re saying that this discussion will go way above the heads of the American people, basically insulting their intelligence.”As of Wednesday morning, Santos’s website no longer had information about his relations with Baruch College, Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.TopicsRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesNew YorkUS politicsUS CongressnewsReuse this content More