As the new year unfolds, so does the shadowy past of Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who has fabricated much of his resumé and life story. His lies and inconsistencies were placed center-stage just weeks before the new Congress convened by an expose in the New York Times, after which he confessed to some “embellishments” while dodging questions about others.
Useful timeline and it’s clear Santos is a liar to rival even TFG but here’s the thing: we still do not have evidence he is actually a US citizen.
Stated another way, TFG set the ‘alternative facts’ bar so high that it’s easy to forget that serial prevarication has been a signature of Republican leadership for some time, even among the so-called moderates; e.g., Chronicling Mitt’s Mendacity ca. 2012. Santos will be welcomed by the likes of McCarthy, Scalise, et al as a kindred spirit unless and until he is conclusively proven to be a non-citizen; even then the reaction will be the merest tut-tut as they sadly bid reluctant farewell.
ETA: I’m inclined to doubt the opinion of the Nassau County New York GOPers will have much impact on either Santos or House GOP leadership one way or the other.
Reminds me of those people who pretend to be members of the Rockefeller family or a Saudi royalty, and then trick wealthy people out of their money. Or else he could be in the employ of someone connected, organized crime or a foreign influence-- they front him the money to campaign, he becomes their plant in congress to steer things their way or just offer up insider info. Just random impressions.
Here is another fact TPM can add to the timeline. After losing his 2020 Congressional race Santos attended the New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago with his fiancé. A photograph of the two along with five others was taken by someone and posted on social media. In a subsequent NYT story on the Mar-a-Lago party a link to that photo was published although Santos was not named. As of January 4, 2021 Santos tweeted a complaint against the NYT that his fiancé had been fired as a pharmacist because in the photo he was unmasked, as everyone else at that party was unmasked naturally. Santos gave no details of such a quick firing. All this minor news was lost as two days later there was the Trump-inspired January 6 insurrection, with Santos later claiming he was in DC to hear Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. Flash forward to December 2022 and the NYT destroys Santos’ credibility. You can Google Santos and Mar-a-Lago to find the January 4, 2021 story in the metroweekly.com site. Santos and the NYT had a direct history two years before December 2022.
It is pretty damned pathetic when at a starting point every frickin’ word out of an elected officials’ mouth must be deemed a God damned lie.
How did this manage to not mention the fraudulent marriage and subsequent divorce from his citizenship-seeking wife?
Is there anything in Santos’s past that suggests that at some point he won’t lie?
I mean, like tfg suddenly becoming “presidential?”
Add these to the list…
And this Beast exclusive article. Posting a few excerpts.
The gift from Rocco Oppedisano—expelled from the U.S. in January 2019, and who was subsequently intercepted piloting a yacht packed with unauthorized migrants and $200,000 in cash toward Florida—was just one facet of the support the freshman Republican and immigration hardlinerreceived from the Queens-based clan that controls upscale eatery Il Bacco. Santos has been unabashed about his affection for the restaurant and his affinity for its owners, Rocco Oppedisano’s brother Joseph and niece Tina.
As a truth-challenged candidate, Santos appointed the father-daughter pair, plus her fiancé, to his “Small Businesses for Santos Coalition,” and made Tina its chair. The campaign, already known for its suspect money maneuvers, also spent $25,443.64 at Il Bacco since the Republican launched his first run for his Long Island-Queens seat in 2020, according to federal campaign finance records. The campaign further reportedowing Il Bacco $18,773.54 for its election night party in November.
Especially striking to legal experts is that more than half a dozen of those expenses, marked “Food and Beverage” in the filing, came in at exactly $199.99—one penny short of the threshold that would have required the campaign to retain receipts of the transaction.
But but but…the REPUBLICANS are handling this ‘internally’…nothing to worry about.
What an inspiring story!
In the absence of gravitas, the GOP has attached itself to a washed-up B-movie actor who touted movie scenes as life anecdotes, the feckless moron son of a milquetoast-if-evil dynasty, and a New York conman who tried to overthrow the government.
And now, what – we expect them to reject someone just for being a criminal Brazilian fabulist?
This demonstration of the GOP’s values, the lack of any, needs to be Benghazied like Nancy Pelosi and LBJ were doing it.
The American People need to see just what the GOP is, I know, how so many have missed it up to now, but they have, is the dude even a citizen, and his lies are criminal in many instances it sounds like, and the GOP leaders don’t care and are going to mete out a sternly worded letter and leave the cretin in the House, a lying, criminal, bullshitting illegal alien.
Rinse and repeat please.
Are we sure that the apparent immigration marriage was for her benefit and not for Santos’s?
The ex-wife’s immigration status is known. And there would be a readily accessible public record if he was the one who got naturalized ca. 2019.
How on earth do these people do this?
It’s always interesting to me that people will expend this much time, attention, and energy lying and cheating rather that putting effort into keeping a real job.
I find myself wondering if they are consumed by anxiety, which would be my response, but I suspect that they skate on by feeling pretty darned good.
Confrontation with the facts may give them a jolt of the fight or flight response, energizing their corrupted psyches.
Most of us would be in hiding if we could survive the shame.
Santos just told an ABC reporter that he won’t resign.
How many Scaramuccis until he resigns?
Some are probably just lying cheaters at heart but I’ve come to believe that many are akin to evangelicals insofar as their actual desired society is so at odds with what most people would wish, never mind at odds with facts in the real world, that they must lie about it both to others and themselves.
Congressional Republicans have abandoned all pretense of having shame. And given Kevin’s slim majority, I doubt Santos will resign unless he’s arrested.
