When George Santos (R-N.Y.) is removed from the House of Representatives, he will be remembered for this one thing: the fact that his lies, falsehoods, crimes, and generally turning his entire resume into a complete fabrication will have set a new standard. It will exceed those of another George — George W. Plunkitt, a Tammany Hall pol who openly practiced what he called “honest graft” and is best known for bragging about it. Plunkitt defended his actions by declaring that while in office, “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”
Plunkitt would be embarrassed by the extent to which Santos has taken his “opportunities” and by the fact that he not only won an election with them, but remains in office as this is being written.
The House Ethics Committee announced that on last Tuesday it created a subcommittee specifically to look into Santos’ long list of criminal actions. That list is so long that it assures that members of the subcommittee will likely spend the rest of their two-year terms looking into it. Said the committee:
Investigative Subcommittee shall have jurisdiction to determine whether Representative George Santos may have: engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office.
This just barely scratches the surface of the depth of corruption they are likely to find.
Santos has no shame. When pressed on a few of his fibs and fabrications, he said, “I’ve been a terrible liar on those subjects, and what I tried to convey to the American people.… I ran in 2020 for the same exact seat for Congress, and I got away with it then.”
Vanity Fair, the left-wing magazine that loves to excoriate Republicans for their misdeeds both real and imagined, tried unsuccessfully to condense Republican Representative George Santos’ long list of deceits and prevarications into a single paragraph:
In addition to lies about his work history, educational background, grandparents, mother, being Jewish, having multiple employees who died in the Pulse nightclub shooting and about a million other things, there are significant questions about the source(s) of Santos’s campaign funds. For one thing, despite being evicted on more than one occasion, he apparently had $700,000 to freely lend. Meanwhile, a relative whose name was marked down next to a donation of $5,800 said they have no idea where that money came from.
On the other hand, New York magazine’s Intelligencer had no such desire. It took the opposite approach. In 11 pages of single-spaced paragraphs it reported the following. Santos
Lied about where he went to high school…
And college….
He never worked on Wall Street….
Where did the $700,000 come from?….
He lied about founding an animal charity….
He … swindled a disabled vet whose dog was dying….
Did he rip off an Amish dog breeder with a bad check?….
What’s the deal with his marriage(s)?…
It’s unclear if his mother’s death was related to 9/11….
His grandmother was definitely not a Holocaust victim….
And he did not have employees who died in the Pulse (nightclub) shooting….
Is he Jewish or “Jew-ish”?…
Was he a drag queen in Brazil?…
Was he a Broadway producer?…
Was he really a journalist in Brazil?…
Did his campaign deliberately repeatedly illegally charge donors on their credit cards?…
Was he the target of an “assassination” in December?…
Wikipedia was happy to expand the list of Santos’ falsifications, including these summaries:
There is no known record of Santos ever having attended any college or university, despite his claims that he attended the toney Horace Mann School, Baruch College, and New York University.
His aliases include Anthony Abrovsky and Anthony Devolder, names he fabricated as part of his efforts to dupe investors and donors to his cause.
His claim of employment at Citigroup overlapped with his employment as a Disk Network customer service representative.
His claim that he and his family owned 13 rental properties in New York when in fact neither he nor they owned any.
His claims that he was robbed when there is no evidence provided either by New York police or surveillance cameras at the alleged scenes.
His claims that he was worth millions when he has actually broke, behind on his rent, and in the process of being evicted.
His scam of overreporting campaign expenses in such a way that they didn’t need to be reported.
The more than 20 letters his campaign received from the Federal Election Commission about “problems” with his disclosures.
Contributions to his campaign by people who didn’t exist.
His Brazilian check fraud charges that remain open from 2013.
His 29 unpaid traffic tickets in New York and another six in Florida.
Another George — George Carlin — explained why the Ten Commandments aren’t posted in a courthouse:
The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: you cannot post “Thou shall not steal,” “Thou shall not commit adultery,” “Thou shall not lie,” in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians: it creates a hostile work environment.
Until he is ousted, Santos certainly must feel right at home.
Note: Santos is simultaneously being investigated by U.S., New York state, and Nassau County authorities over his fabrications, distortions, and fictions.
Related articles:
Should George Santos Have Taken Lying Lessons From Barack Obama?
