Incoming GOP Rep May Have Fabricated His Background, Is Allegedly Wanted for Crimes in Foreign Country
A New York Times report is raising questions about the background of an incoming Republican congressman.
The report Monday concerns George Santos, whose victory in last month’s midterm elections ended years of Democratic control of New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes a big part of Long Island.
Santos, who was born to Brazilian immigrants in Queens, became the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a nonincumbent when he defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman 54.1 percent to 45.9 percent, according to the Times.
He had campaigned against the crime and inflation that have plagued New York and the nation under Democratic control, declaring in one video “Don’t NYC my Long Island.”
Santos’ victory seemed like a massive win for the GOP — but the Times’ report has many questioning whether he is suited to serve in the House of Representatives.
The liberal newspaper said he appears to have lied about his background on his resume and that he might be wanted for crimes committed in Brazil when he was 19.
According to the Times, Santos’ campaign website said he attended Baruch College in New York, worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and ran an animal rescue called Friends of Pets United.
Yet both Goldman Sachs and Citigroup said they had no record of Santos ever working with them, Baruch College said it had no record of him graduating from the school, and the Internal Revenue Service could not find a charity of that name, the report said.
In addition, the Times said Santos was accused of having stolen a checkbook from an elderly patient of his mother’s — she was a nurse in the Brazilian city of Niterói — in 2008 and making several fraudulent purchases, including a pair of shoes. He later confessed to the crime, the report said, but the case remains unsolved as he never responded to a court summons.
In response to the report, Santos tweeted a statement from his attorney, Joseph Murray, saying the left-wing media was attempting to “smear his good name” with “defamatory” allegations.
“George Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by — a gay, Latino, immigrant and Republican who won a Biden district in overwhelming fashion by showing everyday voters that there is a better option than the broken promises and failed policies of the Democratic Party,” Murray said.
He ended the statement with a quote attributed to Winston Churchill: “You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” (The quote actually originated with French novelist Victor Hugo.)
— George Santos (@Santos4Congress) December 19, 2022
Look, I know that we want to celebrate Santos’ victory as a massive win for the GOP in a deep-blue area, but we shouldn’t brush aside these allegations.
You should not lie to people about your background when you want to earn their vote. Americans want and deserve representatives that we can trust, and they have a right to know the truth about their elected officials.
If these allegations in the Times’ report are proven true, it would mean Santos lied about key details of his life and is a criminal. How could we trust such a person in the halls of Congress?
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