Politics

Failed gay GOP candidate says he’s the victim of “violence” after attending maskless Trump event

Congressional hopeful George Santos (left) and his fiancé (right) at the Mar-A-Lago New Year's event, as shared on Instagram
Congressional hopeful George Santos (left) and his fiancé (right) at the Mar-A-Lago New Year's event, as shared on Instagram Photo: Screenshot

Out Republican candidate George Santos – who lost his bid to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in Congress last November – is claiming that he and his fiance have been the victims of “violence” since he posted pictures of them attending a maskless New Year’s Eve party at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Santos traveled from New York City to Palm Beach, Florida for the New Year’s event with his fiance and then posted about it on the Instagram account he created for his campaign. The New York Times reported on his Instagram posts and then he complained about the public knowing what he and his fiance did.

Related: Gay Trump supporter George Santos officially loses his bid for Congress

He also said that his fiance was fired from his job as a pharmacist – presumably because his employer didn’t want to expose sick people to someone who so publicly flouted coronavirus prevention guidelines – and claimed they had to leave their home with their four dogs because of “the violence against us.”

This week, he clarified what he was referring to and decried the “thousands of violent threats” that he and his fiance received.

“People get to stone and egg my house and I must go down quietly?” he wrote in a later tweet. “I never in my life committed an act of violence against anyone. This is absolutely abhorrent to say the least, if I roll over now I’ll be trampled.”

He reiterated that he believes that he and his fiance “did nothing wrong” by attending a party without masks 1,200 miles from his hometown and that they “owe no one an apology.”

“We are the ones being threatened for our freedom to make our own choices,” he said. “I will stand my ground and will NEVER back down.
America is a FREE country!”

In his 2020 Congressional bid, Santos presented himself as a far-right choice in the district that includes most of the North Shore of Long Island with a platform that included ending bail reform, increased funding for the police, less gun control, partial privatization of Social Security, and building a wall between Mexico and the U.S. His website says he supports marriage equality.

In October, he appeared on the local news as a gay Trump supporter, saying, “I think that this president has done more for the community than his predecessors.”

If he had been elected, Santos would have been the first out LGBTQ Republican elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Today, Santos is urging his supporters to vote for the anti-LGBTQ Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in the Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

Santos is tweeting from Washington DC as he continues his cross-country tour during a pandemic. The District requires anyone traveling from Florida or New York to provide proof of a recent negative coronavirus test and that they are retested within 3-5 days of arrival. It also requires all visitors to wear masks.

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