On Monday, The New York Times published an investigation alleging that Congressman-elect George Santos (R-NY) misrepresented much of his personal history and resume during his campaign for office. The Times reported that Santos, who became the first out gay Republican to win a U.S. House seat as a non-incumbent, appears to have lied about both graduating from Baruch College and attending New York University, as well as having worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. It also revealed that he may have lied about having employed four victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting and that he confessed in 2010 to stealing a checkbook from a patient of his mother’s, who was working as a nurse in Brazil at the time, among numerous other discrepancies and suspect details in his personal history and resume.
As part of its reporting, the Times said that Santos declined to be interviewed and did not respond to repeated requests to substantiate his claims. Santos’s lawyer, Joseph Murray, told the paper that it was “no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at The New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”
Late Monday afternoon, Santos responded via a statement from his attorney posted on Twitter:
“George Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by – a gay, Latino, first generation American 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 in the statement.
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“After four years in the public eye, and on the verge of being sworn in as a member of the Republican led 118th Congress, the New York Times launches this shotgun blast of attacks. It is no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at the New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations. As Winston Churchill famously stated, ‘You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.’”
— George Santos (@Santos4Congress) December 19, 2022
As Politifact notes, Winston Churchill never said the quote Santos’s attorney attributed to him in the statement. The quote actually comes from an essay by Victor Hugo.
The piece de resistance here is that Churchill never said the quote Santos attributes to him here https://t.co/B167BdX7wg https://t.co/g0bSTRkx5B
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) December 19, 2022
Santos previously ran an unsuccessful campaign for the same seat representing a district in northern Long Island and northeast Queens in 2020. His victory in November’s election helped secure a slim Republican majority in the House.
During his most recent successful campaign, Santos said that abortion is as barbaric as slavery and voiced support for Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. He had previously supported Donald Trump, echoing the former president’s lies about the 2020 election in subsequently deleted social media posts.
He attended the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol and was recently caught on video saying he wrote a “nice check” to help cover the legal fees of some of the rioters. Earlier this month, he attended a Manhattan gala alongside white nationalists and far-right conspiracy theorists.
