Politics

George Santos mocked sexual assault victims: “Harvey Weinstein gave me coronavirus!”

George Santos
George Santos Photo: George Santos campaign website

Out Rep. George Santos (R-NY) mocked sexual assault victims while he downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic in an uncovered interview.

Santos was on the Empire State Conservatives podcast on March 31, 2020, early in the coronavirus pandemic. He claimed that he had gotten COVID – which he called “COVID-19, aka coronavirus, or commonly known as the Chinese flu” – earlier in the month and said that it wasn’t a big deal, he just needed an inhaler for three days.

He said he didn’t understand why a local hospital didn’t have enough room to store all the bodies of people who had died of COVID because it wasn’t a big deal for him so it shouldn’t be a big deal for anyone else.

“Here I am, a perfected candidate to be, you know, R.I.P., and it just didn’t happen,” he said.

“I’m always happy to meet quote-unquote survivors,” co-host Taac responded. “Not that, we talked about the Me Too movement, but…”

“Harvey Weinstein gave me coronavirus,” Santos jokingly sobbed before bursting out laughing. “And I still didn’t get the gig.”

Weinstein, a film producer, was accused of rape and sexual abuse by over 80 women. He is currently serving a 23-year sentence for rape and criminal sexual assault.

Later in their discussion, Santos joked that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has an OnlyFans account.  OnlyFans is a platform for sex workers.

Taac was trying to relate a story about a nurse on Instagram whose name he didn’t remember when co-host Evan interrupted, “What was her OnlyFans account name, Taac?”

“From what I understand, you’re interested in AOC’s OnlyFans account,” Santos joked about the sitting Congresswoman.

“She’s still a very attractive young woman,” he continued. “She takes care of herself. Good for her, OK. She was a bartender. She had to. She had no option.”

Later in the interview, Santos came back to the idea that COVID-19 was Chinese Americans’ fault and said, “I’m not racist against the Chinese population, and I don’t quite frankly think it’s their fault for Chinese Americans living in the United States, that’s not the case here.” He then blamed the spread of COVID on “the immigration system.”

After being elected to represent New York’s Third Congressional District and becoming the first out gay Republican elected to Congress, Santos’ life story came crumbling down as several newspapers reported he never went to the colleges he said he attended, never worked for the major banks he said he worked for, and that he had been lying about his family history as well. He has admitted to many of these lies, calling them “a little bit of fluff” on his resume.

He is also being investigated by authorities in Brazil for writing bad checks, something he reportedly confessed to in 2010.

Questions are also being raised about the nearly $3 million out Rep. George Santos (R-NY) raised for his 2022 campaign, with some donors saying they were tricked into believing that one of Santos’s staffers worked for one of the most powerful Republicans in D.C. instead of the political newcomer.

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