Politics

Mitt Romney confronts George Santos at SOTU: “You don’t belong here”

Rep. George Santos/Sen. Mitt Romney
Rep. George Santos/Sen. Mitt Romney Photo: U.S. Congress/Shutterstock

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had some choice words for out Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who has been caught lying about much of his life history, as the two had a confrontation right before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last night. Then Santos snapped at Romney on Twitter.

“You don’t belong here,” Romney said in a tense confrontation in the House chamber last night.

The two could be seen having a conversation but what they were saying couldn’t be heard. After the speech, reporters asked Romney what he told Santos.

“You just said, ‘You don’t belong here’?” one reporter asked Romney, who responded, “Yeah.”

“Why did you say that?”

“I didn’t expect he’d be standing there trying to shake hands with every senator and the president of the United States,” Romney said. “Given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation, he should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet instead of parading in front of the president and the people coming into the room.”

“He says he, you know, that he embellished his record. Look, embellishing is saying you got an A when you got an A-,” the senator said. “Lying is saying you graduated from a college that you didn’t even attend and he shouldn’t be in Congress and they’re gonna go through the process and hopefully get him out.”

“But he shouldn’t be there and if he had any shame at all he wouldn’t be there.”

Since he was elected last November, Santos has been caught lying about much of his life story, including attending Baruch College and New York University and working for major financial firms like Goldman Sachs. He has been accused of a variety of crimes and misdeeds, including stealing expensive clothes and phones from former roommates and boyfriends, writing fraudulent checks in Brazil, sexually harassing a staffer in Congress, embezzling $3000 from a dog’s surgery fund resulting in the dog’s death, and various campaign finance rules violations.

Yesterday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) confirmed that Santos is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

Santos was apparently not willing to take Romney’s advice that he should be feeling some shame at the moment and lashed out at the senator and 2012 Republican party presidential candidate on Twitter.

“Hey Mitt Romney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” Santos said.

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