George Santos vows to root out corruption in Congress while facing his own trial for being corrupt

In his first interview since he was expelled from the House of Representatives, former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) claimed he has been the one fighting to stop corruption in Congress and said he plans to continue his quest as a private citizen.

Sitting down with CBS New York’s Marcia Kramer, Santos – who is currently facing 23 federal charges of campaign finance fraud – said he is “not ashamed of the work” he did in the House.

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“I’m so proud of the legacy I leave behind,” he said, adding that he stands by all of his votes. He said he regretted getting involved with certain people in his campaign who “put me in a bad position” and wants to begin his “road of redemption.”

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“I think America is a very forgiving country and I’m going to work hard for that forgiveness,” he said. He claimed the many lies on his resume that he perpetuated throughout his campaign were the work of a former staffer and said he pushed back against using a fake history. “I wasn’t comfortable with it. I have plenty of emails pushing back,” he said.

Over and over, he maintained that it is not he who is corrupt, but rather the rest of Congress. He said that he has experienced “how the sausage is made” he is determined to expose the rampant corruption to the American people.

As Santos told it, he spent his time in Congress acting as an ethics warrior, working to call out injustice at every turn. “Every time I tried to raise red flags on bad behavior and bad acts I was told to shut up,” he said.

His expulsion, he added, is “a badge of honor in the sense of these guys decided to take me and strip me of my due process.” He accused his colleagues of creating a new precedent by expelling him before his trial took place.

“If we were to hold every member to the same standard they held me, we’d have no Congress left,” he said.

He also touted his new career on Cameo, the app where people can pay celebrities to create messages for their loved ones. Santos said in one week he has made as much as his entire annual salary in Congress of $174,000.

In regard to his upcoming trial in September, he said a plea deal is not off the table, as he wants to do everything he can to avoid jail time.

“The DOJ has given me a far better treatment than the Ethics Committee in Congress has,” he said, “an honorable one and one with integrity, which the Ethics Committee lacked integrity.”

Santos also said running for office again is not out of the question for him, but he would likely wait at least ten years and spend that time working to rebuild trust with the public. He also said he “adores” the current speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), who is virulently homophobic (Santos is an out gay man).

The House voted to expel Santos on December 1, making him the sixth member of Congress to ever be expelled. Three of the five previously expelled members were expelled for fighting for the Confederacy, and the other two had been convicted of charges related to accepting bribes and other crimes. Three hundred eleven members voted to expel him, including 105 Republicans. The resolution to expel him required a two-thirds majority to pass, which meant that 290 votes were needed.