Following the midterm electionsnew elected officials entered the Capitol at the start of the year, particularly in the House of Representatives, where the Republican Party narrowly regained the majority. If most of them still enjoy a certain anonymity and relative tranquility, this is not the case for the now infamous George Santos, representative of the third district of New York. who defeated Democrat Robert Zimmermann last November.
Son of Brazilian immigrants and grandson of European refugees who fled The Shoah during the Second World War, a curator fully assuming his homosexuality, a graduate in finance from a major New York school, an executive on Wall Street within large groups, then became the head of a company, then an important politician, the extraordinary career of the elected New Yorker has all of an American success story. Problem: everything is false, or almost.
As investigations multiply, Americans are discovering day after day the extent of George Santos’ lies about his past. From now on, doubt has given way to certainty: the Congress has among its members one of the greatest mythomaniacs in the political history of the United States.
A serial liar with a bogus CV
The review of the fabrications of the new representative by le New York Magazine et le Time Magazine makes you dizzy, so much so that ten fingers are not enough to count them. Absolutely all of George Santos’ statements are subject to caution and most of the elements of his personal history put forward during his election campaign are erroneous.
For example, he never attended the prestigious private Horace Mann Academy, nor New York University and was not a graduate of Baruch College. He didn’t work on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup and never had colleagues died in the terrorist attack who targeted LGBT+ nightclub Pulse in Orlando in June 2016. The quasi-phantom company Devolder, which he created in Florida in the course of 2021, has never had a commercial activity, a website, a LinkedIn page or even a client. No trace either of the foundation for the defense of animals Friends of Pets United, which he claims to have directed.
To a largely exaggerated professional life, is added a totally imaginary private life. Her husband could also be a fictional character: he never appeared at his side during his campaign and no marriage records could be found in the city of New York.
Worse still, the elected official lied about the cause of death of his mother to gain the sympathy of the voters, by claiming that she suffered from health problems due to her presence at the World Trade Center September 11th 2001. If the latter died in 2016, she never worked in the twin towers and was in the Brazil during terrorist attacks. The story of his grandparents is not true either: they did not flee the Holocaust, did not change their name and were not originally from Europe. He therefore has, a priori, no Jewish heritage.contrary to what he may have said in interviews.
All kinds of scams
If George Santos has the ability toimagination of a Hollywood screenwriter or a novelist, he also seems to be a fan ofscams of all kinds. The chosen one is in particular suspected by Brazilian justice of stealing a man’s checkbook when he was younger and then issuing several fraudulent checks. A case that could earn him a sentence of prison in Brazil.
He is also accused by several people of using his fictitious animal welfare foundation to embezzle money from a 2017 fundraiser held in New Jersey, as well as that of an online kitty intended to pay the medical expenses of the chien sick of a homeless disabled veteran from the same state. The financial management of his election campaign also raises questions in terms of donations, loans and expenses. Several investigations are underway to clarify the situation and determine whether he violated the law.
After all these revelations, calls for resignation have multiplied both locally and nationally. If the main interested party refuses for the time being to leave his placethe case created a small earthquake in the New York conservative microcosm and part of the local leaders of the Republican Party simply let him go, when the third district of New York could be taken over by Democrats in the event of a new election.
Simple question, (extremely) complex answer
Joseph G. Cairo, one of them, did not mince his words: “His lies were not just lies. He dishonored the House of Representatives. He is not welcome here in the Republican seat. In Congress, the subject is sensitive and in the corridors, a mixture of unease, distrust and humor is palpable. The conservatives, who have only a very narrow majority in the House, are plagued by internal tensions and the George Santos case is not a priority for the moment. Especially since Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican speakerwas able to count on his vote during his difficult election to the perch of the assembly.
Very contested, the President of the Chamber knows that he must preserve each of his supporters to remain in his post over the next two years. Asked several times, he therefore preferred to dodge the subject recalling that the voters had made their choice during the electionsdeliberately forgetting, in passing, that they were duped.
So what do we really know about George Santos? The answer to this simple question turns out to be complex. Apart from the fact that he is 34 years old, of Brazilian origins and that he has just been elected to the House of Representatives, not much. As these lines are written, a new revelation panics social networks. According to several testimonies, photos and videos in support, the elected New Yorker would have been a drag queen in Brazil . Nothing exceptional a priori. Unless one remembers that he espoused all the anti-LGBT of the conservative camp during his campaign.
