George Santos, the Republican congressman elected from New York in the center of a storm over his seemingly concocted resume, admitted to lying about his work experience and college education during his successful campaign for State House-United.
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Santos first ran for Congress in 2020. In November of that year, he was elected to represent parts of northern Long Island and northeastern Queens.
His exaggerations were first identified by from the New York Times, who questioned claims that he worked at two major Wall Street banks; he had majored in finance and economics at two New York colleges; that he was Jewish; and that four employees of his company were killed in the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in June 2016.
Holy Monday he told the New York Post“My sins here embellish my CV. I am sorry.”
Santos, 34, also said he had “campaigned by talking about people’s concerns, not my CV… I intend to keep the promises I made during the campaign”.
But he admitted that he “has not graduated from any higher education institution. I am embarrassed and sorry for embellishing my resume. I recognize it. … We do shit in life”.
Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have suggested Santos is ineligible to serve in Congress. Some urged him to resign his post before taking it.
Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, said on Twitter: “George Santos, who has now admitted to his massive lies, should resign. If he doesn’t, then [Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House leader] should call a vote to expel him.
Joaquin Castro of Texas said allowing Santos to take office would set a dangerous precedent.
“We’ve seen people tamper with their resumes, but this is a total fabrication,” Castro tell mesuggesting that Santos too “should be investigated by the authorities”.
Hakeem Jeffries, the new Democratic House leader, yes tell me Santos “appears to be a complete and utter fraud”.
Republican officials began responding publicly to Santos’ remarks on Tuesday. Joe Cairo, chairman of the Nassau County GOP on Long Island, said the congressman had “broken the public trust” but “has to do the will of the public in Washington.”
Santos, Cairo said, “has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of voters and everyone he represents in Congress.”
Santos said he has worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Neither company could find relevant documents. Santos told the Post that he “never worked directly” for either company and used a “poor choice of words.” He said LinkBridge, an investment firm where he was a vice president, does business with both.
The Times also uncovered Brazilian court documents showing Santos had previously been charged with fraud for using a stolen checkbook.
“I am not a criminal here, here or in Brazil or in any other jurisdiction in the world,” Santos told the Post. “Absolutely not. This doesn’t happen.
Santos said he experienced financial difficulties that left him in debt to landowners and creditors.
Another media outlet, the American Jewish site The Forward, question a claim on Santos’ website that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and fled persecution again” during World War II.
“I have never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I am Catholic. Since I learned that my maternal family was of Jewish origin, I said that I was “Jew”.
Cairo said: “The damage his lies have done to many people, especially those affected by the Holocaust, is profound.”
The daily beast reported that Santos, who identified himself as homosexualhe divorced his wife in September 2019.
“Although past marriage doesn’t necessarily run counter to her sexuality,” the site noted, Santos has never acknowledged that relationship and her bio says she lives with her husband, Matt, and four dogs.
“I have dated women in the past. I married a woman. These are personal things,” Santos told the Post, adding that she was “okay with my sexuality. People change”.
Reviewing claims that a company he worked for “lost four employees” in the Pulse nightclub shooting, Santos said all four are in the process of being hired.
