Six weeks after George Santos (34) was elected as a representative for New York, several media were able to report that he had lied about his previous employment, education, finances and family background. Santos is one of very few openly gay Republican congressmen, and the first of Brazilian descent. Santos’ lawyer initially came out and described the revelations as “a barrage of attacks” and “defamatory allegations”. A week later, Santos admits to large parts of the lies. – My sins here are that I embellished my CV, Santos told the New York Post newspaper on Monday. Prominent opposition politicians are now calling for Santos, who also lied during his failed 2020 election campaign, to step down. – We do stupid things in life On 8 November, Santos was elected as a representative for New York, and helped turn control of the House of Representatives narrowly over to the Republican side. The young congressman now acknowledges that he did not work for the major financial players Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in 2011 and 2012, as he claimed. At the time, the representative worked in a call center in the neighborhood of Queens, he confirms to the radio channel WABC. The Republican further confirms that he has no education from New York University and Baruch College, where he claimed to have studied finance and economics until 2010. The universities could find no trace of Santos’s whereabouts when contacted by The New York Times. – I have no university degrees. I am embarrassed and sorry for embellishing my CV. We do stupid things in life, comments Santos in the interview with The Post. Santos had also claimed that the family owned 13 different properties. Now he admits not owning a single home. Former friends told The Times that they were surprised that he would have homes from Brazil to the resort of Nantucket, at the same time that he lived in a rented house in Queens with his sister and mother. George Santos during the election campaign in Glen Cove in New York ahead of the mid-term elections in the United States. Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP Refusing to have lied about his Jewish origin, Santos, on the other hand, condemns revelations from CNN and the Jewish media The Forward that he misled the public about his Jewish background. – I never said I was Jewish. I am Catholic. “Because I learned that my mother’s side of the family had a Jewish background, I said I was Jewish-ish,” Santos told the New York Post. Santos had claimed that he was “half-Jewish” and a “Latino Jew”. His campaign website stated that Santos’ maternal grandparents were Ukrainian Jews who fled the Holocaust. Santos has referred to his Jewish background several times in his political career. – My grandparents survived the Holocaust, so these regimes with socialism, Marxism, it doesn’t work, they are followed by a lot of suffering, and we see that now with what is happening in Ukraine with the Russians, Santos said in an interview in May this year. Santos also campaigned fiercely in the Orthodox Jewish community in New York. Among other things, he participated in a religious event just before election day. 20 percent of the voters in Santos’ electoral district are Jewish. The Forward reported last week that the genealogy website MyHeritage shows that Santos’ maternal grandparents were born in Brazil. The website FamilySearch shows that Santos’ great-grandfather also lived in Brazil. Genealogists CNN spoke to say there is no evidence for Santos’ claims. There is also no trace of Santos’s family in the databases of the Holocaust museums in Jerusalem or in Washington DC, which have lists of Jewish refugees from Europe. Outgoing Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have called on Santos to step down. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / AP Democrats call for Santos to step down There is currently nothing to indicate that Santos will not take up the new job as congressional representative from January 3, 2023. Both outgoing congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and incoming minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has called for Santos to resign. But the Republicans, who now gain control of the House of Representatives, have refrained from commenting on the matter. Congress can only prevent candidates from taking office if they violate the constitution’s age, citizenship and residential address requirements. At the same time, Santos could risk an ethics investigation after being sworn in, legal experts told the New York Times.
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Republican congressman admits a number of lies about his background – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
