Reply to “Comment on ‘Limits on the Public Trust’ by C.E.S. Santos and J.C. Cairo’s ‘Corrections to the Standard Model”
One of New York’s most influential Republicans, Nassau County GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr., issued his own statement Monday, blasting Santos for “lies” that “broke the public trust.”
Cairo said he looks forward to hearingSantos’ response on how every person deserves an opportunity to clear their name.
As for claiming he attended Baruch College and New York University and received degrees in finance and economics, Santos told the New York Post that “I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I am sorry for having embellished my resume. But he also seemed to shrug this lie off. He said they do stupid things in life.
The New York Times published an investigation of Santos’s web of lies earlier this month, and got a very Trumpian attack-the-messenger denial from Santos’ lawyer who, instead of providing any clarity or specific factual denials, simply said that it is “no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at The New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”
The Times reported that he was accused of fraud in Brazil after he wrote stolen checks. According to the New York Times, “In the court file, Mr. Santos is identified by his full name and date of birth, as well as by the names of his mother and father. The documents show that Mr.Santos confessed to the crime but was not charged as authorities could not locate him.
The Loss of George Santos: A Realist Candidate in the 2016 Orlando Nightclub Shooting: An Interview with Piers Morgan
“Only in this country does somebody who comes from a basement apartment in Jackson Heights, like I did, is able to rise to become a successful businessperson, to then run for United States Congress.”
Santos had also claimed that he lost four employees in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Even though he now says it was four potential employees, he still didn’t give any names or other details.
“I happened to, at the time, have people that worked for me in the club,” Santos said. “My company at the time, we lost four employees that were at Pulse.”
The North Shores Leader newspaper endorsed his opponent and expressed skepticism aboutSantos’ credibility.
He did not address the controversy on his social media, but he did say that he would vote for Kevin McCarthy to be House Speaker.
Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who fabricated a large portion of his biography, sat down for an extended interview with Piers Morgan – and lied about his lies.
I am not a criminal. In a radio interview,Santos said that he has not committed crimes in any country in the world.
“To get down to the nit and gritty, I’m not a fraud. I made up a fictional character and ran for congress, but I am not a criminal who cheated the entire country. I have been around a long time. A lot of people know me. They know who I am. He said they’ve done business with him.
I don’t want to make excuses for this, but people overstate on their resume or twist a little bit. I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that,” he said.
During the campaign, Santos described graduating from Baruch College, said he worked for Goldman Sachs and claimed to own valuable real estate properties.
He also told the Post that he didn’t graduate from any college or university, despite claiming he had degrees from Baruch College and New York University.
The New York Times first revealed last week that Santos’ biography appeared to be partly fictional. CNN confirmed details of that reporting, including about his college education and employment history.
Megan said she doesn’t see any evidence to back up his story about having Holocaust heritage and Ukrainian heritage.
Santos insists that everyone has laughed at his supposed joke about being raised Catholic but having Jewish grandparents. He cited his November speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition.
CNN has contacted House GOP leadership and the National Republican Congressional Committee to inquire as to why they hadn’t spoken before. The House GOP leadership was silent last week. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy would not answer CNN’s questions Thursday when asked if he was concerned about apparent misrepresentations.
Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in a newly drawn district covering parts of Queens and some nearby Long Island suburbs, flipping control to Republicans, who dominated the New York suburbs on their way to winning a House majority.
There’s no question that he deceived voters in his district. He used his experience and his resume as the basis for his case. And he has proven himself wholly untrustworthy, which is particularly salient given many of the outstanding questions about his finances and net worth.
An Intriguing Account of a Realistic CEO: Why did the Santos Sleazy When Osthoff and Goldman Sachs met?
The author of the book “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind” is a journalist based in New York. You can follow her on the social networking website. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
The Republican Party will have a real test when GeorgeSantos goes to Washington in January. Is honesty and integrity really that important? Or is GOP leadership so power-hungry that it will allow a serial fabulist to remain in office despite deceiving the public – and the voters who elected him – about key aspects of his biography?
For example, he claimed he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, listing specific roles he held in these organizations. Now he says he simply liaised with both companies through his actual employment at the company Link Bridge, and that a simple “poor choice of words” gave a mistaken impression.
Facts First: Santos deceptively minimized his involvement in the fundraiser for Osthoff’s dog. In text messages and phone calls, according toSantos own comments,Santos communicated with Osthoff at length about the fundraiser, which included many text messages and phone calls. The page for the dog was created under a name that was used by another person, who promoted the page on his own Facebook page.
The way the Santos saga is written is so fascinating that it makes you want to go back in time. What makes a person lie so often and so brazenly? What makes someone whose resume is largely false put themselves in the public eye and under a media microscope by running for office? When this person gets caught, they lash out defiantly and refuse to face consequences, but how is that possible?
Why should the public trust anything further if he’s lying all the time and then downplaying it? What should the GOP do?
Republican leaders stopped short of saying that the scandal should stopSantos from being president, but legal experts say the scandal is not going to stopSantos from being president.
When speaking with conservative media,Santos downplayed the significance of his deceptions, saying they were “embellishments” and that he’ll take office as scheduled.
He now acknowledges none of that is true. He admits that he made up his claim that four of his employees died in the night club shooting.
A Fact Check of the Things Mr. Santos Don’t Tell About His Schooling and Electoral Career (Extended Abstract)
“He’s constitutionally entitled to his seat,” said Richard Briffault, an expert on campaign law at Columbia University, who noted the Constitution doesn’t disqualify candidates for lying.
In the past, he has struggled with his finances and sometimes couldn’t pay his debts. Some Democrats have called for an investigation into the source of money Santos says he contributed to his race.
Dan Goldman, the New York Democrat who won a House seat last month, stated that all of Mr. Santos’s disclosures have to be thoroughly investigated by the Federal Election Commission.
In interviews, Santos repeatedly blamed growing questions about his past on what he describes as the liberal media and said he still has the support of voters in his Long Island district.
The interview was posted online on Monday and here is a fact check of some of the things he said. This is not a comprehensive list; the statementsSantos made cannot be immediately proven or disproven.
He continued to insist he had attended the school. He said, “I challenge to see what name they’re looking under. If you look at my entire history of education, it was not under the name George Santos.” He said he might have been listed under one of two other names he has used, George Devolder or Anthony Devolder. When Morgan said he believed the school had checked those names, too, and had found no sign of him, Santos said, “I was there for six months of ninth grade.”
In his 2020 campaign he said he only left the school for four months to graduation but in fact he was there for six months.
Morgan reminded him that he had embellished his credentials to get into New York University and the graduate program in business, as well as score well on the GMAT exam. The reality is, I don’t know where that ‘GMAT’ comes from.Santos admitted he had made up the claim about the NYU degree but now says ” the reality is, I don’t know where that ‘GMAT’ comes from.” I don’t put that out on my website or bio.
Facts First: Santos “personally presented” this resume to the Nassau County Republican Committee at an in-person meeting while he was seeking the committee’s support in the 2020 election, committee spokesperson Mike Deery told CNN on Tuesday.
Morgan asked Santos about the allegation of raising money for a dying dog, and not giving the money back, which was made by a homeless military veteran. The FBI interviewed an individual about an allegation.
In January, GoFundMe said in a statement that they received a report of an issue with the fundraiser in late 2016 and asked for proof of the funds being delivered. The email associated with that account was blocked from further use due to the fact that the organizers failed to respond.
Samos’s Story of Going to Hell and Back for his Dog, Patch.com Dispatch (December 1, 2011): It’s More of the Pile on Effect
In a January statement to CNN,Santos said he had no clue what he was talking about and would go to hell and back for his dog. He described the story, first reported by Patch.com, as “just more of the pile on effect.”