NY GOP DECEPTION: Santos owns up to his lies, but refuses to resign

COMMIT HIM: GOP's biggest fraud gets assigned to how many committees?

Congressman-elect George Santos (R-NY) has admitted to lying about his work and education credentials amid the blowback from his subterfuge being exposed.

The 34-year-old Republican confessed he never went to college nor did he work at the prestigious companies that he claimed.

Not only does the supposed real estate mogul not own a multi-million dollar rental property portfolio – he can’t even rent his own home.

“Santos admitted to lying when he claimed that he owned 13 different properties,” The New York Post wrote. “He now resides at his sister’s place in Huntington but is looking to purchase his own place.”

“My sins here are embellishing my résumé,” the twice-evicted squatter said.

No, George, you flat-out lied.

In a recent report by The New York Times, the GOP poster boy was exposed for being a fraud. Unfortunately, it came after the November 2020 midterm election that helped seal the Republican majority moving into 2023.

The openly gay first-time politician campaigned on being the embodiment of the American dream. The tried and true American tale of a man born to Brazilian immigrants, who climbed his way up the ladder of opportunity only afforded in this country, and lived to tell the tale of his hardscrabble up-and-comer story.

Though it was all a lie – and now we know for sure – Santos is all in on defending his fraud. Refusing to give up his newly elected position.

“I am not a criminal,” he said. “This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success,” he told The New York Post.

“I will be effective. I will be good.”

But will you be honest, George? That’s up for debate.

When Santos was confronted with the lie he told that his grandparents fled a Nazi-controlled Europe that was persecuting the Jewish people, he denied he ever “claimed to be Jewish.”

“I said I was ‘Jew-ish,'” Santos stated.

Unsurprisingly, he lied about this too.

This should all be concerning, but what is more disturbing is the question of where Santos got the money to run his campaign.

It’s been proven that Santos doesn’t have the family wealth he proclaimed — nor did he make any through his business.

No clients could be found, he’s bunking with his sister and yet he lent his campaign nearly a quarter of a million dollars – but how?

Where did the money come from?

At the end of November, The Daily Beast reported that Devolder-Santos received over $30,000 in campaign funds from the money man for a Russian oligarch.

Andrew Intrater, the owner of the venture capital firm Sparrow Capital, is the cousin of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wealthiest and most influential allies – Viktor Vekselberg.

Sanctioned by the United States, Vekselberg was a person of interest in the Mueller investigation. The wealthy financier reportedly had ties to an investment group bidding on a highly sensitive project for the Pentagon, according to The Daily Beast.

Despite an embarrassingly failed bid for Congress in 2020, Santos still flew relatively under the radar – to the general public anyway. He apparently caught the eye of the GOP who saw potential in their propped-up fake candidate.

Santos’ vocal criticisms of President Joe Biden and the impending war in Ukraine obviously didn’t hurt.

Prior to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Santos accused the Biden Administration of being “a colossal failure” with “no bottom”

“Joe Biden is willing to start a war in Eastern Europe and send American soldiers to a deadly combat zone to protect Ukraine’s border,” Santos tweeted on February 1st. “But fails miserably to protect the American southern border.”

Sound familiar?

Though the tweet only got 23 likes, it came suspiciously after the influx of Kremlin-allied cash.

“We are going to enter a war in the middle of the Eastern Europe winter against Russia, to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine,” he tweeted less than two weeks later.

The openly gay former Queens call center worker was previously married – to a woman. Divorcing his wife Uadla Santos Vieira Santos just 12 days before announcing his initial run for Congress in 2019, according to public New York records obtained by The Daily Beast.

While the voters may not have known about Santo’s shady past, some in the GOP most certainly did. A source confirmed to The New York Post that the party was aware of the discrepancies, and that it was a “running joke.”

“As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race,” said one senior GOP leadership aide. “It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he’s run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters,” MarketWatch reported.

High-profile Democrats like former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have said he’s unqualified, but it doesn’t seem likely that Santos or the GOP will be relinquishing the undeserved seat.

Failure to disclose or filing false financials when running for office is a federal crime. With Devolder-Santos unwilling to step down, and the Republican Party remaining relatively silent, the only recourse to right this blatant political wrong may be to follow the money.

Original reporting by Michael Gold and Grace Ashford at The New York Times

Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick

Ty Ross

News journalist for Washington Press and Occupy Democrats.