Dem
51
GOP
49
Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) promised that he was going to "tell [his] story" this week, and to explain the various discrepancies in his record that were uncovered by The New York Times and by other outlets. And, for once, he was as good as his word. He sat for an interview with The New York Post (a.k.a. the most friendly media outlet he was going to find in New York), and explained exactly what happened. It's simple, actually: Santos is a big, fat liar.
That's right; the Rep.-elect conceded that he lied left, right, and center during his election campaign. He now admits that he has no college degree (he says he lied because he is embarrassed about that). He concedes that he never worked for the Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (he says that his family firm included them as clients, briefly, and that was what he was referring to). He also acknowledges that he may have misrepresented his cultural background, as he is "clearly Catholic" (he says that the media misunderstood him, because he didn't claim to be "Jewish," but instead "Jew... ish"). The important thing, Santos said, is that he's "not a criminal."
Clearly, Santos engaged some of the best PR help that money can buy. Now that he's admitted to everything, there isn't much oxygen left in this story, and it will presumably fade from the headlines very quickly (barring new revelations). At the same time, he is clearly not sorry for his lies, and he's given his supporters pat excuses that they can use in his defense. Santos really couldn't have managed things more skillfully, from a politics perspective.
Several prominent Democrats called on Santos to resign his seat, but there is no way that is going to happen. First of all, he's clearly shameless. And if he did have shame, he would have resigned before giving that interview to the Post, not after. Second, if he came from an R+30 district, then maybe the Republican leadership would be leaning on him to step down, so that they might find a less embarrassing replacement. But given that Santos' victory was in a D+3 district, there is no way the GOP muckety-mucks want to roll the dice again.
Maybe it will turn out Santos did something disqualifying—for example, he was apparently convicted of crimes in Brazil, which could mean he committed fraud when he applied for citizenship (since you have to disclose any criminal record). But failing that, he's going to represent NY-03 for 2 years, and then he will enter 2024 as the Democrats' top target. Perhaps Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who decided to vacate the seat to run an unsuccessful campaign for governor, will be interested in getting his old job back. (Z)