The Strange Saga of George Santos

Rep-Elect George Santos (R-NY)

Lying in politics is about as commonplace as breathing.  The concept of the "honest politician" was novel even when Jimmy Stewart tried it in 1939, and Mr. Smith was fictional.  So it shouldn't be a surprise in American politics when a politician lies.  But as we are nearing the start of the new Congress, it has to be pointed out that the stories we are starting to realize about Rep-Elect George Santos (R-NY) are beyond the pale even for American politics (I've watched politics for over 25 years, and I've never seen anything like it), and are too shocking for me to ignore even as we head into a holiday weekend.

A little bit of background first.  George Santos was one of the bigger surprises of the 2022 midterms, and initially one of the few pieces of good news for the Republicans.  We've talked extensively about how the Republicans had an unsuccessful midterms with pockets of victory, specifically in New York & Florida.  Wave elections generally will usher in "one-term wonder" style members of Congress, people who only won because of a wave, and once the tides arrange themselves back to normal, generally they lose.  This happens every midterm, every wave election, and it's normal.  As a general rule you get some citizen legislators elected who might be over-their-head, but don't embarrass the national party too badly and on rare occasions, turn that into a true career (Carol Shea-Porter, for example, would spend nearly a decade in Congress off-and-on after her stunning upset victory in 2006).

Santos is one of those figures.  This is a man who won a Biden district that would, even with a strong incumbent, be a tough hold in 2024.  I've read a couple of people (likely desperate for clicks) talk about how maybe there's a reorganizing point in New York, but I don't think that's the case & this feels like over-anxious progressive pundits eager to doomcast on a midterm that was good news for them (a reminder that Republicans had a very good midterm in 2010 in New Hampshire & Illinois...it didn't portend a strong evening for Mitt Romney two years later).  Santos, much like his fellow Long Island Republican Anthony D'Esposito, was an accidental victory, pushed by Kathy Hochul & Eric Adams being unable to talk about crime prevention in their state, and a decade of incompetence coming from Albany and Gracie Mansion (with the Democrats' name attached to it).  That might work in a midterm as an attack point, but it won't work when the Republicans have to carry the weight of Trump or DeSantis in 2024.

So why do an article on Santos, a man most charitably destined to be an electoral footnote?  Because the man is a jaw-dropping train wreck.  He claimed to be the descendant of Ukrainian Jews who fled Europe to avoid the Holocaust, but this appears to have been a lie, drawing retribution from prominent Jewish Republicans like former Sen. Norm Coleman.  He claimed to have degrees from both Baruch College & New York University, though neither university has any history of him graduating from their schools, and his allegations that he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, which featured in his campaign literature, appear to be false as neither company could validate that he had worked for them.  His association with the business Devolder Organization, which he is the sole owner of, is deeply suspect as well.  It's clear he may have lied about the company's size and client list on federal elections forms (i.e. when a lie moves from being unethical to illegal if it's proven), and it's not entirely clear if he may have been living in Florida during his two campaigns for Congress (or maintained a residence there).

The list goes on-and-on-and-on.  Santos has lied about having employees die in the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando (none of the 49 victims of that tragedy have a record of working for him) and about his coming out process (he claimed to be "openly gay" for the past decade but was married to a woman as recently as 2019, which doesn't necessarily mean he lied but it definitely means he covered up the truth).  It's staggering, and it has to be said, it's an embarrassment for Kathy Hochul, Sean Patrick Maloney, the DCCC, & the New York Democratic Party that someone who had such a laundry list of fabrications could beat the Democratic candidate in a seat Biden won by 8-points.  Where the hell were the attack ads?!?

There are a lot of problems with Santos, particularly in the way that he basically made up a life's story to win a seat in Congress and fooled his constituents (when Tulsi Gabbard is taking you to task on Fox News, you know you've entered a new level of public shame), but it's the money that's the biggest problem for Santos.  Santos loaned his own campaign $700k during the 2022 cycle and has listed on federal forms that he recently had a salary of $750k and assets numbering into the millions...despite reporting no income in 2020 and being evicted twice in the past decade.  That's not necessarily impossible (maybe he won the lottery?), but it's something that needs verifying, and strongly invites the possibility that he lied on federal forms or accepted money illegally to fund his campaign.  New York Attorney General Letitia James has already confirmed her office is looking into the allegations, as has Republican Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, and it's hard to imagine a way this won't end up before the House Ethics Committee (already even Santos' future colleague Republican Rep-Elect Nick LaLota has said this is the path that needs to be undertaken), and I wouldn't be stunned if the IRS eventually gets involved.

Right now, though, the question becomes what the Republicans do about it with less than a week before Santos is scheduled to be sworn into office.  Nancy Pelosi, given a candidate with even a tenth of this many problems, would've cut ties with Santos & let the chips fall where they may (probably even denying him the ability to be seated).  But Kevin McCarthy does not have Nancy Pelosi's ethical compass, and more crucially, he doesn't have the votes to become Speaker of the House yet.  Santos has publicly stated he intends to vote for McCarthy as Speaker, and with at least five Republicans stating they will not back McCarthy's Speaker bid, the California Republican is not in a position (mathematically) to deny Santos a seat without putting his own leadership bid at risk, even though there's a strong possibility that Santos has committed a series of very serious crimes (and that's just what we know).  Santos, were he not seated, would almost certainly be replaced by a Democrat in a special election, perhaps even Santos' predecessor Tom Suozzi (who ran for governor but didn't win the nomination), and given the blue nature of the seat (and the fact that the last Republican was a proven liar), this will move from a tough hold to an impossible one in a special election.  But it's the Speaker's votes that probably weigh the most heavily on McCarthy's mind-does McCarthy allow him to become a member of his majority, in the process putting his name behind all of the things we're still to discover about Santos?  Santos is fast becoming the face of the new House Republican majority...a look that Kevin McCarthy both can't afford to get rid of and surely wished he could avoid.