George Santos insists he has never been accused of doing 'bad things'

‘I’ve lived an honest life’: George Santos incredibly defends his fabicated resume and insists he has never been accused of doing ‘bad things’ in interview with Matt Gaetz on Steve Bannon’s podcast

• Three members of New York’s Congressional delegation urged Santos to resign
• Rep. Nancy Mace joined them late on Wednesday night, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the freshman Republican ‘absolutely’ should step down
• Santos avoided reporters for much of the day on Wednesday after his home county’s own Republican Party criticized him and asked him to resign
• New York Rep. Elise Stefanik ignored a question from DailyMail.com about him 

A defiant Rep. George Santos slammed coverage of his extensive lies about his background as ‘media nonsense’ and insisted he would not resign from Congress. 

‘I came here to serve the people, not politicians and party leaders, and I’m going to do just that,’ Santos told Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who was guest hosting Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

At one point Gaetz brought up questions surrounding the $700,000 he lent his campaign and where that had come from given the New York Republican’s past financial struggles. 

Santos refused to answer. 

‘Well, I’ll tell you where it didn’t come from. It didn’t come from China, Ukraine, or Burisma. How about that?’ he said. 

‘Well, that is an answer,’ Gaetz responded. 

‘I’ve worked my entire life, I’ve lived an honest life, I’ve never been accused, sued of any bad doings,’ Santos insisted. 

Santos noted that more than 142,000 people had elected him and said he would be in office ‘until those same 142,000 people tell me they don’t want me.’ 

Gaetz and Santos became fast friends last week at the start of the new Congress. Santos at first sat alone on the House floor but as Speaker votes dragged on was frequently seen sitting near and chatting with Gaetz. 

The Florida Republican defended Santos on the podcast, saying that ’embellishing’ a resume isn’t a ‘crime.’ 

He said that Santos should get committee assignments. ‘If we didn’t seat people on committees who embellish their resume running for Congress, we probably wouldn’t be able to make quorum in any of those committees.’ 

Santos said he would prove everyone wrong about him by working hard on any committee he was given. 

‘Whatever committee I’m given, whether it’s, I don’t know, Science and Technology, or Education and Labor, or whatever committee is thrown my way, I will deliver 110% because that is what I know how to do. I am going to outwork any of the pundits and talking heads that are out there saying that I should resign, that I’m unfit for office. The reality is and the case and point here being is, I’m a work horse, I’ve worked my whole life, I’m the kid who came from a basement apartment.’

Freshman GOP Rep. George Santos has been faced with growing calls to resign after he admitted to fabricating much of his backstory

A growing number of Republicans have publicly called on freshman Rep. George Santos of New York to resign from Congress as of Wednesday night amid multiple investigations into the lies he’s told.

New York GOP Reps. Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler joined at least four others in Congress who have publicly said Santos should resign. 

It comes after his local Republican chapter, the Nassau County GOP, urged Santos to step down in a stunning press conference where he was called ‘compromised’ and that the depth of his ‘mistruths as a candidate morally disqualifies him from serving in public office.’

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace joined three members of New York’s Congressional delegation in demanding Santos leave Congress during an appearance on CNN Wednesday night.

‘I do, actually,’ Mace responded when asked if she thinks Santos should resign.

‘This is an individual that fabricated their entire life story, their entire résumé, to get elected,’ Mace said.

The latest calls for him to step down follow the New York Times unearthing is resume, where he touted having a ‘3.89 GPA’ in college’ and claimed he ‘doubled revenue’ at Goldman Sachs.

The Nassau County GOP also said he lied about being a college volleyball ‘star’. 

South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace became the latest GOP lawmakers to join calls for Santos to step down

‘If you want to talk about election fraud, then we could look no further than New York’s 3rd Congressional District right now.’

The 34-year-old new lawmaker has admitted to fabricating details about where he went to college, his career, and even his family heritage. 

He was savagely mocked on Wednesday after it emerged he once claimed to have led the Baruch College volleyball team to a championship win. The school has no record of his attendance.

Both state and federal authorities are looking into whether the vast network of misrepresentations broke any laws.

Meanwhile on the New York side, three of Santos’ fellow freshmen are leading the criticism from his home state.

Empire State Rep. Brandon Williams released a statement on Wednesday evening declaring that he ‘concur[s]’ with Nassau County Republicans’ assessment.

‘The constituents in NY-3 elected Representative Santos in part due to his biographical exaggerations and apparent deceptions,’ Williams said. ‘He must resign.’

New York Reps.  Nick LaLota (left) and Anthony D’Esposito (right) have also criticized Santos over the lies he’s told

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a former NYPD detective whose district, was the first of Santos’ hometown trio to call for his resignation. 

He made his position clear when he called into the Nassau County GOP meeting via teleconference, and released a concurring statement accusing Santos of having ‘irreparably broken the trust’ of his constituents.

New York Rep. Brandon Williams said Santos was elected ‘in part due to his biographical exaggerations and apparent deceptions’

‘When public servants deceive and mislead those they are tasked with serving, they are no longer fit to work for the people,’ D’Esposito said. ‘For his betrayal of the public’s trust, I call on Congressman George Santos to resign.’

Rep. Nick LaLota, another Long Island congressman, told Axios, ‘What he’s done is disgraceful, dishonorable and unworthy of the office. I think he should resign.’

‘I hear a lot of feedback from my fellow Long Islanders about us wanting to raise the standard or at least keep some standard among elected officials,’ LaLota told the outlet.

He added that Santos ‘has fallen far below that standard.’

But other New Yorkers on Capitol Hill were more hesitant to comment.

GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik ignored a question from DailyMail.com on Santos as she hurried into the House chamber for votes on Wednesday afternoon.

And he may be getting shielded by another member of House leadership – Speaker Kevin McCarthy himself.

McCarthy has largely avoided commenting on Santos ever since his lies first emerged late last year. 

But he told reporters on Wednesday that the New York Republican would be getting House committee assignments, which could be seen as a vote of confidence in Santos’ future.

New York State senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick told CNN’s morning show on Thursday that McCarthy has an ‘obligation’ to call on Santos to resign, ‘to make sure the 3rd Congressional District is represented by an honest person.’ 

For his own part, Santos has been defiant even as the pressure grows around him. 

Largely dodging reporters stationed outside of his office for much of the day, Santos was briefly caught on cameras saying he would not step aside.

He later also released a fuller statement on Twitter, writing: ‘I was elected to serve the people of #NY03 not the party & politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living.’

He added, ‘I will NOT resign!’

Santos also hit back at at former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s demand that he step down.

‘Go on @CNN and cry about it,’ Santos shot back on Twitter, referencing the former anti-Trump lawmaker’s new job.

The lies George Santos has told and the stories he has spun – so far: From fabricating family links to the Holocaust, 9/11 killing his mother, working on Wall Street, recovering from a brain tumor, being of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, and starting a charity 

By Katelyn Caralle 

Santos says he is of Ukrainian Jewish descent

In one interview, Santos said his family name on his mother’s side was the historically Jewish name ‘Zabrovsky.’ 

‘My grandfather was born in Kyiv and left in the late 20s and migrated to Belgium where he met my grandmother and then started a family,’ Santos told Fox Digital in February. ‘We don’t carry the Ukrainian last name, for a lot of people who are descendants of World War II refuges or survivors of the Holocaust, a lot of names or paperwork were changed in the name of survival.’

George Santos was revealed to be a pathological liar after he won the 2022 midterm elections to represent New York’s 3rd congressional district. His lies and fabricated stories span almost every topic from his education background to his family’s heritage

Reports indicate that there have been no successful efforts to find any Jewish or Ukrainian heritage in his family tree according to the Forward.

Santos said in a separate interview in 2020 that he was raised by ‘a white Caucasian mother, an immigrant from Belgium. But Santos’ mother, Fatima Devolder, was born in Brazil, according to her obituary in 2016. 

Additionally, newly resurfaced tweets show that Santos, who is Brazilian-American, claimed in July 2020 on Twitter that he was biracial, meaning ‘Caucasian and black.’

Santos’ claims his mother died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks

Santos wrote in a July 2021 tweet that he was ‘blocking’ an account with the handle ‘9/11 was a victimless crime’ because his mother was a victim of the terrorist attack.

He wrote, ‘9/11 claimed my mother’s life… so I’m blocking so I don’t ever have to read this again,’ after the user responded to a tweet from Santos regarding immigration.

An obituary for Santos’ mother, however, states that she died in December 2016, which is more than 15 years after the attack took place.

He also confirmed the real date in a December 2021 tweet where he said: ‘December 23rd this year marks 5 years I lost my best friend and mentor. Mom you will live forever in my heart.’

Santos’ campaign website said his mother ‘survived the tragic events of September 11th’ in the South Tower office of the World Trade Center and died ‘a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.’

A New York Times report had described Santos’ mother as a ‘domestic worker’ or ‘housekeeper.’

His campaign website described his mother as a top executive.

‘George’s work ethic comes from his mother, who came from nothing, but worked her way up to be the first female executive at a major financial institution,’ the website states.

The congressman-elect said in a 2021 tweet that, ‘9/11 claimed my mother’s life,’ however Fatima Devolder died in 2016 of cancer and it’s unclear if it was 9/11-related. It’s also unclear if she was an executive or a housekeeper

Santos said he attended a prestigious New York prep school

The Representative-elect said that he attended Horace Mann School – an elite private school in the Brox where tuition costs $59,800 per year.

‘He began Horace Mann preparatory school in the Bronx, however, did not graduate from Horace Mann due to financial difficulties for his family,’ read a 2019 biography during his first campaign for Congress, which Santos lost.

‘He obtained a GED during his senior year,’ it added.

The school said, according to CNN, that he never attended.

‘We’ve searched the records and there is no evidence that George Santos (or any alias) attended Horace Mann,’ spokesperson for Horace Mann Prep School Ed Adler said. 

CNN reported late Wednesday that the New York Republican never attended Horace Mann School (pictured), an elite private school in the Bronx

Former call center worker Santos’ resume includes time at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup 

Santos said that he worked on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup but now says he used a ‘poor choice of words’ when describing his relationship with the two firms.

The incoming congressman worked at a DISH Satellite call center from October 2011 to July 2012.

He also worked for LinkBridge, where, in an attempt to justify his lie, Santos said that he did business with Goldman and Citi and made ‘capital introductions’ between clients and investors.

Santos said he ‘never worked directly’ for either firm.

George Santos (right) poses with his then fiancé at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve

Santos’ claim his family-owned real estate portfolio of 10+ properties

Santos posted on Twitter in February 2021 that ‘my family and I’ had not received any rent on 13 properties allegedly owned by him. 

A review property taxes owed or paid for in New York state shows no evidence of ownership. 

He claimed to have a brain tumor

On March 30, 2020, at the start of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic, an interview with Santos was published on YouTube titled ‘George Santos: A Corona Story.’ The video has since been set to private

In the video, according to Newsweek, Santos tells two men, one wearing a ‘Guns and Freedom’ hat and the other seated by a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag, that he had ‘battled a brain tumor.’

Discussing his health Santos said: ‘I have an immunodeficiency and I also have acute chronic bronchitis. I also battled a brain tumor a couple of years ago and I had radiation done which really lowers your immunity in general.’

Claimed that he lost four employees in Pulse nightclub massacre

During an interview with WNYC, Santos alleged that four ‘people that work for me’ were killed during the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 dead. 

No connection has yet to be establish between any of the victims and Santos.

Said he was the founder of a charitable foundation

Santos said he founded a tax-exempt animal rights group, Friends of Pets United, which rescued more than 2,500 cats and dogs.

But no records relating to the group’s charitable status could be found by the IRS, nor could either the New York or New Jersey attorney general’s offices uncover documentation confirming Friends of Pets United had been registered as a charity.

Public records, however, show that Santos was previously married to a woman named Uadla Vieira, a native of Brazil, until 2019

In 2016, he claimed $2,250 was stolen in a mugging on his way to pay rent – but cops have no record of the incident 

Santos claimed that in 2016 he was mugged on his way to pay his apartment rent in Queens.

In a sworn statement battling eviction, he said $2,250 was stolen. According to Gothamist, he wrote: ‘I have been mugged at approx 1:15 p.m. on 01/15/16 on Queens Boro Plaza, as I was on my way to pay the lawyer.

‘I have gone to the checks cash location located on 31st and 23rd Ave in Astoria to request a stop payment.

‘I am unable to provide a police report today as I was requested to go back Tuesday to pick it up.’

The NYPD, however, have no record of the incident, the outlet reported.

Santos eventually moved out of the apartment as a result of the case and paid the rest of what he owed in rent. 

 

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