Representative-elect George Santos' completely fabricated past and qualifications

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Rep.-elect Santos admits lying about his credentials

“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he told the New York Post.

www.politico.com

This might be shocking, or maybe not at this point. I'm not saying all Republicans are like this, but if I was a grand scale habitual liar I'd definitely hitch my wagon to that party.

 

[Edd]

In a time when these things are easily verified, the shamelessness required here is cosmic level.

 

[ronntaylor]

In a time when these things are easily verified, the shamelessness required here is cosmic level.

That's the most infuriating aspect: this was all so easily verifiable. Yet the media and Dems blew it. I don't expect the GOP to be ashamed of this. It garnered them the majority in the House. And according to multiple sources, his lies were a running joke in GOP circles.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Rep.-elect Santos admits lying about his credentials

“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he told the New York Post.

www.politico.com

This might be shocking, or maybe not at this point. I'm not saying all Republicans are like this, but if I was a grand scale habitual liar I'd definitely hitch my wagon to that party.

Faking both his educational qualifications (credentials) and his work history?

Wow.

And he never thought that anyone would check?

Or, worse, he never thought that anyone would care, if such checks showed that what he had claimed to have achieved on his resumé, had, at best, a passing relationship with known, provable, facts, and with what we define as the truth?

In a time when these things are easily verified, the shamelessness required here is cosmic level.

Shamelessness or stupidity?

Or, should I ask, shamelessness and stupidity?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

That's the most infuriating aspect: this was all so easily verifiable. Yet the media and Dems blew it. I don't expect the GOP to be ashamed of this. It garnered them the majority in the House. And according to multiple sources, his lies were a running joke in GOP circles.

Yet, if a Democrat had lied to anything like the same extent, they would have been condemned, and they would have been held, and would still be held, to a considerably higher standard of behaviour and conduct.

The old double standard; it is deeply depressing to observe this in action.

 

[Eric]

Yet, if a Democrat had lied to anything like the same extent, they would have been condemned, and they would have been held, and would still be held, to a considerably higher standard of behaviour and conduct.

The old double standard; it is deeply depressing to observe this in action.

Every time I think of Al Franken and all the outrage Republicans had while sitting idly by while Trump openly bragged about assaulting women it is infuriating. Party of "family values" as long as it's YOU being judged, not them.

 

[AG_PhamD]

Faking both his educational qualifications (credentials) and his work history?

Wow.

And he never thought that anyone would check?

Or, worse, he never thought that anyone would care, if such checks showed that what he had claimed to have achieved on his resumé, had, at best, a passing relationship with known, provable, facts, and with what we define as the truth?

Shamelessness or stupidity?

Or, should I ask, shamelessness and stupidity?

It’s amazing that opposition research completely failed with this guy. I don’t get how the democrats missed all of this. Not to mention the media until now. You’d think the Republican Party would do their homework too in order understand who it is they are backing and what vulnerabilities he has.

He may not even actually even be gay. He completely failed to mention he divorced his wife just before he began his campaign. He wouldn’t be the first man in a heterosexual marriage to leave his wife for interest in men, but given his track record with dishonesty, I think it’s worth questioning.

He also lied about his grandparents being in the holocaust and clarified that he is not Jewish, but Catholic, but “Jew-ish”. Whatever that means.

His response to all these revelations is basically everyone lies on their resume. I’ve never fathomed doing such a thing.
And the big question is, if he never had these jobs and his real estate holdings apparently don’t exist, where did the $700,000 of personal money come from to fund his campaign?

I guess it’s one of those things- he lies once, people believe him, so he keeps doing it. I wonder if at some point he wondered how he was getting away with it or if he had just become so accustomed with dishonestly he was essentially believing his own lies.

Personally, I think he needs to step down or be recalled. The man has literally lied about everything. He apparently came out of nowhere and no one seems know who he actually is. If he is this dishonest about such basic aspects of his life like education and work history- not to mention other things like his relationship to Pulse nightclub victims and possibly his own sexuality, how can anyone trust him to be honest as a leader? He’s gotta go.

He’s not the first politician to lie about his history. Usually they’ll do something like misrepresent their war experience and I think that’s pretty egregious. But never have I seen someone completely construct a false persona to run for office. It’s beyond egregious and frankly reveals a very sick person underneath.

It’s also worth asking, how will this guy ever get issued a security clearance?

 

[Nycturne]

It’s amazing that opposition research completely failed with this guy. I don’t get how the democrats missed all of this. Not to mention the media until now. You’d think the Republican Party would do their homework too in order understand who it is they are backing and what vulnerabilities he has.

This honestly floors me as well. Considering the election seems to have been a real contest rather than a deep red district, why wasn’t this caught?

He may not even actually even be gay. He completely failed to mention he divorced his wife just before he began his campaign. He wouldn’t be the first man in a heterosexual marriage to leave his wife for interest in men, but given his track record with dishonesty, I think it’s worth questioning.

He also lied about his grandparents being in the holocaust and clarified that he is not Jewish, but Catholic, but “Jew-ish”. Whatever that means.

I wonder how much sympathy you can get by claiming to be gay though, especially running as a Republican. Claiming holocaust victims in his ancestry I could see, and is a rather ghastly tactic. If he was high on his own supply, perhaps he thought claiming to be gay might sway some of those “woke leftists”? I don’t know. I don’t even really care. I’m more concerned about everything else he‘s lied about, to be honest. Whether or not he enjoys smoking a sausage isn’t really my business, and sexuality can be messy enough as it is that it just feels like a waste of time to chase down compared to everything else.

The more I hear about this guy though, the more it sounds like he was literally trying to check a bunch of boxes, because why not? Very bizarre.

Personally, I think he needs to step down or be recalled. The man has literally lied about everything. He apparently came out of nowhere and no one seems know who he actually is. If he is this dishonest about such basic aspects of his life like education and work history- not to mention other things like his relationship to Pulse nightclub victims and possibly his own sexuality, how can anyone trust him to be honest as a leader? He’s gotta go.

He’s not the first politician to lie about his history. Usually they’ll do something like misrepresent their war experience and I think that’s pretty egregious. But never have I seen someone completely construct a false persona to run for office. It’s beyond egregious and frankly reveals a very sick person underneath.

It’s also worth asking, how will this guy ever get issued a security clearance?

He’s already made it clear he won’t step down. A recall is probably the only option, realistically, since I don’t think the House will refuse to seat him. With it being a close election, it’s also the most likely to succeed.

 

[theorist9]

And his apology ("My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry.”) is just more baloney, like the issue is that he just gilded some document a bit, and since these are sins, sins can be forgiven (got to throw in a bit of religion there). Translation: I'm not sorry at all. I'm just sorry I got caught.

I don't see any reason the Republicans wouldn't seat him, since they have no problem with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

 

[Huntn]

Rep.-elect Santos admits lying about his credentials

“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he told the New York Post.

www.politico.com

This might be shocking, or maybe not at this point. I'm not saying all Republicans are like this, but if I was a grand scale habitual liar I'd definitely hitch my wagon to that party.

The entire GOP might not be Trump magnitude liars, but if they all condone it though their silence, then the entire party is complicit. As the base probably does not give a damn as long as a Republican won, a Congressional rule that falsifying your resume is grounds for expulsion would be in order. I won’t hold my breath…

Every time I think of Al Franken and all the outrage Republicans had while sitting idly by while Trump openly bragged about assaulting women it is infuriating. Party of "family values" as long as it's YOU being judged, not them.

The Democrats screwed Franken.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

My own view is that Franken screwed himself; his conduct was inexcusable, - what age was he? 14? - and, frankly, I expected far better from him. He is an adult and one who has lived in the public eye; he should have behaved better than that.

And, as a woman - for, this has already happened during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, when I did accept the arguments that this wasn't really an appropriate matter for impeachment, and vigorously debated the issue of whether I thought (no, I didn't) that WJC should be brought down over such a "minor" matter when he had so much to offer in the greater scheme of things - I feel it necessary to point out that I am tired of those tedious requests from "my own side" that I continue to close my eyes - pinch my nostrils and shut my mouth - to misconduct (especially the sort of sexual misconduct that takes the form of an abuse of power) because such silence preserves political unity and is perceived as being in the interest of the greater good, by (silently) supporting a (sleazy, if outrageously gifted) liberal in power who can (or will) introduce necessary, overdue, legislation, and so on.

I am tired of being asked to accept that the mute acceptance of the poor treatment of women is a price that I should be prepared to pay for a (talented) liberal in office. No, these days, I have come to expect better.

However, the charge that Republicans operate a double standard, and condemn others for behaviour that they either condone or are complicit in whenever they themselves behave in such a manner, still holds all too depressingly true.

 

[SuperMatt]

My own view is that Franken screwed himself; his conduct was inexcusable, - what age was he? 14? - and, frankly, I expected far better from him. He is an adult and one who has lived in the public eye; he should have behaved better than that.

And, as a woman - and this had happened during the Presidency of Bill Clinton - I feel it necessary to point out that I am tired of those tedious requests from "my own side" that I continue to close my eyes - pinch my nostrils and shut my mouth - to misconduct (especially the sort of sexual misconduct that takes the form of an abuse of power) because such silence preserves political unity and is perceived as being in the interest of the greater good, by (silently) supporting a liberal in power who can introduce necessary, overdue, legislation, and so on.

I am tired of being asked to accept that the mute acceptance of the poor treatment of women is a price that I should be prepared to pay for a liberal in office.

However, the charge that Republicans operate a double standard, and condemn others for behaviour that they either condone or are complicit in whenever they themselves behave in such a manner, still holds all too depressingly true.

Agreed. Franken stepping down was right. We cannot excuse terrible behavior just because the R’s are doing it.

 

[Eric]

The entire GOP might not be Trump magnitude liars, but if they all condone it though their silence, then the entire party is complicit. As the base probably does not give a damn as long as a Republican won, a Congressional rule that falsifying your resume is grounds for expulsion would be in order. I won’t hold my breath…

The Democrats screwed Franken.

Democrats held him accountable. Republicans would have thrown him a party.

 

[Roller]

Here's a paragraph from The New Republic describing how Santos got where he did without more scrutiny:

Throughout the campaign, there were signs that the candidate Santos presented himself as—a gay pro-Trump Republican with a Horatio Alger story—didn’t pass the smell test. But the kind of forceful focus that’s cropped up in recent days simply wasn’t there in the run-up to the midterms, a partial consequence of hollowed-out local newsrooms and insufficient vetting by some of the elite gatekeepers who are supposed to keep snake oil salesman from getting anywhere close to influential political jobs.

I just watched an interview with Santos' Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman. He said the result might have been different had Santos' lies been better exposed during the campaign. But it's unclear whether that would have been sufficient, since Zimmerman lost by 20k votes. After all, almost 49% of people who voted in Georgia went along with a candidate with at least as problematic a background.

I doubt if Republican party House leadership will do anything to get Santos to resign or punish him in any meaningful way. If they truly cared, MTG, Gosar, and others wouldn't be there. The best hope of getting Santos out of the way is a criminal conviction related to his financial entanglements, though those remain to be uncovered.

 

[Alli]

And he never thought that anyone would check?

It’s amazing that opposition research completely failed with this guy. I don’t get how the democrats missed all of this. Not to mention the media until now. You’d think the Republican Party would do their homework too in order understand who it is they are backing and what vulnerabilities he has.

No opposition research at all by anyone. Where was the press? Isn’t that their job? What about his D opponent? Or are we so accustomed to the Republicans lying that it’s just expected now?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Democrats held him accountable. Republicans would have thrown him a party.

Agreed.

This is a key difference between the two parties.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

George Santos is the Republican Party's future: A shameless con man

Trump opened the door — and now every grifter and two-bit criminal sees job security in pandering to the GOP base

www.salon.com

"Despite all this, the only way he doesn't join Congress as an esteemed member of the Republican caucus is if New York prosecutors can nail him for something first. I believe this in the way I believe that chocolate is delicious and cats are cute. After all, what is the modern GOP, if not a holding station for every two-bit criminal and grifter who wants the job security that can only come with exploiting the endlessly credulous Republican base? The party can no more start kicking out the fraudsters than it can stop trying to cut taxes for the rich. This is just who they are and what they do. George Santos is in no sense an anomaly. He is the Republican present and, even more to the point, the Republican future."

 

[Cmaier]

No opposition research at all by anyone. Where was the press? Isn’t that their job? What about his D opponent? Or are we so accustomed to the Republicans lying that it’s just expected now?

All of this is like blaming Hillary for Bill’s behavior.

The dude ran in a primary. Republicans in congress supposedly knew something was up. Blame them.

 

[ronntaylor]

"George Santos is in no sense an anomaly. He is the Republican present and, even more to the point, the Republican future."

Unfortunately, it will often be the Democratic future as too often the Dems offer up scant opposition in purple/marginal districts. There is no excuse for the Dems to let him skate into the seat given his lies. They should have been hammering him on his January 6th BS. A basic background check should be par for the course.

I keep hammering on the point that the 2020 race was called for him on election night before the total outstanding votes put Souzzi in the seat. Zimmerman was a poor, milquetoast candidate. And the NYS Dem leader is beyond useless. Going forward, the Dems need to vet their candidates and verify GOP candidates to make sure this BS never happens again. They spend too much time grabbing $$$ as consultants, publicists, fundraisers, and lame-ass opposition researchers.

 

[ronntaylor]

All of this is like blaming Hillary for Bill’s behavior.

The dude ran in a primary. Republicans in congress supposedly knew something was up. Blame them.

Nope. The Zimmerman campaign and the Dem party dropped the ball. Their opposition research was extremely light. They tried to focus on his January 6th & MAGAnaut bonafides. The OR included his evictions and judgments, but failed to follow up on how such a person was able to go from a $55K annual salary to lending his campaign $700K. How he claimed to be a landlord not receiving rent on 13 properties but there was no record of him owning any property at all. They mentioned his unregistered charity which held a fundraiser that never saw the funds go to the supposed beneficiary pet rescue. Too many red flags were not followed. It appears Zimmerman either thought the race was his in a Dem district -OR- he was just using it for resume building.