Well, that was fast.
Republican Rep.-elect George Santos of New York — who is what I like to call “the king of cap,” or in other words, a prolific liar — has been at the center of recent news reports highlighting his rampant lying on the campaign trail.
Now those falsehoods, along with allegations about financial misconduct, have federal investigators and a New York prosecutor probing him before he's served even a day in Congress.
For those who haven’t been keeping track, Santos has been forced to fess up to fabrications about having graduated from college, having worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and being Jewish. Despite all this, he has refused to give up his seat.
And now a CNN report published Wednesday seems to have caught Santos in even more lies.
Santos claimed he attended the Horace Mann School, an elite New York City prep school, but the school told CNN that it has no record of Santos having attended. The report also says that Santos lied about his grandparents’ having survived the Holocaust and that he once tried to raise money using a last name he falsely claimed his grandparents had changed to avoid Nazi persecution. (CNN said Santos’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)
On Thursday, the district attorney of Nassau County, which is part of Santos’ congressional district, announced an investigation into potential crimes Santos might have committed through his rampant lying to donors and would-be constituents. The DA, Anne Donnelly, said “the numerous fabrications and inconsistencies ... are nothing short of stunning,” and she vowed to prosecute if warranted. On top of that, a law enforcement source told NBC News that federal prosecutors are examining Santos’ finances, questions that stem partly from a large donation he gave himself during his campaign. (A spokesperson for Santos didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Questions abound about George Santos — if that’s even his real name — at the federal level and in New York. With that in mind, I’ve got one in particular: Will the real George Santos please stand up? Or, better yet, step down?
On Wednesday, guest “ReidOut” host Jonathan Capehart featured Santos’ opponent in last month’s election, Democratic former Rep. Robert Zimmerman, in a segment to discuss the potential for even more probes into Santos and his finances. Check it out!