Patterico's Pontifications

1/11/2023

Rep. George Santos Called On To Resign, He Says That’s Not Happening (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:55 am



[guest post by Dana]

Of course this is coming after Rep-elect George Santos voted repeatedly for Kevin McCarthy in last week’s battle to secure the House speaker position:

Nassau County Republican officials on Wednesday called on newly sworn-in Rep. George Santos, the Republican who confessed to lying about key details of his background, to resign.

“George Santos’ campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication,” Nassau County GOP Chairman Joe Cairo said at a news conference with other party officials.

Cairo took aim at Santos for having “disgraced” the House and made clear that the freshman congressman is “not welcome here at Republican headquarters.”

“We do not consider him one of our Congress people,” Cairo said.

Well, maybe you should have done your due diligence in fully vetting Santos. After all, even a small local newspaper was wise to his ways well before the election.

Santos certainly doesn’t appear to be going anywhere:

Hey, Nassau County GOP, you snooze, you – and the American people – lose.

UPDATE: House Speaker McCarthy commented about the calls for the newly elected representative to resign:

Leaving the Steering meeting, McCarthy said he was standing by Santos and would not call on him to resign. He said Santos would have to face the Ethics Committee but that the New York congressman would get some committee assignment.

“I try to stick by the Constitution. The voters elected him to serve. If there is a concern and he has to go through the Ethics, we’ll let him move through that, but right now, the voters have a voice in the decision … so he will continue to serve,” McCarthy said.

“He’s gonna have to build the trust here and he’s gonna have the opportunity to try to do that. … Is there a charge against him? In America today, you are innocent until proven guilty.”

McCarthy has also said that Santos would not be be seated on any top committees but that he would be seated on one committee.

–Dana

45 Responses to “Rep. George Santos Called On To Resign, He Says That’s Not Happening (UPDATE ADDED)”

  1. Good morning.

    Dana (1225fc) — 1/11/2023 @ 10:57 am

  2. Oh, dear Lord. No wonder extraterrestrials don’t visit us; our craziness might be communicable.

    Simon Jester (f66ca7) — 1/11/2023 @ 10:59 am

  3. Frankly, I don’t think the GOP cared about the vetting process because Santos ticked off the boxes they need: he is a gay Republican and a Latino. Allegedly, anyway…

    Dana (1225fc) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:01 am

  4. Dana, that is the way everyone seems to think these days: alphabetism uber alles.

    Simon Jester (f66ca7) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:06 am

  5. Dana, I just dream of a world where people could say the following:

    1. “Candidate X seems like a decent person and means well, but I just cannot vote for them,” instead of “Voting for Candidate X will lead to death, disease, and destruction.”

    2. “I really believe in the underpinnings of my party, but Candidate Y of my party is just not a choice I can support,” instead of “If you don’t vote for Candidate Y, you are not a genuine supporter of my party.”

    Not enough clicks or dollars, I know.

    Simon Jester (f66ca7) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:09 am

  6. Santos says he’s not resigning, eh? Given his credibility, he’s resigning pretty soon. McCarthy needed hom around just to end the whole Speaker nightmare.

    Appalled (1738fe) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:11 am

  7. #5

    Santos could say all of that. Because nobody would believe him, it’s a big no harm no foul. (See how cleverly I brought that to the theme of the post?)

    Appalled (1738fe) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:13 am

  8. Can you imagine who he’s able to get for staff?

    Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:14 am

  9. Dana, that is the way everyone seems to think these days: alphabetism uber alles.

    Yes. I’s surprised he didn’t give his name as Aaron Aaberg.

    Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:17 am

  10. How long can NY delay the by-election?

    Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:17 am

  11. How would Santos’ constituents know that he’ll honor his commitment to serve? He lied about everything else.

    Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:10 pm

  12. Appalled (1738fe) — 1/11/2023 @ 11:11 am

    Santos says he’s not resigning, eh? Given his credibility, he’s resigning pretty soon.

    He’s not resigning now.

    He needs to keep his resignation as a bargaining chip to use in a plea bargain.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:16 pm

  13. oh, we’re back on Santos

    the first liar ever elected to Congress

    JF (89db71) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:48 pm

  14. the first liar ever elected to Congress
    JF (89db71) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:48 pm

    Ha! And the last.

    felipe (484255) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:56 pm

  15. I think he’s taking it to a whole other level. But the vetting process of both parties broke down completely as well. This is not just resume inflation.

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:06 pm

  16. We don’t know what kind of crime he committed, but it’s hard to imagine any scenario where his $700,000 plus loan to his campaign is not evidence of a crime.

    Ponzi scheme, embezzlement or illegal campaign donation, take your pick.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:07 pm

  17. George Santos Took Donation From Migrant-Smuggler
    ………
    The gift from Rocco Oppedisano—expelled from the U.S. in January 2019, and who was subsequently intercepted piloting a yacht packed with unauthorized migrants and $200,000 in cash toward Florida—was just one facet of the support the freshman Republican and immigration hardliner received from the Queens-based clan that controls upscale eatery Il Bacco. Santos has been unabashed about his affection for the restaurant and his affinity for its owners, Rocco Oppedisano’s brother Joseph and niece Tina.

    ……..Santos appointed the father-daughter pair, plus her fiancé, to his “Small Businesses for Santos Coalition,” and made Tina its chair. The campaign, already known for its suspect money maneuvers, also spent $25,443.64 at Il Bacco since the Republican launched his first run for his Long Island-Queens seat in 2020, according to federal campaign finance records. The campaign further reported owing Il Bacco $18,773.54 for its election night party in November.
    …….
    …….the Sept. 22, 2022, gift from Rocco Oppedisano, who court and property records show was stripped of his permanent resident status following a firearms and drug bust at homes belonging to Joseph Oppedisano in 2009.

    “There are some things on which there is no gray area on with the FEC, and one of them is donations from foreign nationals,” said (Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the good government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), noting such a gift is flatly forbidden.

    ……… Legal filings show (Rocco Oppedisano) was expelled from the United States after almost a decade of court battles in January 2019.

    In December of that same year, a Coast Guard ship caught him steering a yacht called the INXS FINALLY from Nassau in the Bahamas toward Golden Beach, Florida. In his plea deal, Rocco Oppedisano admitted that when officers boarded the 63-foot pleasure vessel, he refused to let them in the boat’s staterooms.

    Officials brought the yacht to Haulover Inlet, where Customs and Border Patrol agents gained entry and discovered 14 undocumented Chinese migrants and a Bahamian national aboard—plus more than $200,000 in currency stuffed into the bedroom walls.

    The feds charged Oppedisano not just with smuggling undocumented immigrants into the country, but with illegally seeking to re-enter himself, though he pleaded only to the first allegation as part of the deal.
    ………
    ………Rocco Oppedisano’s immigration issues and offenses appear at odds with Santos’ hardline rhetoric around immigration, and complaints about “our literally wide open border” and the “deadly consequences” of illegal entry to the country.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:19 pm

  18. I’ve updated the post with McCarthy’s comments on the Santos issue.

    Dana (1225fc) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:25 pm

  19. Rep. George Santos was ‘funnel’ for illegal campaign cash, watchdog claims
    ………
    The (Campaign Legal Center) said dozens of Santos campaign expenditures that were recorded as costing $199.99 — a penny below the $200 threshold for FEC itemization — were “statistically implausible” and indicated the newly sworn in GOP lawmaker had “deliberately falsified” his reporting.

    The CLC noted that expenses like a $199.99 disbursement to the W Hotel South Beach for an Oct. 13 “Hotel Stay” seemed to be fabricated, as the cheapest room at the Miami hotel was priced in excess of $700.
    ………
    Specifically, the group noted Santos had claimed to have spent $199.99 at Il Bacco restaurant in Queens on seven separate occasions, including twice on the same day in November 2021 — along with “5 separate occasions with Uber: 4 separate occasions with Delta Airlines; and 3 separate occasions at Best Buy.”

    “The campaign reported an astounding 40 disbursements between $199 and $200, including 37 disbursements of exactly $199.99 … In fact, after excluding earmarked contributions and contribution refunds, the Santos campaign reported approximately as many disbursements of $199.99 (37 of 75) as all other committees combined,” the document read.

    The filing also noted that Santos’ $13,500 in rent payments for an “Apartment Rental for Staff” were actually made to pay for a Huntington abode in which he lived — what the CLC called a “blatant violation of the law.”
    ………
    Santos did not immediately return a request for comment from The Post.
    #########

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:29 pm

  20. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:19 pm

    …Rocco Oppedisano’s immigration issues and offenses appear at odds with Santos’ hardline rhetoric around immigration, and complaints about “our literally wide open border

    This was cynicism here.

    Nobody seems to be saying this now, but his marriage in 2012 may possibly have been to help someone get a green card. The press is not interested in hurting the woman in question.

    He was not living with her for sure by 2014 but only got divorced in 2019 shortly before his first run for Congress started. Santos has said something about the marriage being for 5 years.. Which would end it in 2017. ”

    and the “deadly consequences” of illegal entry to the country.

    Of course, the deadly consequences come from efforts to stop it.

    And they happen in Europe too:

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/16/the-crisis-of-missing-migrants

    They like to pretend that numbers can be reduced significantly without the de facto death penalty and even the death penalty only reduces it so much.

    They also try prisons – lately the immigration hawks have not been talking much about prisons

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrants-out-of-europe

    The prisons are in Libya.

    ………

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:38 pm

  21. Kevin McCarthy of course is right about the law.

    They’ll let the process play out till the prosecutors catch up with George Santos.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:40 pm

  22. And the difference between Joe Biden, 1973 and George Santos 2023 is…

    Nothing.

    DCSCA (efbc81) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:44 pm

  23. House Speaker McCarthy commented about the calls for the newly elected representative to resign

    Gee, seems under the new rules, Santos can put the ball back in McCarthy court w/a call for a vote to have McCarthy vacate the speaker chair… only takes one member to do it…

    Once a week, maybe, eh, fellas?

    DCSCA (efbc81) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:48 pm

  24. But the vetting process of both parties broke down completely as well.

    The leadership of US political parties don’t vet candidates; candidates don’t require anyone’s permission, no matter how squirrelly their background. It’s up to the voters, with assistance of the media, to vet candidates. The NY media really dropped the ball on Santos (except for The North Shore Leader). But sometimes even voters ignore the facts when they are reported. Then they only have themselves to blame.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:48 pm

  25. Very Interesting:

    ……..
    ……..[O]ne of the more troubling aspects of Santos’s campaign finances is the money he has received from individuals close to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

    William Bredderman of the Daily Beast reported that the Santos campaigns of 2020 and 2022 have been the beneficiaries of generous contributions by Viktor Vekselberg, one of Putin’s wealthiest and most influential cronies.

    Vekselberg’s money was funneled to Santos’s campaigns by Andrew Intrater and his wife. Intrater is a Vekselberg cousin, and he has operated several US-based corporate entities, whose business is tightly intertwined with that of Vekselberg.

    Intrater and his wife gave the failed 2020 Santos campaign $11,600 – the maximum contribution amount then allowed. But Federal donation limits would prove a small obstacle:

    “Then – Starting in March 2021, Intrater and his wife began pouring tens of thousands of dollars into auxiliary committees backing Devolder-Santos: $20,000 directly to GADS PAC, a leadership political action committee bearing the candidate’s initials, plus $12,100 to Devolder Santos Nassau Victory — but that account made just two federal expenditures this cycle, the larger of them by far being the purchase of lawn signs supporting Devolder-Santos,” wrote Bredderman.

    All this came on top of $12,400 Intrater gave the Devolder-Santos for Congress committee.

    Bredderman writes that “Devolder-Santos was far and away the largest beneficiary of Intrater’s largesse this year. Further, Devolder-Santos’s committees are the only ones that received gifts from Intrater’s wife this cycle.”

    Santos’s lies, his murky finances, and the fact that his two campaigns have received large sums of money from Russian oligarchs close to Putin, is cause of real alarm in the U.S. intelligence community.
    ……..
    Brad Schwartz, a doctoral candidate of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, writes in The Island 360 that “Until his background and finances can be fully vetted and cleared, political expediencies should not continue to overlook the fact that his profile now objectively meets intelligence criteria for a suspected foreign agent or colluder. Lesser cases would prompt investigation into potential foreign operations or infiltration.”

    Jim Geraghty writing in National Review summed it all up: “For all we know, some foreign power may have bought itself a congressman. This isn’t outlandish speculation.”
    ………
    Santos parroted the Kremlin propaganda line on Ukraine even before the February 2022 invasion, and persisted in questioning the U.S. support for Ukraine for a few weeks after the invasion. He even called the Ukrainian government of Voldomyr Zelensky “fascistic” and “totalitarian” and implicitly supported the Russian invasion.

    Santos changed his public statements only after local people blasted him for his pro-Putin line, and polls showed that such a stance would be a loser. And not only did he change his position, he suddenly declared that he had Jewish grandparents from Ukraine “who had survived the Holocaust.” That claim was a lie, too.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:58 pm

  26. Kevin McCarthy of course is right about the law.

    They’ll let the process play out till the prosecutors catch up with George Santos.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:40 pm

    Another wrong-foot move by McCarthy, only prolonging the embarrassment. No way a Joe Cannon or Sam Rayburn would allow this to continue. Of course, McCarthy needs every vote.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 2:01 pm

  27. Jim Geraghty writing in National Review summed it all up: “For all we know, some foreign power may have bought itself a congressman. This isn’t outlandish speculation.”

    For all we know George Santos is not his real name.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/11/2023 @ 2:46 pm

  28. the first liar ever elected to Congress

    JF (89db71) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:48 pm

    Of the >12,000 people that have served in Congress, how many do you have evidence lied as egregiously and extensively as Mr. Santos?

    lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/11/2023 @ 2:49 pm

  29. Jeff Beck, One of the Guitar Masters of the Rock Era, Dies at 78

    Bummer

    Horatio (537de5) — 1/11/2023 @ 4:20 pm

  30. 28,

    Ted Kennedy didn’t lie as extensively so maybe he doesn’t count.

    frosty (96a92d) — 1/11/2023 @ 5:09 pm

  31. Jim Geraghty writing in National Review summed it all up: “For all we know, some foreign power may have bought itself a subscription. This isn’t outlandish speculation.”

    FIF the boob.

    DCSCA (0f890d) — 1/11/2023 @ 5:46 pm

  32. For all we know George Santos is not his real name.

    “So?’ – Daddy Darth

    50 Celebrities Who Have Famous Fake Names

    https://www.therichest.com/buzz/50-celebrities-who-have-famous-fake-names/

    DCSCA (0f890d) — 1/11/2023 @ 5:52 pm

  33. @27. List of pseudonyms used in the American Constitutional debates

    During the debates over the design and ratification of the United States Constitution, in 1787 and 1788, a large number of writers in the popular press used pseudonyms. This list shows some of the more important commentaries and the (known or presumed) authors responsible for them. Note: the identity of the person behind several of these pseudonyms is not known for certain.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms_used_in_the_American_Constitutional_debates

    “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” – William Shakespeare ‘Romeo & Juliet’ Act II, Scene II

    DCSCA (0f890d) — 1/11/2023 @ 5:58 pm

  34. https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/lying-politicians-the-worst-liars-in-american-politics

    Updated November 22, 2019

    All lists are biased.

    https://www.thetoptens.com/leaders/biggest-liars-politics/

    Narendra Damodardas Modi is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from Varanasi…

    His whole life, as portrayed by him, is a lie. He is a walking lie, head to toe. His claims of being a tea seller in childhood, him leaving home and spending few years in mountains in search of peace and knowledge, his degree in “Entire Political Science”, everything is a big fat lie. Fabricated stories without any proof or even slightest of corroboration. He wears suits and clothes worth thousands of dollars and calls himself a Fakir with no interest in materialistic world. An extreme narcissist, who gets time to change into a different outfit for each meeting on any single day, but claims that he sleeps for only two hours. His every speech is full of lies and fake propagandas. All his speeches are like election campaigns. No wonder he has never given a single press conference on his own. He chooses to give scripted interviews to his Godi media, and the scripts are so bad that even a school kid can see it through (Only bhakts can’t).

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/12/2023 @ 1:41 pm

  35. It came it yesterday that there were some other lies George Santos told.

    Back in 2020. he was just about the only person who could make a race interested in running for the seat held by Democratic incumbent Tom Suozzi,

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 1/12/2023 @ 4:27 pm

  36. The Nassau Republicans sent him a standard vetting questionnaire and he was also interviewed by Joseph G. Cairo, the Chairman of the Nassau County Republican committee.

    He remembers hat George Santos told him he was a star volleyball player for Baruch College and that they had won the league championship.

    Did Baruch College even win a championship the year that Santos said they did?

    He also supplied a resume on which he wrote that he had a 3.89 GPA and ranked in the top 1% of his class (does Baruch even give out rankings?) and that he graduated summa cum laude in 2010 (meaning in 4 years)

    His claim about NYU was that he had obtained an MBA in International Business from there in 2013 and that his GMAT score had been 710 (something like that is usually the 98th percentile)

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 1/12/2023 @ 4:37 pm

  37. Some things in his resume are true or likely to be true.

    Like his skill in Customer Relations

    (he was a telephone customer support person for Dish Network in 2010-2011.)

    And he also wrote among his skills mwas:

    “Currency and coin counter”

    Thats his last listed skill.

    I think now they have machines doing that. But maybe he worked somewhere some time as a cashier or prepared bank deposits. It’s the last skill he lists. He didn’t leave out anything! Although most of it is lies.

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 1/12/2023 @ 4:43 pm

  38. I am sure there must be some extremely dishonest members of Congress in history.

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 1/12/2023 @ 4:44 pm

  39. Apparently, Santos got the $700,000 that he contributed to his campaign from his Ponzi-scheming employer, Harbor City Capital. In effect, his run for Congress funded by defrauded investors.

    Looks like George Santos’s $700,000 donation to his own campaign may’ve been laundered money from a Ponzi scheme called “Harbor City Capital,” which defrauded investors, selling them fake stocks, totaling over $17 million.

    New reporting from the Washington Post reveals that Santos received payment from Harbor City as late as April 2021.
    On April 20, 2021, the SEC filed a complaint against Harbor City accusing it of fraud.
    On May 11, 2021, Santos formed the “Devolder Organization.”

    When Santos then ran for Congress in 2022, he claimed the Devolder Organization was his family’s firm, with over $80 million in assets under management.
    There is no proof of any kind that the Devolder Org ever did any legitimate business.

    Santos claimed Devolder Org paid him a $750,000 annual salary in 2021 and 2022.
    Santos then contributed $700,000 to his own campaign.
    He never mentioned Harbor City in any of his mandatory federal disclosure forms.

    The investigations into Santos will reveal the truth — but it very much appears that Santos took ill-gotten gains from the defrauded investors of Harbor City, parked them in Devolder, and then used them for his campaign.
    Santos is NOT in a good position, let’s just say.

    Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/13/2023 @ 4:33 am

  40. In effect, his run for Congress funded by defrauded investors.

    Well, I sure hope an ethics committee run by members funded by FTX gets to the bottom of this.

    JF (c4ce2c) — 1/13/2023 @ 6:10 am

  41. The New York Times has a report today that has a second possibility (and several things may be true)

    Santos had an “independent expenditure” PAC that donors were encouraged to contribute to (in one case at least personally by Santos) that filed no reports.

    Could be he stole the money – could be it was the source of campaign funding – maybe not routed through the campaign (like direct payment of salaries) and he may have spent a considerable amount of campaign money essentially on himself (dining, travel) – an accusation Santos’ lawyer likes probably because it’s the most defensible,

    And his campaign reported a lot of $199.99 expenses – expenses below $200 don’t need to be broken down any further)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/nyregion/george-santos-donors-fund-raising.html

    Sammy Finkelman (f430cc) — 1/13/2023 @ 10:46 am

  42. Looks like George Santos’s $700,000 donation to his own campaign may’ve been laundered money from a Ponzi scheme

    The description in his resume of what Linkbridge was sounds like a Ponzi scheme. (connecting investors to investments)

    The question is, has anybody complained to prosecutors yet?

    Sammy Finkelman (f430cc) — 1/13/2023 @ 10:49 am

  43. JF,

    Your remarks will be ignored. After all, there’s an agenda to push.

    NJRob (f62a14) — 1/13/2023 @ 11:05 am

  44. Amazing that even you would be upset at criticism of a liar as brazen as Santos.

    Time123 (3be131) — 1/13/2023 @ 12:27 pm

  45. The Ethics Committee is not in the practice of investigating conduct before somebody got into Congress.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/13/2023 @ 12:52 pm


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