(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Rep.-elect George Santos, R-N.Y., is at risk of losing GOP support following recent allegations that he lied about his past on the campaign trail.
Santos, who has often expressed his commitment to former President Donald Trump, defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman by a margin of 54% to 46% in his New York district.
The result was one of a handful of surprise seat flips in the midterms that helped Republicans secure an anticipated 10-seat advantage over Democrats, giving them the House majority.
Since then, however, leftist media has waged a coordinated attack on the openly-gay Santos, claiming he lied extensively about his personal backround and finances.
Santos’s campaign story is as follows: He is the son of two immigrants, with two of grandparents being of Jews who fled Europe to avoid persecution in World War II. After growing up in New York, he went to a public college before working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup as a financier, after which he founded and operated an animal rescue charity.
But according to a New York Times investigation, he fabricated nearly the entire thing.
The Times reported that Santos did not graduate from Baruch College, nor did he work for either of the two major finance corporations.
Further, there are no records of his alleged animal charity’s registration.
And further questions have emerged suggesting that his grandparents were not Jewish refugees after all.
Santos has, however, been charged with check fraud in Brazil, the Times said.
But according to Vox, the most questionable part of Santos’ campaign was his financing.
He allegedly loaned his campaign $700,000 for the 2022 election cycle, claiming an income of $750,000.
He also apparently controls millions of dollars of assets in Brazil.
Nonetheless, Santos has a recent history of eviction for failing to pay rent, and he reported only $5,000 of income in 2020.
Santos and his team directly denied none of the allegations, instead releasing a blanket denial that appeared to deflect rather than address the accusations.
George Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by – a gay, Latino first generation American and Republican,” his attorney, Joseph Murray, said in the statement. “It is no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at the New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name,” he said.
— George Santos (@Santos4Congress) December 19, 2022
Republicans would normally rally to support an elected official in such circumstances, but the red flags surrounding Santos’s character mean the GOP might leave him to fend for himself, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Amid Democrat calls for him to step aside, most of Santos’s fellow party-members have stayed mum, including current House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Those who have spoken out encouraged Santos to come clean concerning the discrepancies.
“Every person deserves an opportunity to ‘clear’ his/her name in the face of accusations,” said Nassau County Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo. “I am committed to this principle, and I look forward to the congressman-elect’s responses.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
