Merged NY Rep Santos (merged from GOP elected that guy in WW84 and GOP are liars)

[Loren Pechtel]

Santos reminds me of the Dilbert character Topper. What a ridiculous little man.

I can't even think of someone that reminds me of him.

Back in the early 2000s, a co-worker swore up and down he could ride his motorcycle from Phoenix to Las Vegas in just over 45 minutes....a 5 hour drive on a good day. Yeah, Dave was full of shit, but we just nodded and smiled. Nobody ever thought of electing him to Congress.

Obviously, he's using Google! And, no, that's not a photoshop.

 

[bilby]

Google obviously realised that they needed to use test subjects to establish reasonable times, and took an average from the trip times of Mr Clark Kent, Jay Garrick, Barry and Bart Allen, Wally West, and Avery Ho, giving a perfectly reasonable average on-foot speed of circa 900mph (depending on terrain).

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So it seems Russia's fingerprints are on Santos' campaign money.

You know, I'm also Jew-ish. My mother has some Jewish ancestry. It was 500 years ago, but hey, maybe I could use that to run for Congress!

IAE, more lies are coming out, he’s been claiming to have been a student at some elite prep school in the Bronx. Nope. No record of him ever attending. This guy’s a piece of work!

We should start taking bets on how long he lasts.

I don't get the controversy. He seems to understand and embody Republican values very well. Is he being bandied as a replacement for Speaker McCarthy?

I think the issue is that other than the fact that he seems to actually exist, there is almost no other part of his original stories that indicates he was honest about a single aspect of his life.

 

[Bronzeage]

Seriously, Republicans get a righteous opportunity to prove they don't love every lying fraudulent cocksucker who comes down the pike and can't bring themselves to do it. Santos will fit right in with the rest of the GOP caucus. When he runs for reelection, he'll go back to Long Island and tell them he's Speaker of the House. Maybe he'll take some classified documents to show all the people back home.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Google obviously realised that they needed to use test subjects to establish reasonable times, and took an average from the trip times of Mr Clark Kent, Jay Garrick, Barry and Bart Allen, Wally West, and Avery Ho, giving a perfectly reasonable average on-foot speed of circa 900mph (depending on terrain).

That screenshot is not a prediction, that is what Google really logged for me one day. I've figured out how they went wrong.

Spoiler

Google mapped <Point in X> to <Location of X>. Typically a reasonable thing to do but in this case X is a state-spanning national forest. Thus Google is calculating how far it was from the trailhead to the headquarters building for the management of that forest.

 

[scombrid]

The problem faced by political extremists in the US is that when they gain power, they can't govern. So much of their political goals are based on distorted facts and often blatant falsehoods, when given the reigns, they can't accomplish anything of value. For example, trying to fight a pandemic after accepting antivaxxers as a valid science or building a border fence while the majority of undocumented immigrants arrive by plane.

I thought the inability of Boeberts, Gaetz, Greene, etc... being incapable of governing was a feature and not a bug. The multinational corporations and the Russian oligarchs that back them want stooges in the legislature. They'll sign their name to whatever bill ALEC writes for them to introduce, gum up any attempt to move effective legislation that might cost their handlers money, etc... You gut democratic governments and get rid of bodies like the EU and the UN and then you don't have to worry about pesky things like labor standards and environmental regulations.

 

[Elixir]

Santos will fit right in with the rest of the GOP caucus. When he runs for reelection, he'll go back to Long Island and tell them he's Speaker of the House. Maybe he'll take some classified documents to show all the people back home.

I certainly wouldn't bet against it.

 

[Copernicus]

This is so predictable. A Republican is caught lying even worse than Trump has lied in the past. A total scam artist. How do Republicans and their conservative enablers react? Not by a full-throated rejection of Santos, but by dredging up examples of Democratic politicians who have lied and behaved badly or just have a trail of smear laid on them from Republican propagandists. Whataboutery taken to its highest extreme. Meanwhile, Santos will get seated, and life in the Republican-controlled House will go on with the rest of the GOP holding their noses but looking the other way and looking for more crap to throw at Democrats. Will the man be prosecuted? Maybe. It's hard to see how he wouldn't be, but a conviction will likely never happen before he is up for reelection as a newly-minted incumbent.

 

[lpetrich]

Did Republicans Know about George Santos Ahead of Time? - "The race was neck and neck, but outside Republican groups put almost no cash into Santos’s effort."

Santos ended up not needing the boost: He won the race against Democratic candidate Robert Zimmerman by 8 points. The win was notable only for being one of four New York congressional seats that flipped red — this one in a district that Democrats had held since 2013.

One has to ask why the Democrat did so poorly. Does the Democratic Party also have a candidate-quality problem? Like having an uninspiring corporate Democrat, someone like Hillary Clinton.

Since Santos’s resume crumbled, Republicans have been relatively quiet. On Thursday, Nassau County Republican Committee Chair Joseph Cairo said that while Santos deserves a “reasonable amount of time” to respond to recent reporting, “voters deserve a sincere accounting from Mr. Santos.”

Santos had fundraised off an endorsement from fellow New York House Republican Conference Caucus Chair Elise Stefanik, who has been mum on the revelations. And McCarthy, who endorsed Santos in the Republican primary, has not commented on the inconsistencies in Santos’s biography.

If Republicans did know about the inconsistencies in Santos’s biography, Zimmerman’s former campaign manager wonders why they didn’t — and still won’t — come out and disavow him. Zimmerman said, “All of this raises the question: How did GOP leadership continue to enable and support their chosen candidate while he lied to the voters of NY-03?”

Because they'll need his vote, I'm sure.

 

[lpetrich]

George Santos 2016 Voter Registrations in Florida and New York - "Republican Rep.-elect George Santos’s official biography was filled with misrepresentations, but his real history is coming into focus."

The timeline:

• February 4, 2016: Ruling to evict Santos in New York
• February 9: Santos registers to vote in Florida
• November 8, Election Day: Santos votes in Florida
• November 14: Santos registers to vote in New York

Yes, GS was evicted from some property in New York State. So he was not very rich back then.

Santos campaign finances show dozens of expenses just below FEC's threshold to keep receipts | CNN Politics

Records that Rep.-elect George Santos’ campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission show 37 expenditures, on office supplies, hotels, ride-share app Uber, restaurants and more, for the exact same amount: $199.99.

Campaign finance experts say those expenditures the New York representative-elect reported stood out for a key reason: They are one penny below the dollar figure above which the FEC requires campaigns to keep receipts.

Payments to Uber, Walgreens, Walmart, Best Buy, Delta Airlines, Il Bacco Restaurante, ...

Delta Airlines? How was air travel a part of his campaigning???

Italian Restaurant | Queens, New York | Il Bacco Ristorante - what's he doing eating at such an expensive restaurant?
Delta

Santos’ FEC reports contain a number of unusual expenditures, including exorbitant expenses on air travel and hotels, particularly in Miami, and $10,900 in what are listed as rent payments to the company Cleaner 123. The company’s address is a house on Long Island, and The New York Times, which first published a story on Santos’ campaign finance filings, reported that a neighbor said Santos had been living there for months.

Cleaner 123, Inc. in Little Neck, NY - (917) 655-9240 - Profile

Cleaner 123 is located in Little Neck, New York. This organization primarily operates in the Cleaning Services business / industry within the Miscellaneous Repair Services sector. This organization has been operating for approximately 6 years. Cleaner 123 is estimated to generate $31,806 in annual revenues, and employs approximately 4 people at this single location.

 

[lpetrich]

How George Santos’s Campaign Spent Its Funds: Rent, Flights and Hotels - The New York Times - "Representative-elect George Santos, under scrutiny after fabricating much of his résumé, also spent campaign funds on $40,000 worth of air travel."

The company was called Cleaner 123, and over the course of four months, it received nearly $11,000 from the campaign of George Santos, the representative-elect from New York who appears to have invented whole swaths of his life story.

The expenditures were listed as “apartment rental for staff” on Mr. Santos’s campaign disclosure forms and gave the address of a modest suburban house on Long Island. But one neighbor said Mr. Santos himself had been living there for months, and two others said that they had seen Mr. Santos and his husband coming and going, a possible violation of the rule prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal expenses.

Money for air travel? How much did he spend on hotels? Given that he was evicted 6 years ago, and given that the Republican party leadership didn't spend much on him, where is his money coming from?

 

[lpetrich]

Rep.-elect George Santos admits fabricating key details of his bio

George Santos: What Congress can and can’t do about the congressman-elect’s lies.

Now that he has been caught, will Santos be slinking away in any fashion?

No, probably not. He says he has no plans to resign, telling the Post he intends to deliver on his campaign promises. “I am not a criminal. This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good,” argued Santos, even as he admitted most of professional biography was a flat-out lie. When explaining that he never worked as an associate asset manager at Citigroup or at Goldman Sachs, Santos simply waved it off as a “poor choice of words.” When it came to admitting he did not actually graduate from Baruch College, or any college for that matter, Santos simply said he was embarrassed— “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life.”

Ethics questions on fundraiser, expenses and more: Where George Santos' many scandals stand - POLITICO

Selling access to his swearing-in

For between $100 and $500, Santos said donors could get a bus trip to Washington, lunch, a swearing-in ceremony and a campaign-led tour of the “Capitol grounds.” The invitation, first reported by CNN Thursday, launched a fresh round of questions about Santos’ ethics.

What's so interesting about him that would make anyone take him up on that? His looks?

 

[lpetrich]

More from Politico.

Key Republican congressman predicts ethics probe

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, said on Fox News Thursday night that he’s “pretty confident” the House Ethics Committee will investigate Santos. He also called the member-elect’s resume fabrications “a disgrace, he’s lied to the voters.”

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who is facing a rebellion among some conservatives that complicates his bid for the House speakership, as well as other conference leaders have remained silent about Santos’ admitted fabrications.

They need all the Republicans they can get, I'm sure.

Eye-popping expenditures

...
The campaign also spent more than $40,000 on air travel, according to the Times — a figure far beyond what is typically spent during a local congressional campaign. Another $30,000 was spent on hotels across the country and $14,000 on car services. Dozens of expenditures by the campaign were listed in disclosure forms at $199.99, just below the $200 threshold where receipts are required.

Santos attorney Joe Murray told the Times that some campaign money was spent “unwisely” by a firm that has since been fired, but that all the expenditures were legal.

$84,000 on travel? Not including expensive restaurants. Where was all that money coming from?

Also, press secretary Gabby Lipsky recently resigned. She was expected to join his staff.

 

[lpetrich]

Ritchie Torres on Twitter: "BIG NEWS: I am introducing a bill to require candidates to disclose under oath their employment, educational, &amp; military history so we can punish candidates who lie to voters about their qualifications.
It will be called the Stop Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker (SANTOS) ACT. (pic link)" / Twitter

Ritchie Torres on Twitter: "George Santos, a former call center employee falling behind on his rent, lent his campaign a staggering $705,000.
Where did all that money come from? The Ethics Committee MUST start investigating immediately." / Twitter

Enough to once get evicted, it seems.

Back to Politico.

Questions about his mother’s death

Santos is also facing questions about statements he made about the death of his mother, after journalist Yashar Ali unearthed tweets he posted with potentially contradictory accounts of her demise.

In 2021, Santos tweeted, “9/11 claimed my mothers life.” In a separate 2021 post, however, he placed her death in 2016, writing: “December 23rd this year marks 5 years I lost my best friend and mentor. Mom you will live forever in my heart.” An obituary confirms she died in 2016.

Santos’ campaign website says that his mother, who was working in the World Trade Center’s South Tower on Sept. 11, survived the attacks but “passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.”

 

[lpetrich]

Prosecutors looking at George Santos amid lies, questions about his wealth - ABC News

In 2020 when he first ran for Congress, Santos listed no assets and a salary of $55,000 in his personal financial disclosure report filed as a House candidate.

But his 2022 personal financial disclosure report filed as a candidate subsequently showed his fortunes had drastically changed: He owned assets valued between $2.6 million and $11.25 million, including an apartment in Rio de Janeiro, a checking account and a savings account.

According to the 2022 disclosure, he reported earning millions between January 2021 through December 2022 from his New York-based company, Devolder Organization. He also reported having a car loan worth between $15,001-$50,000.

and

According to his campaign disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission, Santos reported loaning his congressional campaign $705,000 between 2020 and 2022, including $500,000 in March 2022 and a last-minute injection of $125,000 in the final weeks of the 2022 election cycle.

Last week, the FEC sent a letter to the Santos campaign asking to properly itemize the $125,000 loan.

Where did that money come from?

 

[lpetrich]

George Santos Latest News: Nassau Prosecutors Open Investigation Into Congressman-Elect’s Lies – NBC New York

“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning," said Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, a Republican.

“The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress,” she said. "No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

N.Y. attorney general's office 'looking into' allegations against George Santos - "The congressman-elect, who made history last month for being elected as an openly gay Republican, was the subject of a bombshell New York Times investigation Monday."

He was married to a woman for some time, however. Was it some marriage of convenience? Just done so he could do some paperwork more conveniently?

 

[SLD]

 

[lpetrich]

Amanda Marcotte: George Santos is the Republican Party's future: A shameless con man | Salon.com - "Trump opened the door — and now every grifter and two-bit criminal sees job security in pandering to the GOP base"

In interviews with Politico, random Republican voters justified their continued support with an epic display of what-about-ism, mostly based on Fox News-derived fictions about Democrats.

"Truthfully, I don't trust the Democrats on anything they say. I see it on the TV and I turn it off," said one woman, in a typical example. Santos' voters didn't exactly defend him so much as argue, on no particular evidence, that whatever he did, the Democrats are worse.

AM then noted "negative partisanship", wanting to keep the other party from winning. People in both parties do it, it must be noted.

But with Democrats, that at least has some basis in real-world concerns, given that Republicans are the party of abortion bans and the Jan. 6 insurrection. But on the other side, Republican voters mostly coast on hyperbolic vitriol about the evils of Democrats, which are at best vague insinuations of corruption, and at worst outright lies and QAnon-style conspiracy theories.

Convincing Republican voters to believe that Democrats are literally the worst people imaginable certainly helps Republicans win elections. But it's also destabilizing the party from within, because shady characters of all flavors now understand that no sin or crime is so great that it cannot be wiped away by running for office as a Republican. The result is a party full of cranks, chronic liars and petty criminals, a situation that gets worse every election cycle, as demonstrated by the Santos fiasco.

Right-wingers also seem remarkably gullible. Consider all the gold bugs and quacks who advertise in right-wing media. Also Inside the Macedonian Fake-News Complex | WIRED - back in 2016, one of the fake-news runners tried a week of fake news praising Bernie Sanders, but it didn't work out very well. “Bernie Sanders supporters are among the smartest people I’ve seen. They don’t believe anything. The post must have proof for them to believe it.” He was much more successful with Trumpies.

Back to Amanda Marcotte.
"Every charlatan in the country watched as Trump paid no political price whatever for a barrage of scandals involving corruption, malfeasance, gaslighting, lies and, eventually, actual sedition."

"We still don't know where George Santos got the money to run and win in a pivotal swing district. But we know what lesson he offers America's swindler class: Going into Republican politics is a license to commit fraud."

 

[lpetrich]

GOP in disarray! MTG bashes Tulsi Gabbard over George Santos interview | Salon.com

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., criticized former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard — now a Fox News host —for giving embattled GOP Rep.-elect George Santos "zero grace" in a recent interview during which Gabbard questioned Santos' integrity over extensive fabrications on his résumé.

TG filled in for Tucker Carlson when she interviewed GS. She said:

"If I were one of those in New York's 3rd District right now, now that the election is over, and I'm finding out all of these lies that you've told, not just one little lie or one little embellishment — these are blatant lies — my question is, do you have no shame?" Gabbard asked Santos Tuesday evening. "Do you have no shame? And the people ... you're asking to trust you to go and be their voice for them, their families and their kids in Washington?"

GS responded

"Tulsi, I can say the same thing about the Democrats," Santos responded. "Look at Joe Biden. Joe Biden has been lying to the American people for 40 years. He's the president of the United States. Democrats resoundingly support him. Do they have no shame?"

Not much of an answer.

MTG posted that interview in a Twitter thread: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter: "Tulsi Gabbard, ..." / Twitter

Tulsi Gabbard, who says she is a former Democrat, gave Rep-elect George Santos zero grace, while George is admitting and apologizing for lying about his resume, just like her former colleagues are giving George zero grace & even demanding he resign.

Tulsi says that George’s actions on the House floor are what is most important, but George has not even had the chance to take action for his district on the House floor because he isn’t even sworn in yet.

Tulsi also says how can his district believe anything he says when he is standing on the House floor fighting for them.

I too believe actions and words are extremely important, but I don’t think a former Democrat who’s actions on the House floor as recent as 2020 that gave her an A from Planned Parenthood, an F from the NRA, and introduced a climate agenda signature piece of legislation called the OFF Act - designed to end all fossil fuels (the same as AOC’s Green New Deal) should lecture a newly elected Republican member of congress on how he should vote to represent his Republican district.

I do appreciate that Tulsi says words that sound conservative now even though she can’t take action to back them up.

I am glad she, like George, realized she made mistakes and was wrong every time she voted to support killing the unborn, taking away our gun rights, and legislated to kill America’s energy independence and the fossil fuel industry.

I hope Tulsi is sincere, just like I hope George is sincere.

I think we Republicans should give George Santos a chance and see how he legislates and votes, not treat him the same as the left is.

 

[Elixir]