George Santos Incident

In the 2022 Midterm election, George Santos was elected to represent New York's 3rd Congressional District in the House of Representatives. Santos aligned himself with the Republican party, and through his election victory, Republicans gained the majority in the House of Representatives by only nine representatives.

However, shortly after Santos was elected, questions started to come up about the various claims that the candidate made during the election. Santos had a very impressive resume, stating that he graduated from Baruch College, and then continued to work for major New York firms such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Santos also stated that he was a successful financier and founded an animal rescue charity. His impressive background continued beyond his professional life. Santos repeatedly claimed to be a proud “American Jew” whose parents escaped the holocaust.

However, according to fact-checkers and researchers, all of the claims listed above were lies. There are no records of Santos graduating from Baruch College, no records of his claimed jobs, and no records of his “charity.” His family information was also a lie. Santos is not Jewish, and his parents are not holocaust survivors. Santos’s family has been traced back to Brazil, where he has allegedly been charged with check fraud.

Nevertheless, Santos refuses to admit that he did anything wrong, and has emphasized that he is not a criminal, despite his charges in Brazil.

As a result of these lies, Santos has faced harsh pressure from Democrats and some Republicans to resign in disgrace. If Santos were to resign, however, it would be likely that the seat would go to a Democratic candidate. Because of this, many Republicans, including Kevin McCarthy (Speaker of the House) have not called for Santos’s resignation because they want to keep their majority in the House.

Santos has not resigned, but he is being investigated by local and federal prosecutors. Although it is not illegal to lie to win an election, investigators are looking into Santos’s finances which have historically been questionable. A crime that has to do with his finances could be enough reason for the House to force Santos to resign or remove him from office entirely.