George Santos Defies New York GOP Demands That He Step Down

The Nassau County GOP is calling on a newly elected congressman, George Santos, to resign, referring to his electoral campaign as one of “deceit, lies, and fabrication.” Mr. Santos, who is facing multiple complaints, is committed to keeping his seat.The announcement from the New York Republicans comes after Mr. Santos voted to elevate Representative Kevin McCarthy into the House speaker’s seat.Mr. Santos, a Republican congressman representing New York’s third congressional district covering Nassau County and parts of Queens, has been the subject of scrutiny following reports that he fabricated large swaths of his personal and professional history on the campaign trail.Mr. Santos claimed that he was “half Jewish” and that his grandfather had fled Ukraine to escape the Holocaust, a fabrication first reported on by the Forward in late December. Among the other whoppers cataloged by media outlets since the story erupted was that Mr. Santos was a star volleyball player in college, that he ran an animal charity that rescued 2,500 cats and dogs, and that his mother died in the 9/11 attacks in New York. At a press conference Wednesday, the Nassau County Republican Committee chairman, Joseph Cairo Jr., told reporters that Mr. Santos is “not welcome here at Republican headquarters for meetings or at any of our events.”“Many groups were hurt, specifically I look at those families that were touched by the horrors of the Holocaust and feel for them,” Mr. Cairo said. “He has no place in the Nassau County Republican Committee nor should he serve in public service or as an elected official.”Mr. McCarthy stood by Mr. Santos on Wednesday, saying that voters had made their choice.“The voters made the decision. He has a right to serve. If there is something that rises to the occasion that he did something wrong, then we’ll deal with that later,” Mr. McCarthy said.In early January, Mr. Santos admitted to lying about his education and his work history, after a New York Times investigation found that he had in fact not graduated from college or worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, as he had claimed.The investigation also exposed that Mr. Santos is facing criminal charges in Brazil from 2008 and 2011 related to embezzlement and a stolen checkbook.The charges had been suspended and archived after going unanswered for years. Now that Brazilian officials have located Mr. Santos, they will be coordinating with the justice department to notify the congressman of the charges against him.The ejection from the Nassau County GOP comes two days after a formal complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission concerning Mr. Santos and his campaign. The complaint, filed by the Campaign Legal Center, calls for an investigation into how Mr. Santos was able to loan his campaign $705,000 during the 2022 midterms.The complaint says “it is far from clear how he could have done so with his own funds, because financial disclosure reports indicate that Santos had only $55,000 to his name in 2020.”On Tuesday, Mr. Santos was also hand-delivered a copy of a complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee by two New York Democratic representatives, Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman. The complaint alleges that Mr. Santos, in “failing to file timely, accurate, and complete financial disclosure reports,” violated the Ethics in Government Act.“Given the revelations about his biography, as well as the public information pertaining to his financial disclosures, Mr. Santos has failed to uphold the integrity expected of members of the House of Representatives,” the complaint reads.In response to the complaint, Mr. Santos told reporters, “I have done nothing unethical,” and he has since said in a tweet: “I will NOT resign.”“I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living,” Mr. Santos said.

George Santos Defies New York GOP Demands That He Step Down

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