George Santos: Fabricator or Honest?

 Accusations are circulating and being brought forward to Congress, on the credibility of House member George Santos.  After November’s vote that placed the first openly gay Republican nominee into the House for New York, claims on his upbringing, charities, and finances are all being questioned. Santos is being brought before the House Ethics Committee in an investigation that goes back to his own heritage, along with many other claims of achievement.

     Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has stayed impartial on the contradicting tales that Santos has fabricated throughout his campaign to win him the New York’s 3rd Congressional District. McCarthy told CNN, “There is no room to force him to resign, the voters should decide his fate.” Santos has decided to voluntarily step down from two House committees in the meantime.

     Santos has previously stated that he is the son of Brazilian immigrant parents, as well as a descendant of migrants who fled Ukraine and Belgium during WWII. These statements are allegedly being used to rouse voters by appealing to his unique heritage. The situation arose after Santos published his autobiography, causing The New York Times to speak out and say that Santos’ claims of schooling and working in Wall Street firms were misrepresented. 

     Santos has also retracted his remark that he had never worked directly for Goldman Sachs and Citigroups, two of Wall Street’s biggest financial firms and now claims to have worked with a smaller, feeder company, Link Bridge. He has also backtracked on his schooling, admitting that he has never graduated from college, even though he shared during one of his many campaign speeches about receiving his bachelor’s degree at Baruch in 2010. Another mistruth told by Santos was that he was brought up Jewish, despite also claiming to be a devoted Catholic at the same time.

     One of the biggest outrages among Republican supporters that has been hashed out for the country to see is George Santos’ possible criminal history shown in Brazil’s public criminal records. He was charged with embezzlement among the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice in 2011, but the case soon became archived in late 2013 after attempts to contact and locate  Santos went ignored and he did not show up for the scheduled court summons date.

     “I believe it is not up to Congress to hold the accountability of letting Santos slip through background checking, but the responsibility lies solely on the local party leaders in New York,” states Woodgrove government teacher Diana Shea.