The chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party and a local Republican Congressman called for Republican George Santos, who recently began his first term in the U.S. House representing a portion of New York’s Long Island, which includes that county, to resign.
“He’s disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople,” Joseph G. Cairo Jr., who leads the Nassau County GOP, said. “Today on behalf of the Nassau County Republican committee, I am calling for his immediate resignation.” Anthony D’Esposito, the other local Congressman, added that he “will not associate with [Santos] in Congress” and he “will encourage other representatives in the House of Representatives to join me in rejecting him.”
Santos was caught lying about basic elements of his background, including both where he worked and went to school, and he even evidently misrepresented portions of his family history, claiming grandparents of his survived the Holocaust despite a lack of available evidence they were even born in Europe. There are also financial concerns, including about the source of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars he loaned his 2022 campaign, which he tied to a high-end investment services company he apparently leads — despite reporting a far lower personal income not long before. The campaign loans, along with suspicions of Santos using campaign money for rent somewhere he lived and questions about the legitimacy of other claimed expenses, like dozens that were conveniently reported at $199.99, were the subject of a recent complaint to the Federal Election Commission seeking an investigation.
It’s at $200 when individual campaign expenses need accompanying documentation like a receipt. The content of some of these claimed costs also raise questions. Why was he spending on a hotel stay in southern Florida? He wasn’t running there. And why was he spending tens of thousands of dollars on flights for a campaign to represent a single House district, of the sort that mostly doesn’t cover an overwhelmingly large area (save for somewhere like Wyoming, where the low population means the state shares a single Congressperson)? Santos’s financial disclosures to the House, which were months late, were the subject of a separate complaint recently filed by two Democratic members of Congress with the House Ethics Committee.
On Wednesday, House GOP leader — and Speaker — Kevin McCarthy perhaps surprisingly pushed back on the prospect of Santos getting a spot on key panels, including the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, saying he didn’t expect Santos to get such a role. Santos reportedly said that he didn’t intend to resign.
Tom Emmer, No. 3 Republican, didn’t respond to questions about Santos
McCarthy said: “I haven’t seen it yet,” he told reporters of the call to resign. “Let me read it and I’ll respond.”
And Santos says: “I will not” resign
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 11, 2023
