The Democrats chosen for the top roles on the Foreign Affairs and Administration committees in the House have written to push Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House GOP leader-turned-Speaker, to restrict the access Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) has to classified information.
Democratic Reps. Joseph Morelle (N.Y.) and Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) pointed out concerns about Santos’s personal credibility and potential hesitance by figures in the intelligence community to share information with at least certain blocs in the House, given the problems with Santos’s basic credibility. Although Santos didn’t end up on some of the higher-profile committees that might regularly deal with highly sensitive materials, like the Intelligence and Oversight panels, he can still request a classified briefing. Morelle and Meeks requested that Santos be blocked from any such briefing, which would seemingly cover at least those originating with or involving other members of Congress.
“As the newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, we call on you to limit Congressman George Santos’ ability to access classified materials, including preventing him from attending any classified briefings and limiting his access to such information through his committee assignments,” the duo wrote to McCarthy. The top Republican has been predictably standoffish about taking particularly substantive action against Santos, which further spotlights the craven hypocrisy and political maneuvering in him supporting backlash to Liz Cheney.
Santos was given spots in this new Congress on committees in the House that deal with small business matters and technology. He remains accused of extensively lying about a large portion of his background, including where he worked and went to school, alongside basic details about his family history. He’s also facing financial questions, like the nature of hundreds of thousands of dollars he originally identified as personal loans to his campaign and the circumstances of campaign spending like tens of thousands of dollars on flights for a run in a single House district and over three dozen expenses that were conveniently a cent below where the Federal Election Commission starts requiring documentation like a receipt. Some of his deception is just ridiculous. Who says in an interview they had two knee replacement surgeries in connection to a supposedly star turn as a volleyball player at a college that, in reality, they never even attended? Who seemingly makes up that grandparents of theirs survived Hitler? Well, Santos apparently does.
Democratic Reps. Greg Meeks and Joe Morelle write a letter to McCarthy urging him to "limit Congressman George Santos’ ability to access classified materials." pic.twitter.com/ktfv546ZiV
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 25, 2023
