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Santos, a Republican set to represent the state’s 3rd District on Long Island’s North Shore and parts of Queens beginning in January 2023, addressed the controversy in a post on Twitter Thursday, Dec. 22.
“To the people of #NY03 I have my story to tell and it will be told next week,” Santos said.
“I want to assure everyone that I will address your questions and that I remain committed to deliver the results I campaigned on; public safety, inflation, education, & more. Happy holidays to all!”
Thursday’s statement came days after a bombshell New York Times report alleging that Santos lied about working as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor.”
Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, where Santos previously claimed to have worked, have no record of him, the New York Times reports. His supposed alma maters, Baruch College and NYU, also claimed he had never attended, according to the outlet.
Santos, age 34, also appears to have made up his nonprofit animal rescue group, Friends of Pets United, which the IRS had no records of, according to the report.
Also unverified is the $80 million family investment firm that Santos claims to manage, the report says.
The New York Times report goes on to question Santos’ claim that he “lost four employees” at the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in June 2016, as he claimed in an interview with WNYC.
In a Twitter post on Monday, Dec. 19, Santos’ attorney, Joseph Murray, called the New York Times report a “shotgun blast of attacks.”
“George Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by - a gay, Latino, first generation American and Republican who won a Biden district in overwhelming fashion by showing everyday voters that there is a better option than the broken promises and failed policies of the Democratic Party,” Murray said.
“After four years in the public eye, and on the verge of being sworn in as a member of the Republican led 118th Congress, the New York Times launches a shotgun blast of attacks,” he continued.
"It is no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at the New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”
Murray then incorrectly quoted former conservative UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, saying, “You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
Incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, a fellow New York Congressman representing the 8th District in Brooklyn, condemned Santos in a statement to Politico.
“George Santos is a woefully unqualified Extreme MAGA Republican who is clearly unfit to serve,” Jeffries said. “If Mr. Santos is indicative of what we can expect from the new Republican Congress, the American people are in for a rough ride.”
Santos, who was born to Brazilian immigrants in Jackson Heights, Queens, made history as the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican and the first Brazilian-American elected to Congress.
He defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in November 2022.
Click here for the whole story from the New York Times.
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