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George Santos defiantly rejects call by NY Republicans for him to resign for telling `lie after lie' [1]
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Date: 2023-01-11
Rep. George Santos of New York has rejected a call by a group of local Republican leaders in his Long Island district for him to resign from Congress for telling "lie after lie.”
But even as Nassau County GOP leaders were holding their news conference, a defiant Santos said he would not step down.
"Will you step down?" ABC News reporter Rachel Scott asked Santos outside an elevator on Capitol Hill.
"I will not," the congressman declared.
x NEW: George Santos tells me he will NOT resign w/ @LaleeIbssa pic.twitter.com/d5rvHObxoA — Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) January 11, 2023
Santos followed up on Wednesday afternoon with a defiant Tweet:
"I was elected to serve the people of #NY03 not the party & politicians, 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. I will NOT resign!"
x I was elected to serve the people of #NY03 not the party & politicians, 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.
I will NOT resign! — George Santos (@Santos4Congress) January 11, 2023
At the news conference,Nassau County GOP chairman, Joseph G. Cairo Jr., had lost the confidence of Republicans in his district, saying that Mr. Santos’s campaign was one of “deceit, lies, fabrication,”
"It's just lie after lie after lie. It became a pattern," Cairo said.
“He’s disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople,” Mr. Cairo said. “Today on behalf of the Nassau County Republican committee. I am calling for his immediate resignation.”
Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who represents a neighboring Long Island district, joined the news conference by video from Washington. He offered to handle constituent services for residents of Santos’ district until a new representative is chosen in a special election, The New York Times reported.
D’Esposito said that Santos had violated the trust from “not only the voters, but people across America.” The congressman added that he “will not associate with him in Congress and I will encourage other representatives in the House of Representatives to join me in rejecting him.”
With Santos’ refusal to resign, the ball is in the court of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the House GOPto decide whether to remove this embarrassing stain from their caucus.
But with the Republicans holding such a slender five-seat margin in the House, the question is whether the spineless McCarthy will do anything to force Santos out and risk having the seat flip in a special election.
Without Santos’ vote, McCarthy wouldn’t have won the Speakership on the 15th ballot.
McCarthy has largely remained silent about the controversy over Santos, although he told a reporter for CNN that he did not expect Santos to receive any choice committee assignments.
The new House Speaker was placed in an even more awkward position when it was reported that a person working with Santos’ campaign impersonated McCarthy’s chief of staff in order to raise campaign donations.
On Tuesday, two Democratic congressmen, Reps. Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman, hand delivered a copy of their complaint to the House Ethics Committee to Santos who was in his office.
Santos told reporters, “I have done nothing unethical.” That actually might be true given what passes for ethical conduct among House Republicans these days.
x Reps. Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman hand deliver a copy of their complaint with the House Ethics Committee to Rep. George Santos who was in his office.
This morning, Santos told reporters, “I have done nothing unethical.”
https://t.co/MOEZ8jbXur pic.twitter.com/y98bi7sjqK — Lalee Ibssa (@LaleeIbssa) January 10, 2023
In their complaint, Torres and Goldman requested an investigation of Santos “for violations of the Ethics in Government Act … by failing to file timely, accurate and complete financial disclosure reports as required by law.”
“The Act was designed to “preserve and promote the integrity of public officials and institutions. Over the past several weeks, extensive public reporting — as well as Santos’s own admissions — have shown that Mr. Santos misled voters in his District about his ethnicity, his religion, his education, and his employment and professional history, among other things.”
On Monday, the Campaign Legal Center, a campaign watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Santos.
The complaint alleged that Santos and his campaign committee “violated federal campaign finance laws by engaging in a straw donor scheme to knowingly and willfully conceal the true sources of $705,000 that Santos purported to loan to his campaign; deliberately reporting false disbursement figures on FEC disclosure reports, among many other reporting violations; and illegally using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, including rent on a house that Santos lived in during the campaign.”
Federal and local prosecutors have already said they are looking into whether Santos’ financial dealings, particularly the source of loans to his campaign, and lies about his background warrant criminal charges.
And in Brazil, law enforcement officials have said they are reviving fraud charges against Santos dating back to 2008 allegedly involving the use of a stolen checkbook.
If Santos was eventually forced to resign, it would set up a special election in New York’s 3rd C.D., a swing district won by Joe Biden in 2020. Santos flipped the seat after the Democratic incumbent Rep. Tom Suozzi decided not to seek re-election to run for governor. Suozzi lost badly to Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary and could be a potential candidate to regain his old seat.
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