Top New York Republicans, including freshman Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and former senator Alfonse D’Amato, called on Rep. George Santos (R) to resign over his multiple fabrications about his biography that have prompted inquiries into his finances and campaign spending.
Chairman Joseph G. Cairo Jr. of the Nassau County Republican Committee, which had initially backed Santos’s candidacy, said Wednesday that the lawmaker who was elected in November and sworn in just days ago no longer had the backing of Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District that includes parts of Long Island and Queens.
“George Santos’s campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication,” Cairo said at a news conference at the GOP’s Long Island headquarters. He called for Santos to resign immediately. “He’s disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople.”
Pressed by reporters in the hallways at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning, Santos said he would not resign.
Cairo was joined at the headquarters by several local Republican officials who echoed his call for Santos to resign.
D’Esposito (R), from the neighboring 4th district, said Santos told “outright lies,” and “does not have the ability to serve in the House of Representatives and should resign.” He is the first elected GOP House member to pressure Santos to step down.
Joining Cairo, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R) said, “When he called himself a Jew, that was ridiculous.” State Sen. Jack M. Martins (R) said, “These aren’t embellishments. These are lies,” and called on Santos to be removed “one way or another.” Nassau County legislator Richard J. Nicolello said Santos’s lies “have done violence to the public trust,” and Mayor Pamela D. Panzenbeck of Glen Cove said, “We were all duped.”
D’Amato said in a statement that Santos is “a disgrace” and “must not continue to serve in Congress.”
Santos, 34, was elected in November and flipped a crucial seat for the Republican Party, which owes part of its narrow House majority to gains in New York. A firestorm erupted last month after the New York Times and others outlined apparent fabrications in Santos’s work and educational background and personal history.
With a razor-thin advantage in the House, it was unclear what steps House leadership would take against Santos, who represents a swing district. Republican leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), have said the Santos matter will be dealt with internally.
“If I disappointed anyone by my résumé embellishment, I’m sorry,” Santos, who has denied any criminal wrongdoing in the United States or elsewhere, told WABC radio in New York.
In June 2020, Santos wrote on Twitter that he is the “grandson of Holocaust refugees.” This month, Jewish Insider cast doubt on that claim, noting that the dates Santos cited for his grandparents’ departure from Belgium to Brazil do not line up, nor do immigration records support his version of his family’s history. The Republican Jewish Coalition, which featured Santos as part of its annual November conference in Las Vegas, denounced his false claims about his heritage and said that “he will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”
In March, Santos said in a podcast interview that he was “raised Catholic, born to a Jewish family — very, very confusing religious background.” More recently, he told the New York Post: “I never claimed to be Jewish.”
Democrats have demanded his resignation, while complaints have been filed against the freshman lawmaker. Two Democratic New York colleagues, Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel S. Goldman, filed a complaint Tuesday with the House Ethics Committee.
A complaint filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission accused Santos of wide-ranging campaign finance violations. The alleged wrongdoing includes masking the true source of his campaign’s funding, misrepresenting his campaign’s spending and using campaign resources to cover personal expenses.
The complaint, filed by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, could propel a formal investigation into Santos by the federal regulator, the latest chapter in a saga testing the boundaries of political falsehood.
Santos reported loaning his campaign more than $700,000 in the 2021-22 cycle despite having only $55,000 in earned income during his previous run for Congress in 2020, according to a financial disclosure. The Center called his claims of earning millions over the previous two years from the Devolder Organization “vague, uncorroborated, and noncredible in light of his many previous lies.”
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters, “This is something that is being handled internally” and “we’re going to have to sit down and talk to him about it.”
Late in December, the top prosecutor in Nassau County said her office would investigate Santos after the reports that he fabricated large parts of his personal and professional history.
“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly (R) said in a statement. “The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”
At the Nassau County event Wednesday, Cairo said he had not spoken to McCarthy about Santos. Cairo said Santos had submitted a resume, answered the organization’s questions and noted “he was recommended from Queens County” though he noted it was “not enthusiastically.” Cairo also said the organization will change how it vets candidates, adding, “We have to really investigate backgrounds.”
A spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Nebeyatt Betre, sought to draw attention to the Republican in-fighting, and said in a statement that Santos “is a fraud who doesn’t deserve to be in Congress,” and “represents the worst of politics.”