George Santos has only been a sworn-in member of Congress for just over a week, but he’s already the most famous member of this year’s freshman batch. That’s not because he’s worked on any legislation. It’s because every day there’s one, two, sometimes three new leftfield revelations about how he misled or outright lied to voters to get his new gig. Some of the revelations are big, some are small. This latest one is sort of in between the two poles.
In 2019, George Santos introduced himself as Anthony Devolder, the founder of “United for Trump,” during a Q & A session at a “Walk Away LGBT” event in NYC.
Santos said trans people could benefit from a trans conservative activist educating them. pic.twitter.com/b2RkA3YPnI
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) January 13, 2023
On Friday, video made its way to social media that captured Santos in 2019. He spoke at a “Walk Away LGBT” event, in which conservatives try to coax queer people to leave the Democratic party, which goes out of their way to protect their rights, and join the one that calls them things like “groomers.” Thing is, Santos didn’t use his real name. Instead he told the crowd his name as “Anthony Devolder.”
As per The New York Times, at the time Santos was using a different surname professionally. He’d tell people and employers his name was George Devolder. But at Republican events he ditched the “George” part, too. There he’d go by Anthony, where he’d do things like ask a trans YouTube star if they “can help educate other trans people from not having to follow the narrative that the media and the Democrats put forward,” as he did at the 2019 event now making the rounds.
Using an alias to persuade LGBTQIA+ people to vote against their interests is but one of an ever-escalating pile of misleading statements, embellishments, and fibs Santos told in the lead-up to his successful 2022 congressional run. He’s bent the truth about his work history, his heritage, even his mother’s death. On one of his first days on Capitol Hill, he was even caught repeatedly missing his name being called out for a vote. Maybe if they’d called for “Anthony Devolder,” he would have responded.
(Via NYT)