Newly Elected GOP Congressman Elect George Santos Appears To Have Lied About Basically Everything About His Past (And Then Issued A Fake Churchill Quote In Response To Questioning)

A Republican having a problem with the truth is nothing new, really. (See: Donald Trump, Donald Trump, and Donald Trump.) But even by GOP standards, congressman elect George Santos’ alleged fabrications about his past and qualifications to represent New York’s 3rd District could be considered a real whopper.

On Monday, The New York Times ran a story titled “Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Resume May Be Largely Fiction.” Which basically tells you everything you need to know about the 34-year old, who broke some new ground by becoming the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, as well as the first Brazilian-American to hold a seat in the House. But it turns out that much of the information Santos has released about himself and his background may not be true.

Specifically, as CNN reports, Santos has claimed that he received degrees from both Baruch College and New York University, though neither school has any record of him attending—let alone graduating. Santos’ bio on the National Republican Congressional Committee website states that “He has worked for companies such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Linkbridge Investors, and Met Global,” though both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs told CNN they had no record of his employment.

Santos also claimed that he founded an animal rescue organization, Friends of Pets United, and gave a very specific number of animals he helped to save — yet no such organization seems to exist either with the IRS or in a database of registered charities in either New York or Florida, where Santos has also done business. But the weirdest part of the story is that that’s not even the weirdest part: While Santos himself has been dodging questions about what seems to be a largely fictionalized backstory, his lawyer attempted to defend him by offering up a quote from Winston Churchill… that was ALSO fake.

As Politico reports, “An attorney for Republican Rep.-elect George Santos (R) responded to allegations in The New York Times that the politician made up core portions of his resume with a quote from Winston Churchill that PolitiFact says the British politician never uttered.”

That’s right, an elected official who is being accused of lying about his educational and professional background responded to the story via a prepared statement from his lawyer, which he shared on Twitter, and that, too, came with a side of horsesh*t.

The statement, which was attributed to alleged attorney Joseph Murray, ended with these words: “As Winston Churchill famously said, ‘You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” But PolitiFact claims that the legendary British Prime Minister never said those words — famously or otherwise.

Perhaps more tellingly, according to Politico: “The statement did not refute any of the allegations that Santos made up or exaggerated key portions of his resume.”

As Winston Churchill famously said, “You’re f***ed, Santos.”

(Via Politico)