Rep. George Santos (R-NY) leaves the U.S. Capitol on January 12, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos of Recent York vowed Thursday to remain in Congress and serve out his full two-year term, brushing off howls of bipartisan criticism and calls for his resignation after he admitted to lying about his background.
“I wish well all of their opinions, but I used to be elected by 142,000 people,” Santos said in response to a few of those GOP critics who’ve urged him to resign.
“Until those self same 142,000 people tell me they don’t desire me, uh, we’ll discover in two years,” Santos said during an interview with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on a conservative talk show.
Santos was sworn in Saturday and has refused calls to provide up his seat. He has apologized for embellishing his resume but said he committed no crimes.
Santos has adopted a defiant tone against a growing chorus of opposition from inside his own party.
Greater than a dozen top Republicans in Nassau County, where Santos’ congressional district is situated, blasted the freshman lawmaker as a liar and a disgrace as they urged him to step down Wednesday. A handful of Santos’ fellow freshman House Republicans have joined in, including Rep. Nick Langworthy, who can also be the chair of the Recent York Republican Party.
But newly minted Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will not be calling on Santos to resign from the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority over Democrats and losing Santos’ vote would make the speaker’s job harder.
“Voters have elected George Santos,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill. “He’s seated, he is a component of the Republican conference.”
McCarthy appeared to notice that Santos is facing an ethics investigation within the House, and said, “if anything is found to be incorrect, he will probably be held accountable, exactly as anybody else on this body could be.”
The speaker suggested Wednesday that Santos would receive a committee project, though he ruled out the congressman getting a spot on the highest-profile panels.
On Thursday, McCarthy also ruled out the chance that Santos would have access to top secret information for now.
“He’s got an extended option to go to earn trust,” the speaker said.
McCarthy’s remarks contrasted with the barrage of criticism that Long Island Republicans hurled at Santos a day earlier.
“George Santos’ campaign last yr was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication,” Nassau County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Cairo said. “He’s disgraced the House of Representatives and we don’t consider him one among our congresspeople.”
Santos last month admitted to fabricating quite a few details of his life and apologized for “having embellished my resume.”
But Santos also pushed back on among the reporting from a bombshell Recent York Times investigation, including that he faces unresolved criminal fraud charges in Brazil from years ago.
“I’m not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction on the planet. Absolutely not. That did not occur,” he told the Recent York Post.
The Times reported last week that Brazilian authorities will revive that 2008 case against Santos.
“I’ve worked my entire life,” Santos told Gaetz in his interview Thursday. “I’ve lived an honest life. I’ve never been accused of any bad doing.”
That response got here after Gaetz asked how Santos was capable of lend his winning congressional campaign lots of of 1000’s of dollars. Those sums have reportedly come under scrutiny from state and native investigators.
Santos has remained defiant — his official social media accounts have even lashed out at a few of his detractors online — and McCarthy has shown no willingness to attempt to expel Santos from the House by a two-thirds vote.
If Santos were to depart office, it might likely trigger a competitive special election in Recent York for his seat.
