On December 1st, 2023, the world watched as (former) U.S. representative George Santos was expelled from Congress. As the first openly LGBT member elected to Congress as a non-incumbent Republican, Santos already had many eyes set on him; however, it seems that now the spotlight has shifted from him to the web of lies that he created which led to his expulsion. To understand exactly why this happened and why so many people are intrigued by his story, we must look at his life both the way Santos told it and the actual way that Santos lived it.
The web of lies that Santos crafted for himself is extensive, but a few stand out from the rest. While it is true that Santos lived as a first-generation American in Queens, New York, according to relatives, Santos did not live in a “rat-infested basement apartment” like he claimed and even lived a relatively modest life. Santos, however, did go through his fair share of hardships when his parents separated and he opted to live with his mother. Santos claims that his mother obtained the “American Dream”, eventually working her way to becoming a female executive of a major financial institution. Records show that this was not the case and that she worked hard at her job as a housekeeper and home aide. As if this was not enough, Santos took this one step further and claimed on his campaign website that his mother survived the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, while in her office at the South Tower, and eventually died of cancer. While his mother did tragically die of cancer, documents claim that his mother was not even in New York during these attacks.
Since even Santos’ mother was not safe from his false narrative, it isn’t surprising that he contributed further to this story even after he was elected into office. Santos garnered particular media attention for certain actions after he was sworn in that were hilariously absurd. Immediately after his election, George Santos got into a controversy where he claimed his grandmother was a holocaust survivor, and that he was Jewish himself. Expectedly, this was not true. When called out on his lie, Santos iconically stated that he was Catholic, and was actually “Jew-ish” only after learning that his maternal family potentially had a Jewish background, even though she was from Brazil.
The sheer ridiculousness of Santos’ actions only seems to grow. Among Santos’ various claims, he states that he had a TV background on shows such as Hannah Montana. There was no evidence to support this. Santos was also caught embezzling money from his campaign and spending it on a four thousand dollar purchase at Hermes and various other smaller purchases at shops like Sephora. While embezzling is a serious crime, the places where he spent the money made him dubbed a “fashion criminal” by various news outlets, making him even more laughably infamous than he already was.
Almost everyone agrees that George Santos deserved to be expelled from office, but in the process, he became somewhat of an icon. Perhaps Santos took this account when making countless baffling and false statements, but his 23 felony charges say otherwise. Although we may never see a U.S. Representative like Santos ever again (probably for the better), the utter shock caused by his web of lies also served as comic relief to the growing tension in the modern political field.
References:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/guide-george-santos-lies.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santos
