How did no one realize that he was a fraud and a liar? Did the Republicans vet him at ALL before backing him? Did the Democrats do any opposition research? Why was it left to the press to unearth this stuff after he had already been elected? In their defense, the press has been decimated lately: with local newspapers folding and larger media cutting staff, there aren't as many investigative journalists as there used to be. But, is it really THEIR job to surface this stuff?
When the NY Times broke this story and exposed the fact that his entire resume was a lie, the immediate reaction from the Santos camp was to accuse the reporters of being nitpicking leftists who were trying to defame him. But there was no denial. Everything the Times reported turned out to be accurate, and Santos himself has since admitted to most of it. Some of it he denied, including that he ever claimed to be Jewish. That's also a lie - he made the claim that he was a "proud American Jew" IN WRITING to a Jewish lobbying group:
http://forward.com/fast-forward/529798/george-santos-jewish-american-republican-congress/
The guy is a pathological liar; I suspect he can't help himself. And now, he gets a seat in Congress.
It's not illegal to lie to gullible voters - we've seen that time and time again. But there is a difference between embellishing the truth and making stuff up from whole cloth, and Santos apparently had an endless supply of cloth to work with.
Democrats, obviously, have called for him to resign or be denied his seat - neither of those things will happen. Some Republicans are grumbling also, but Republican leadership is silent so far. Kevin McCarthy needs his seat and his vote, even though it's becoming increasingly obvious that McCarthy doesn't have the 218 votes to win the Speaker's gavel. He's not about to take a stand on this and risk annoying a few members of his caucus. McCarthy's loyalty is not to his country or his party - it's to himself.
I don't understand how we got to this point. Isn't anyone paying attention to the nominees BEFORE they run? |
