George Santos is amazing. And that is not an exaggeration.
Although people often use the word “incredible” to refer to all sorts of things that are real and factual (a surprising comeback at a soccer game, a freak storm, a brilliant musical performance), in the case of Santos, the liar congressman from Long Island, the word applies perfectly. And, in all truth, it will likely become increasingly applicable over time as more is learned about the countless misrepresentations of the US representative.
The list of falsehoods in his fabulistic resume is so long that one hardly knows where to begin. There may even be reason to wonder if the congressman’s name is actually George Santos. Truly.
It appears Santos made up his education, employment history, ethnicity, finances, charitable giving, and more. Amazing, right?
In a way, it’s the perfect distillation of our age, when a lot of people talk about telling “my truth” instead of “the truth.” Remember a famous statement made by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a four-term senator from New York State: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”
If only people still believed that today.
With Republicans holding the slimmest majority in the House, party leaders might well be loathe to throw Santos overboard. Because even a lying representative with an “R” after his name is going to be a vote the GOP can probably count on. And when the party comes first and foremost, as it is for so many in our hyper-partisan age, few can be bothered to care about such old-fashioned niceties as the truth.
One would like to think that the House Republican leadership would view Santos as an embarrassment and move to remove him from office. If he stays, it will mainly serve as a distraction. And a shot.
Santos claimed to have attended the elite Horace Mann Preparatory School, but there is no record that he did. He also claimed to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010 and spent some time at New York University, though nothing appears to be true. He never worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs either, as he also claims.
However, there is one statement that Santos can make that is fully verifiable, at least for now: he can honestly claim to be a member of the United States Congress. How sad.