New York State In-depth

Suffolk Close-Up: The Shameful Saga of Santos

1st District Congressman Nick LaLota was one of the first Republicans to call for an investigation into George Santos. (Image credit: John Griffin)

There were many outstanding representatives in New York’s 3rd congressional district, which for many years included Suffolk County, which included Huntington Town and part of Smithtown.

But just months before last year’s election, in May, following a court-ordered redistribution of the 3rd CD, Suffolk was removed and the county segments in Nassau and Queens expanded.

Over the years, good representatives on the Republican side have included Peter King, a former Nassau County direct-shooting comptroller, and on the Democratic side, Robert Mrazek, a former Suffolk State Assemblyman; Jerome Ambro, who had been warden of Huntington Town; Steve Israel, a former Deputy Executive Secretary of Suffolk County; and, until earlier this year, Tom Suozzi, a former Nassau County executive.

And now there’s… George Santos.

Integrity is something we look for in government leaders, especially when it comes to senior positions as members of the US Congress. These are tremendously important items with the power to take our money through taxes and our lives – by declaring war.

Santos made up a thoroughly false story of himself when he recorded CD 3 and continued to lie last week. As a column in the Washington Post began, “Even by the lower standards of truth-telling in politics, the level of untruths from the newly elected House Republican was staggering.”

Newsday got it right in an editorial two weeks ago. “The disgraced Santos should step aside,” was his title. “The chatter and evasive non-explanations now being uttered by George Devolder-Santos for his made-up backstory convince us more than ever that he is uniquely unfit to serve in Congress…Santos was caught yelling up to.” lied to bizarre degrees – about success in finance with college and grad school degrees, about owning real estate. For years he has voluntarily kept silent about matters as personal as his religion and domestic commitments. Now Santos admits to some amazing fakes but still dodges defensively.”

“Anyone so blithely lying about who they are or what they do cannot be trusted with public power,” Newsday said, noting that he was a “serial fable writer.”

Last week, as the House of Representatives wrestled for days over who would be its new speaker and was therefore unable to do other work, including swearing in new members, Santos made public statements saying he had been sworn in and also that As a member of the House of Representatives, he already voted on five bills on December 22 before he was due to take a seat.

News site Alternet reported on this, pointing out that Santos “has a long list of lies about his name and that list is getting longer by the day.”

As the person he is set to replace in the House of Representatives, Tom Suozzi wrote in an article in the New York Times last week: “I’m being replaced by a scammer.”

Steve Israel just published an article in The Atlantic entitled How a Perfectly Normal New York Suburb Elected a Con Man.

As another former 3rd CD representative, Peter King, said in Newsday last week, there are security issues at play. “No one will be able to trust him or believe him. It would be risky to share information with him,” King said, particularly about “national security or homeland security.”

“Aren’t you ashamed?” asked Tulsi Gabbard, a former member of the House of Representatives from Hawaii, in a television interview with Santos last month.

But Santos is not ashamed. His audacity is matched only by his complete insensitivity to his situation. A story in Newsday about his early days as an “outcast” in the Capitol said that when Santos cast a vote for speaker, a member shouted, “Mentiroso!” (Liar in Portuguese and Spanish.)

Credit for first uncovering Santos goes to a small Nassau County community newspaper, the North Shore Leader. “The Leader Told You So” is the headline of an article by Niall Fitzgerald that can now be found on his website. It begins: “In a story first published by the North Shore Leader over four months ago, the national media has suddenly discovered that US Congressman-elect George Santos is … a deepfake liar.”

The North Shore Leader’s journalism demonstrates the importance of investigative reporting at the local level. It was only after the election that the New York Times published a front-page report on Santos that drew enormous media attention. Santos is being investigated by the Nassau and Queens district attorneys and faces state and federal investigations.

As Linda Lacewell, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in the New York Daily News last week, “Santos could face a dilemma when federal investigators eventually ask to question him. Will he adopt the Fifth Amendment? If not, is he able to tell the truth? If he lies about a material matter in the course of a federal investigation, and he does so intentionally, that could be a separate federal offense…”

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