(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

“Go big,” they say, “or go home!” If ever there was anyone who lived up to this trite - more facetious than sober - idiom, it is George Santos. George is an American politician, a Republican, from New York who was elected to the U.S. Congress last November.

He is a New Yorker, but his boldness is more parody than stereotype of New Yorker brashness. George is a 34-year-old liar. He is not what he would have you believe, someone who merely, “embellishes.”

An embellishment is if I tell you I graduated from university with “high honours”…rather than simply…“honours.” A lie is telling someone you have a degree from Bernard M Baruch College - a prestigious member of the 11 four-year colleges that comprise the City University of New York public education system - without any record that you ever took a single course…or spent so much as a single day there.

But that “embellishment” alone is almost something you could overlook…if integrity wasn’t really your thing. But George could easily claim supreme boldness…maybe even the “liar of the year” title…something of Trump-like proportions. It turns out almost everything he ever said to voters…everything voters relied on…was and is…just another lie.

George no doubt thought he would wow voters with his impressive credentials…working in responsible positions with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Those who did work for those two organizations are now leaders…there or elsewhere.

That is what George knew when he made those calculations. When confronted, he admitted to “making misleading claims.” Again, turns out, he worked for neither Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs. If you’re following George’s performance; misleading claims = lies.

Even though George has trouble verifying his own employment, it didn’t stop him from claiming during his primary that he “lost four employees at the Pulse nightclub shooting” in Orlando in 2016. No one who died knew or worked for George it turns out, according to relatives of those murdered.

George claimed he founded and ran a tax-exempt charity called Friends of Pets United in New York and New Jersey. Both the Internal Revenue Service and the attorneys general offices in New York and New Jersey said no records exists of a registered charity with that name…ever.

On campaign websites last year, George cast this “fact”…his “grandparents fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.” All biographies on any websites he controls changed or rather dropped such references after he was confronted with that lie the day after Christmas.

Of course, Christmas might not mean much to him since he claimed to pro-Israel groups when he was raising campaign funds last year that he was a “proud American Jew.” Again, caught in a lie, he now says he “never claimed to be Jewish,” simply “Jew-ish.”

He said his grandmother - long since dead - told him she was Jewish…but adds she converted to Catholicism. Too bad that’s not verifiable…lying is not hereditary to the best of my knowledge…so maybe grandma was Jewish rather than Jew-ish.

George claimed to be a real estate magnate…landlord to 13 tenants that last year he lamented in a Tweet were all overdue in rent payments to him. Almost Trump-like, George’s reality is a mere shadow of his fantasy. He never owned any real estate…and currently lives with his sister Tiffany in Huntington, NY.

His only truthful brush with real estate is that between 2016 and 2019, he was evicted three times…the last time he testified in court that he was mugged en route to pay $2,250 in back rent. Ever have one of those days?

George, apparently, finds it easier to “embellish” when folks are…well, dead. As late as Dec. 26, George claimed his mother, Fatima Devolder, worked her way up to become “the first female executive at a major financial institution” and was “in her office in the south tower” of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks…surviving but “passing away a few years later.”

Actually, she passed away quietly in 2016…and according to a Brazilian community newspaper at the time described her as a cook and occasional housekeeper.

Voters - indeed, the entire world - knows less about George Santos than he has told us. He is an ardent Trump supporter…and was at Trump’s Ellipse rally on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s claimed scores of times that Trump won the 2020 election…and it was stolen. Those are facts.

Mostly we don’t know where George’s money comes from. Somehow, he loaned his own campaign $700,000 last year. He claimed an income of $750,000 in 2021…listing millions of dollars in assets…including a Rio De Janeiro apartment worth $1 million and a seven-figure savings account. Quite the reversal of fortunes for a evicted tenant just over two years ago.

He took the following oath on Jan. 3 as a U.S. Congressman.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

My guess is…George lying about that oath would come as easy as any other lie during his…can we even call it…career?

George Santos is being investigated by local and Federal prosecutors, as well as the Office of the Attorney General of New York. He might even face criminal investigation for conspiracy to defraud the United States, as well as filing false statements with the Federal Election Commission

But, perhaps the biggest disappointment is that Republican leaders are as quiet as mice about George. No outrage. No calls for resignation. No censure. Crickets. Though, Republican Marjorie Taylor (soon-not-to-be) Greene from Georgia - in true batshit craziness she is known for - defended George and attacked Democrats…claiming “he is the first openly gay [non-incumbent] Republican elected and they hate him for it.”

Meanwhile, voters - some anyway - are pissed. You might think that’s a bare minimum. Oddly enough, some Republican voters still defend him with comments like, “Anyone can make a mistake.”

George went “big” but maybe now he should really just go home. That’s what old line Republicans would say…you know, those with character and integrity. Barry Goldwater and John McCain must be spinning in their graves…and poor Abe Lincoln…hell, he must be corkscrewed halfway to China by now.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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