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George Santos: Gay Republican admits lies, slams journalists for “nitpicking” – Queerty

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George Santos
George Santos (Photo: YouTube)

Gay, Republican Congressman-elect Georga Santos has come clean. Well, clean-ish. He admits he told a bunch of whopping fibs on his résumé.

However, he also attacked the journalists who “nitpicked” him. He believes he’s still qualified to do his job as the newly-elected Representative for New York City’s 3rd district. It covers northern Long Island and northeast Queens.

Santos, 34, won his midterm election in November. He’s due to take office next week. However, just over a week ago, the New York Times ran an exposé on him. Its writers fact-checked claims on his résumé about his career and education. It also examined his claims about property ownership. Many of the facts failed to stack up.

Santos initially responded via a legal statement. It called the NY Times story a “shotgun blast of attacks” and an “attempt to smear” with “defamatory allegations.”

Just before the holidays, Santos posted a cryptic message promising to tell all after the holidays.

“To the people of #NY03 I have my story to tell and it will be told next week. I want to assure everyone that I will address your questions and that I remain committed to deliver the results I campaigned on; Public safety, Inflation, Education & more.”

Santos admits lies

Yesterday, Santos talked to the New York Post. He admitted he’d made up chunks of his résumé.

“My sins here are embellishing my résumé. I’m sorry,” Santos said. “I am not a criminal … This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”

Santos said he never directly worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as previously claimed. Saying so had been a “poor choice of words.” He says a company he worked for did business with the banking giants.

Santos previously stated he graduated from Baruch College in 2010. He now admits he did not graduate from anywhere.

“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he said. “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life.”

The district Santos represents has a high Jewish population. On his campaign website, Santos said his mother was Jewish and his grandparents escaped the Nazis during World War II.

Santos, a Brazilian immigrant, now says this was another embellishment. He said he’s “clearly Catholic”. His grandmother told him stories when younger about being Jewish and converting to Catholicism.

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was `Jew-ish.’”

Coming out as gay

Santos was an out and proud gay candidate during his run for office. He claims he came out a decade ago. He failed to mention he was previously married to a woman and they divorced in 2019.

Related: Gay GOP Congressman-elect George Santos might have a secret wife he forgot to mention

“I dated women in the past. I married a woman. It’s personal stuff,” Santos said, adding that the relationship “got a little toxic.” “I’m very much gay,” he continued. “I’m OK with my sexuality. People change. I’m one of those people who change.”

Santos admitted he was taken to court around six years ago for non-payment of rent. He owed around $12,000 to a former landlord. He says he and his family were up to their eyeballs in debt due to his mom’s battle with cancer.

“We had issues paying rent at the time. It’s the vulnerability of being human. I am not embarrassed by it.”

His mom died on December 23, 2016.

Santos admits he never paid the arrears he was ordered to pay by a judge.

“We didn’t pay it off. I completely forgot about it.”

Claims about owning 13 properties are also a lie. Santos lives with his sister in Huntington but wants to find his own place.

Pesky, nitpicking journalists…

Besides talking to the Post, Santos also called a talk show on WABC to discuss the New York Times expose, reports the Daily Beast. Santos says he’d already planned to be “quiet anyway” for the past week as it was the sixth anniversary of his mom’s death. Now he was weighing his options.

“Well, the record is, I don’t know what my options are,” he said when asked if he was considering suing the NY Times.

Santos still claims some of the NY Times report was incorrect. He strongly denies he has any criminal convictions in Brazil.

“I’m gonna look through and see everything, and just like they nitpicked at me, now it’s gonna be my time to nitpick at both journalists who made it their mission to slander me across this country and across the world, and let’s see what happens at the end,” Santos said. “But the one thing is, I will be sworn in, I will take office, I will be able to be an effective member of the legislator [sic.] in the soon-to-be 118th Congress…”

However, many are now calling for him to resign or for further investigations.