Rep. George Santos is refusing calls for his resignation all while rewriting the narrative in real time.
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., leaves a House GOP conference meeting on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Jan. 25, 2023.
For Santos, it’s an unusual up-is-down approach that would have been almost unthinkable in an earlier generation but one that signals the new norms taking hold amid the deepening of a post-truth era in Congress.“I was elected by the people to come here to represent them, and I do that every day,” Santos told The Associated Press in a brief interview off the House floor.
While Santos faces a crush of investigations — by the House Ethics Committee and a county prosecutor in New York — as well as questions from earlier charges in Brazil, where he lived for a time, he appears unmoved by the challenges.“It used to be that when a politician lied, and they got caught, they were ashamed — or there was some sort of accountability,” said Lee McIntyre, the author of “Post-Truth” and a research fellow at Boston University.
In the time since, more questions have flowed, including about the origins of a $700,000 loan he made to his campaign for Congress and his own reported wealth. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who won a slim Republican majority with just a few seats to spare, has said the voters elected Santos and “he has a right to serve.” If wrongdoing is found, Santos could be removed from office, he said.
But Santos appears emboldened as his profile has risen, even being parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” He has introduced his own bills in Congress — including one to require cognitive tests for presidents — and is trying to move on.
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