Long Island congressman George Santos came clean to The Post on Monday, admitting that he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience — but insisting that the controversy won’t deter him from serving out his two-year term in Congress.
“I am not a criminal,” Santos said at one point during his exclusive interview. “This controversy will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
Santos’s professional biography was called into question earlier this month after the New York Times reported that he misrepresented a number of claims, including where he attended college and his alleged employment history with high-profile Wall Street firms. Santos confessed Monday that he had “never worked” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, chalking that fib up to a “poor choice of words,”
He also admitted that he never graduated from any college, despite previously claiming to have received a degree from Baruch in 2010. “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.”
Santos was also accused of lying about his family history, saying on his campaign website that his mother was Jewish and his grandparents escaped the Nazis during World War II. Santos now says that he’s “clearly Catholic,” but claimed his grandmother told stories about being Jewish and later converting to Catholicism.
Santos, the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to the House, also faced accusations that he lied about his sexual orientation, with the Daily Beast reporting that he was previously married to a woman until 2020. He confirmed to the Post on Monday that he was indeed married to a woman for about five years, but that he is now a happily married gay man.
Santos also acknowledged being a deadbeat tenant in Sunnyside, Queens, claiming that his family was deep in medical debt from his mother’s illness.
“George Santos is coming clean today, according to a local radio station, admitting he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience but insists the controversy won’t deter him from serving his two year term in congress” pic.twitter.com/oV3nqa4J9f
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 26, 2022
“Long Island Rep.-elect George Santos came clean to The [New York] Post on Monday, admitting that he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience” https://t.co/YoYhCJI8xW
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) December 26, 2022
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