Republican Jewish Coalition BANS George Santos from events for ‘deceiving’ the group

The Republican Jewish Coalition has banned Congressman-elect George Santos for fabricating both his work history and his Jewish background. 

CEO Matt Brooks said he felt Santos had ‘deceived’ the organization and ‘misrepresented’ his Jewish heritage. 

‘He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage. In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish,’ Brooks said in a statement. ‘He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note. He will not be welcome at any future RJC event.’

Santos, who flipped a Long Island House seat for the GOP and is the first openly gay Republican congressman-elect, admitted recently to fabricating parts of his resume and background. 

On his campaign website Santos stated that his mother was Jewish and his Jewish maternal grandparents escaped the Holocaust by moving to Brazil. But genealogy records show that his maternal grandparents were Brazilian-born Catholics.

Santos says that he’s ‘clearly Catholic,’ reframing his story as one his grandmother told about being Jewish before later 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.’ 

The Republican Jewish Coalition has hosted Santos at events before, as a conference speaker and at a Hanukkah celebration this month.  

New York GOP Rep.-elect George Santos has admitted to lying on his resume

It appears Santos lied his away along the campaign trail. Questions were first raised after a New York Times report brought up a number of accusations including allegations he had lied about his family’s history

The congressman-elect said in interviews with the New York Post and a local radio interview that he lied about working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as well as attending New York University and CUNY Baruch College, describing it as ‘resume embellishment.’ 

Rather than working on Wall Street in his pre-political career, he actually worked at a call center making $15 an hour, on a quiet industrial avenue in Queens, New York.

He has also acknowledged never graduating from any college, despite earlier claiming to have 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. I own up to that … We do stupid things in life,’ he said.

The DISH Network call center in College Point, Queens, were Santos answered customer calls in Portuguese and English for $15 an hour between 2011 and 2012

George Santos (right) poses with his then fiancé at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve. Santos was the first outwardly gay Republican elected to the US Congress 

George Santos (left) shakes the hand of Rudy Giuliani (right)

The ‘openly gay’ Santos, who was revealed to have been married to a woman until 2020, currently lives in Long Island.

Santos had been married to a woman named Uadla between 2012 and 2019 but he now insists he is happily married once again – to a man.

He came clean on Monday after lying his way along the campaign trail.

‘I am not a criminal. Not here, not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes,’ Santos said in an interview with WABC radio.

‘To get down to the nit and gritty, I’m not a fraud. I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictional character and ran for Congress. I’ve been around a long time. I mean, a lot of people know me. They know who I am. They’ve done business dealings with me,’ he added.  

‘I’m not going to make excuses for this, but a lot of people overstate in their resumes, or twist a little bit. … I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that,’ he said.

‘I want to make sure that if I disappointed anyone by resume embellishment, I am sorry.’

Despite the blatant deception, Santos told the Post he has no intention of stepping aside and still intends to take office in the new year.

‘I am not a criminal,’ Santos said. ‘This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.’

Santos appeared to dismiss any concerns that his lies may affect his credibility.

Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray initially put out a statement attacking The New York Times for ‘launch[ing] this shotgun blast of attacks’ in response to its claims about inconsistencies

‘I campaigned talking about the people’s concerns, not my resume,’ Santos told The Post.

‘I intend to deliver on the promises I made during the campaign — fighting crime, fighting to lower inflation, improving education. The people elected me to fight for them,’ he said.

‘I came to DC to bring results on those issues and that’s what I’m going to do.’

Questions were first raised after a New York Times report brought up a number of accusations, including allegations he lied about his family’s history.

Rather than working on Wall Street, Santos worked at a DISH Satellite call center from October 2011 to July 2012 in a breadline job based in the College Point section of Queens, living with roommates as he struggled to pay his bills.

Explaining the discrepancy, Santos simply said he ‘never worked directly’ for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and that he used a ‘poor choice of words.’ But in an attempt to justify his lie, he said the company he worked for, Link Bridge, did business with both Goldman and Citi.

Santos said he made ‘capital introductions’ between clients and investors at both firms.

Santos’ web of lies began to unravel last week as questions were asked of his resume and it became something of a ‘running joke’ within GOP circles.

‘As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race. It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he’s run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters,’ said one senior GOP leadership aide who remained anonymous.

Last week, Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Cairo demanded Santos explain himself.

‘While I have indicated that the congressman-elect deserves a reasonable amount of time to respond to the media, voters deserve a sincere accounting from Mr. Santos. I will be listening attentively, and I want to hear meaningful remarks from George Santos.’

Santos defeated Robert Zimmerman, an openly gay longtime left-wing operative, for outgoing Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi’s seat in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Just before Christmas Santos promised that answers would be forthcoming tweeting: ‘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.’

While Santos worked at the call center, his roommate at the time, Gregory Morey-Parker, told the Times that Santos would tell outlandish tales about his family having property in Nantucket while his mother worked as a housekeeper.

Another former friend, Peter Hamilton, said that he met Santos in 2014 and lent him money so that the Republican could move into a home with his boyfriend.

When that loan wasn’t repaid, Hamilton took Santos to small claims court, where a judge ordered the Queens-native to pay up $5,000 plus interest.

That same year, a landlord in Queens took Santos, his sister and mother to court over three months of unpaid rent which resulted in the trio being evicted.

Hamilton told the Times: ‘I have regrets that I didn’t come forward before the actual election. At this point, it’s like he’s defrauding the public.’

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office has said that they are ‘looking into’ Santos’ finances.

The AG’s office did not specify whether the New York Times story triggered the review, nor did it say whether a full investigation was being launched.