Fabulist Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.) was pushed to admit in an interview with Piers Morgan that he had been a “liar”.
In a 40-minute interview with a British TV personality released Monday, Santos was grilled on a list of things he accused of lying.
These include: he attended an elite New York private school; get a master’s degree in business; worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup; that his mother was working at the Twin Towers during the 9/11 terrorist attacks; he is a Jew; and she was never a drag queen.
“Part of your cathartic process of redemption has got to start from ‘I’ve been a terrible liar,'” Morgan told Santos at one point. “Are you ready to say that?
“Sure, I lied a lot about that,” Santos said. Instead, he blamed Republicans, saying the design was not about “fooling people,” but was aimed at “getting the party here locally.”
Santos admitted that he did not have a college degree and had never worked “as a direct employee” of any Wall Street institution, although he insisted that he worked with them. Pressed whether he attended Horace Mann private school, he said he had attended for six months in 2004, but was not sure what name he would attend. The school told CNN there was no record of Santos or his alias.
He also maintains that the statement about his mother is true. When Morgan stated that there was no evidence that Santos’ mother had ever worked at the World Trade Center, or was even in the country on September 11, 2001, Santos was unable to provide any details.
Being a Jew, Santos insists that he said (many times, in many forums), as a “party joke”, reusing the ridiculed defense that he claims to be “Jewish.”
She said that she had dressed up in drag, but that didn’t make her a drag queen.
During the interview, he attacked the media for scrutinizing him, describing the journalists’ efforts to identify the lies he told to get elected as a “witch hunt.”
When asked how he got away with all the dishonesty, Santos said, “Well, I’m kidding you. I’m running in 2020 for the same seat for Congress and I’m leaving.
Santos is under state and federal investigation into forgery, financial transactions and potential campaign finance violations. Brazilian authorities have also reopened a fraud case against him that was dropped due to unknown whereabouts.