Campaign staff for Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.) said they would not be shocked if the Republican “perp walked out of the building,” and others described something not feeling “right” in the campaign in a report about legislative résumé-embellishing published Wednesday.
The Memo Talking Points article comes as GOP officials — in the House and on Long Island — increasingly call for his resignation.
“Lying on your resume is one thing,” said one staffer, who Memo Talking Points did not identify. “But I think George will be out of the building because of this financial mess.”
The report comes two days after the government watchdog group the Center for Campaign Law filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the incumbent Republican congressman violated federal campaign finance laws and hid the “true source” of $705,000 he loaned to his 2022 campaign.
The anonymous staff also discussed Santos’ delay in submitting his personal financial disclosure, which is not due until September 2022.
“I thought that the lack of financial disclosure, the messiness of the book, and the report is not good,” said Staffer.
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The staff claimed that working with Santos’ campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, was a challenge and that they were unable to get a weekly “cash and cash” report from her.
Toby Gotesman, who briefly served as a fundraising consultant on the campaign, also described conversations with Santos about finances during the campaign.
“He explained to me how certain things work with the campaign, and there are certain things that he cannot understand, and I have to deal with Nancy if people want to give more than the limit,” Gotesman.
“Now … I saw what he did, and then I began to think here I introduce my friends to this person and ask for money. I hope I never.”
She recalled Santos bragging about buying a $10,000-plus Hermès bag and described something that wasn’t “right” and she couldn’t put her finger on it.
“You know how your first instinct at a red flag will always come back to kick you in the ass later?” she said.
Gotesman, who has ancestors who survived the Holocaust, is also an artist who depicts Holocaust themes through his various paintings. He said the Republican, who described himself as Jewish during the campaign and said his grandfather was a Holocaust refugee, told him he was a Catholic and said he “thought he was a sociopath” after hearing the claim on YouTube.
“Now that it happened, I think they got the idea from me. … They knew I was a Holocaust painter. They knew it very well,” he said.
“How can you sit down with a famous Holocaust artist and not talk about your own family?”