Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, center, speaks to the media outside the federal courthouse in Central Islip, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
As we move toward Labor Day and the traditional start of the election season, the run-up to the 2024 election has not disappointed in its historic twists and turns. President Joe Biden is out, Vice President Kamala Harris is in, and former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt and is about as agitated as he has been since losing his reelection bid in 2020.
The recalibrated Democratic National Convention is underway in Chicago. It’s not quite the show we expected several weeks ago, when there was talk of an open convention to force out Biden. Instead, Biden magnanimously stepped down and is being exalted by Democrats far and wide.
While all this is going on, there is little mention of the guilty plea of George Santos – a cautionary tale for everything that is wrong, misleading and impossible to understand about modern American politics.
Santos, whose trial on 23 felony charges was scheduled to begin on Sept. 9, entered a guilty plea on Monday. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and admitted he committed other crimes that could land him in prison for about seven years under the terms of a plea agreement, ABC News reported.
When Santos flipped New York’s Third Congressional District in 2022, he became the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to Congress. Although his campaign biography said he lived in Long Island with his husband and four dogs, his husband never campaigned with Santos and there was no marriage license on record for a marriage to a man.
There was a marriage license to a woman in 2012 and a divorce in 2019.
That was only the beginning of the lies that Santos apparently told. He created a bio out of whole cloth. He was running for Congress, for the second time, in New York City. NYC may have one of the greatest newspapers in the world, The New York Times, and Santos’ deceit wasn’t exposed to the voters.
It wasn’t as though Santos had a sophisticated cover story that insulated him when he told mistruths. Santos apparently lied about everything. He lied about where he went to high school, where he went to college and where he worked.
This is the 21st Century — I can do a search to find out what Donald Trump had for breakfast this morning.
Santos said his mom was at the World Trade Center on 9/11. She was not.
He said his grandmother died during the Holocaust. She didn’t.
He said four of his employees died as a result of the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting. Not true.
Don’t forget this guy got elected to Congress! Then he used campaign money for Botox, travel and clothes. He deposited campaign contributions into private accounts. He used donor credit card information to make unauthorized charges.
He lied to Congress, and became only the sixth member of the House of Representatives to be expelled — although 114 members of Congress voted not to expel him.
Then, he was indicted.
He showed up for Biden’s State of the Union this year and announced he would be running for Congress in 2024, but that did not happen — and now he is more than likely headed to prison.
In Santos’ wake of lies and crimes, we are reminded of a couple important failures. As newspapers struggle to sustain their important role in American politics — remember Watergate? — failure to vet candidates opens the door to charlatans like Santos.
Social media has blurred the line between truth and fiction. Trump has reminded us, time and time again, that it does not matter what the media says about you as long as they keep talking about you.
Voters need to demand answers. There are red flags when things seem too good to be true. In the case of Santos, the red flags were revealed long before his election — but simply ignored. As former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters in January 2023, “I always had a few questions” about Santos’ resume.
However, McCarthy needed every vote he could get to become Speaker of the House, including Santos’ vote. McCarthy was apparently willing to overlook, downplay or hide the truth about Santos – and in politics, acts of omission can be as dangerous as the commission of mistruth, lies or deceit.
Voters — as the 2024 election approaches, keep up your guard.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly and George P.C. His book, “The Executioner’s Toll,” was released in 2010 by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
