Friday The 13th In George Santos’ World

He got sworn in this week. He’s the only New York GOP freshman who hasn’t called for his resignation. (Last night, Mike Lawler and Marcus Molinaro joined the growing chorus led by Anthony D’Esposito, Nick LaLota, Nick Langworthy, Brandon Williams.) And last night former Trump roadie Max Miller (R-OH) joined in, saying “I believe voters have the right to hold government officials to the very highest standard of honesty and trustworthiness. The people’s representatives must respect the need for transparency and candor with Americans. It is not okay to fabricate or lie for political gain.” Neither Santos nor, more important, McCarthy care what they say. Still no committee assignment though. McCarthy has promised to find him one but every committee chair has said “no thanks.”

This morning, Ursula Perano and Sam Brodey reported that he’s the newest resident of the House’s Sinner’s Row, joining Traitor Greene, Boebert and Gaetz. “Santos seemed to be hitting it off on the island of misfit Republicans… Santos seems to have found his allies. He’s found a group of Republicans who are quite comfortable, and quite familiar, with being ostracized by the GOP rank and file. In short, Santos has found a new costume— and it seems to be fitting quite well.”

They noted that on social media, his staffers are pushing the idea that he’s under attack from all sides not because he’s a crook and a liar, “but because he is a brave anti-establishment truth-teller.” Besides from former Madison Cawthorn psych0-staffer Rafaello Carone, Santos has hired fascist and former producer of Bannon’s podcast, Vish Burra, now Santos’ operations director. He’s been amplifying “numerous tweets that made Santos seem like a MAGA martyr. ‘George Santos is a National Treasure,’ Burra tweeted on Wednesday. ‘This is why the corporate press is trying to silence him.’ (That tweet was no longer visible by Thursday night.) Burra also spent Wednesday retweeting messages that called Santos ‘based,’ online slang used to praise politicians, like Gaetz, who candidly and directly appeal to their supporters regardless of political correctness.”

Having gravitated completely to the Dark Side, he was a guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast yesterday, with his BBF Matt Gaetz sitting in as host (Bannon in court again). Still lying with every breath he takes, he told Gaetz “Look, I’ve worked my entire life. I’ve lived an honest life. I’ve never been accused of, of any bad doings so, you know, it’s my, it’s the equity of my hard working self, and I’ve invested inside of me.” He also indicated he plans to run again, presumably as a Republicans, even though the Nassau County GOP has also said “no thanks.”

Nancy Mace (R-SC), who also has called on Santos to resign told the MSNBC audience that she thinks Santos is “loving” the attention he’s getting. Several Republicans have said that he obviously in severe need of psychiatric care.

Ali Paybarah reported late yesterday that “A copy of the résumé that Santos submitted to the Nassau County GOP showed that he claimed to have graduated summa cum laude from Baruch College in 2010 with a 3.89 GPA, and that he received a master’s in business from New York University in 2013 after scoring 710 on his GMAT exam. In fact, Santos did not get a degree from either school. Among the skills Santos listed: ‘public speaking’ and ‘currency and coin counter.’ The Post obtained a copy of the résumé, which was first reported by The Times. Cairo on Wednesday said the résumé was ‘totally untruthful.’ Republicans on Long Island said they would avoid working with Santos’s office and steer constituents to the neighboring House member, D’Esposito. On the podcast, Santos said Thursday that the move was ‘absurd and it’s illegal,’ but did not elaborate. Santos had a message for his critics Thursday: ‘I just pray for all of you when they come for you that you have the same strength I have.’”

When Gaetz asked him, in a softbally way, where he got the increasingly mysterious $700,000, he couldn’t answer... so he said, “Well, I’ll tell you where it didn’t come from, it didn’t come for China, Ukraine or Burisma, how about that?” Notice he didn't say that it didn't come from the Kremlin, which is exactly where it did come from, or at least some of it did.

There are various theories about where that $700,000 actually came from. Russian plutocrat Viktor Vekselberg was certainly having money laundered into Santos’ campaign through straw donors (like his cousin Andrew Intrater, who put $56,100 into Santos committees). And then there is money that flowed into the Santos campaign from Sam Bankman-Fried and his band of merry crooks at FTX. But… the FBI seems think the $700,000 came from the “Harbor City Capital” pyramid scheme— built by Santos and his cronies expressly to defraud investors by selling them fake stocks. Santos’ fake “family firm,” the Devolder Organization, formed in May, 2021, claimed to have $89 million under management— it didn’t have any money under management and never did any legitimate business. It was a means for Harbor City to launder money into Santos’ campaign. The Devolder Organization paid Santos $750,000 in 2021 and again in 2022 and that is the money defrauded from Harbor City investors is thought to be the loot Santos put intones campaign. If that’s the case, he’s going to prison. McCarthy will probably allow him to do his committee work from his cell.