In a series of lies and half-truths told by George Santos during a fanciful journey in which he was first elected to and then expelled from Congress, the story he tells of the campaign Running for another House seat on Long Island just started isn’t exactly a lie.
It just hasn’t been true for a long time.
Less than seven weeks after announcing he would try to come back Before the House, Mr. Santos, the legendary former congressman from New York who is facing federal charges, said Tuesday that he was ending his latest congressional bid. mine.
In some ways, perhaps appropriate for Mr. Santos, who has a loose relationship with the truth. Extensive documentationhe gave two separate reasons for leaving the race.
In a social media post, Mr. Santos said he was worried that he and Rep. Nick LaLota, the Republican he is running against, could split the conservative vote. “I do not want to split the ticket and be responsible for delivering the House to the Democrats,” he wrote.
Mr. Santos, who raised the question claims about Jewish ancestry and invented ties to the Holocaust, said he was particularly concerned by “the rise of anti-Semitism in our country.”
Minutes after Mr. Santos’s post came talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw shared the interview clip conducted earlier in the day, in which Mr. Santos made a more pragmatic argument.
“There is no way you can succeed with an independent campaign,” Mr. Santos said. (A spokesman said the interview will air in full next month on “Dr. Phil Primetime.”)
Mr. Santos’s decision abruptly ends a long-running effort to return to Washington; It was never even clear whether he intended to mount a serious challenge.
The former congressman has lost all standing among local political leaders and most voters, who associate him more with bold views about his career than with any any specific politics.
And Mr. Santos, who has been accused of defrauding donors, is expected to have difficulty raising campaign funds. According to campaign finance reports, the former congressman – who faces charges related to falsifying campaign finance reports – failed to raise any money in his first sprint after he announced his election campaign.
Mr. LaLota, an incumbent running in a right-wing district, never took the threat posed by Mr. Santos’s campaign seriously.
Shortly after Mr. Santos said he was ending his bid, Mr. LaLota responded on social media: “GPT translation chat: He is taking a plea deal.”
Mr. Santos last year became the sixth member of the House of Representatives to be expelled in the body’s history. His removal, which came in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, came after a report by the House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that Mr. Santos violated federal law. state, describes his time in politics as a boon that he used to get richer.
Mr. Santos is currently facing 23 federal charges including money laundering, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors accused him of defrauding donors, submitting fake campaign finance documents and collecting unemployment benefits when he was actually employed.
The House Ethics report also found that he spent campaign money on Botox, designer goods and a website known for its pornography.
After being deported last year, Mr. Santos bitterly vowed never to return. Months later, he retracted his words, travel to the capital to deliver the State of the Union address and then announce his intention to return to the House of Representatives.
Mr. Santos’s criminal trial is scheduled for September. In his social media post, he did not rule out returning to the political arena, saying his decision was only limited to “THIS YEAR!”
“It’s just goodbye now,” Mr. Santos wrote. “I will be back.”
