More GOP leaders call on Santos to resign

ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) — More GOP leaders are calling on Republican, George Santos to step down from his position as newly elected Congressman after he lied about his heritage, education, and career. All of this was revealed after he won New York’s third Congressional District which covers parts of Long Island, Nassau County and Queens. 

Santos claimed to have a Jewish heritage, made landmark deals on Wall Street and attended a college where he earned a finance degree. Santos told the New York Post that he admitted to embellishing certain parts of his life and job experience. 

On Wednesday, Nassau County, Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo released a statement asking for Santos to resign saying in part: “George Santos has disgraced the House of Representatives and the Republican Party with a veritable profusion of lies, dishonesty, misstatements and hurtful false claims… the people of the 3^rd Congressional District deserve a Congressional Representative who is honest and forthright.  George Santos is not such a person.”

Cairo went on to say that Santos’ fabrications about his family-members fleeing Nazi persecutors went too far, saying it opened “painful wounds for numerous Jewish families whose lives have been irreparably scarred by the evil events that comprised the holocaust.” While some Republicans are calling on Santos to step down from his position, not everyone is following suit, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, “Voters of his district have elected him, he is seated, he is part of the Republican conference.” McCarthy said that an ethics investigation would be the next best step, “If anything is found to be … wrong he will be held accountable exactly as anyone else in this body will be.”

Rockland County GOP Chair, Lawrence Garvey said the jig is up and Santos has got to go. “It’s become an embarrassment to the party and to the nation and to the Congress, there’s such a thing as resumé padding, I think that people have done in the past and gotten away with it but this is more than just resumé padding, this is blatant lies,” said Garvey. If Santos does resign, a special election for district three will ensue.