Santos scandal will spread as he stays
George Santos, right, with Matt Gaetz in the House Chamber on the second day of the election for speaker, on Jan. 4. Credit: Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla
Right here at the start of the unique incumbency of Rep. George Devolder Santos, it becomes clear that the longer he stays in office, the likelier he is to keep generating politically hazardous stories about others in the GOP fold.
His bizarre behavior will keep unflattering attention on the House's new MAGA power circle — just when sensible New York Republicans see a practical need to distance themselves from insurrection and subversion. Even if new Speaker Kevin McCarthy can rely on Santos’ votes in his erratic caucus, the freshman’s very presence promises internal chaos.
Queens and Nassau County GOP officials said they didn’t know Santos was a hard-core fraud when they backed him last year — for a second time — for Congress. But his bizarre passion for making up stories about himself was illuminated on a right-wing media site’s video two years ago. On Jan. 5, 2021, Santos echoed Donald Trump over his own election loss weeks earlier.
“They did to me what they did to Donald J. Trump. They stole my election,” he told MAGA adherents at a rally. “When they were busy printing 280,000 ballots in my district and shipping them to Pennsylvania, they sneaked in a few for my opponent.”
Was word of this public hallucination known to local party leadership? Or did it just blend in unnoticeably with the more powerful fictions of his president?
The MAGA movement is Santos’ sole constituency. His operations director is Vish Burra, whose past credentials (apparently authentic) include positions with the far-right New York Young Republican Club, the office of Trump-devoted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and the failed congressional campaign of Trump “mini-me” Carl Paladino.
Last week, Gaetz softly interviewed Santos on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. Bannon, the disheveled Trump apparatchik, has most recently promoted the reactionary cause of ex-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who like Trump claimed election fraud after losing a reelection bid and saw his supporters lay siege to government buildings. Santos also roots for Bolsonaro.
Ironically, Santos’ extremism remains far clearer than the fast-emerging facts of his personal life. On Jan. 5, while voting for McCarthy for speaker on a 10th roll-call, Santos was widely perceived to have flashed a white supremacist gesture with his fingers. In the GOP majority, he has visibly bonded with often-crazed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Money transactions are the likeliest way for the Santos stain to metastasize. The Federal Election Commission and other agencies have a chance to explore the role of one-time Trump supporter Andrew Intrater in funding both Santos’ campaign and his shadowy Florida-based Devolder Organization LLC. Intrater happens to be a cousin and associate of sanctioned Kremlin-tied billionaire oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Intrater reportedly is telling people Santos conned him.
On Long Island, Santos clearly partnered with the Nassau County Republican Committee in the drive for campaign money. Details of exactly how that fundraising worked have yet to be fully revealed. Local GOP demands for his resignation are proving impotent.
Santos' visibility could make a public joke of the small business and science committees to which he's assigned. Will he raise funds off those posts and tout extreme policies?
For now his incumbency is like a hole in a windshield, with spider cracks spreading outward. The only solution is replacement. Until then, GOP leaders can only hope the sensation fades before Santos further damages the "brand."
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
