Santos tries a media blitz

Daily Point

CD3 congressman tells it like it isn't

If you think you’ve been seeing and hearing more from the indicted Rep. George Santos in the last week or so, you’re not wrong.

Santos has been making the rounds, doing radio and television interviews, holding news conferences, posting photos on social media with constituents.

The Santos media push began with an email from his spokeswoman, Gabrielle Lipsky, sent last week.

“I’m reaching out to inform you that Congressman Santos is looking to do some media from the week of August 18-August 24,” she wrote. “The primary topics are how he is legislating for Long Island and how upcoming appropriations/supplemental votes will impact Long Island.”

The email came the day Santos’ former fundraiser, Sam Miele, was arraigned on federal charges that he impersonated Dan Meyer, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s now-retired chief of staff.

Was Santos trying to deflect attention from the Miele indictment, or send a message to federal prosecutors planning for the congressman’s next court date in September? Was he taking a page from the playbook of former President Donald Trump and hoping to improve his polling — or just putting on a show for constituents and House leaders who are considering expelling him?

Lipsky told The Point the goal was simpler — and that the effort was underway before the indictment came down.

“We’re in recess and we wanted to make sure the people of NY3 are aware of what the congressman has been up to while he’s been in DC,” Lipsky told The Point. “We’re able to talk about the things we’ve introduced and we’re able to talk about why we’re doing these things.”

But with every interview comes at least a few questions about Santos himself.

On Fox 5, Santos joined Good Day New York. And he started with one of the Island’s key issues: water.

“Our main issue is water quality,” Santos said. “It’s a major problem.”

Co-host Rosanna Scotto used that comment to pivot to Santos’ own record of lies and alleged fraud.

“You’ve got a lot of problems, okay? Let’s talk a little [about] personal problems right now,” Scotto said.

In response, Santos tried to make himself a man of the people.

“Most people lie on their resumes,” Santos said. “Unfortunately, it’s the reality.”

The media blitz took him to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center on Tuesday, where he criticized the use of the property to house migrants, and to BJ’s Wholesale Club, where he posed for pictures with constituents.

And according to a media advisory, Santos plans to head out of his district on Thursday — to Floyd Bennett Field, for another migrant-related news conference. The airfield, in Brooklyn, is in Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ district.

Lipsky told The Point that even with the personal questions and legal troubles that hang over Santos, he has received “a lot of support” from the interviews and appearances.

“We can’t say there is a total rejection of what the congressman has been doing,” Lipsky said. “There are people who appreciate his work.”

Santos could continue his interview schedule and in-district appearances until the House reconvenes on Sept. 12. But he may need to take a break. On Sept. 7, he’s expected back in court.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

A perfect call

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Reference Point

When chopper services took off on LI

Like other Long Islanders, Newsday’s editorial board has always advocated for a better commute into New York City. In 1955, that quest had the board looking to the skies at an entirely new way to travel: helicopters.

“We are intrigued by the idea of helicopter service for the men in the gray flannel suits who must make the daily trip into the city,” the board wrote in an Aug. 24, 1955 piece called “All Aboard!”

The board noted that a handful of cities in Europe — name-checking London, Brussels and Rotterdam — already had their own heliports and wrote that New York might soon get its own.

“Then, according to Robert L. Cummings Jr., president of New York Airways, Inc., Rockville Centre, Garden City, Long Beach, Great Neck, Freeport, Babylon, Patchogue, Islip, Smithtown, Port Jefferson and other Long Island communities will get commuter service,” the board rhapsodized.

Sixty-eight years ago, no one knew that helicopter flyovers in the Hamptons would bring turmoil to residents who complained bitterly about their bucolic communities being beset by constant and unbearable noise. Back in 1955, Jetson-style enthusiasm seemed to be the rage.

“We are for the helicopters,” the board proclaimed. “There are many arguments in their favor. For the time being, we shall content ourselves with the knowledge that they will make honest men out of real estate operators who tell us that their development is just 33 minutes from the city.”

The editorial was accompanied by a cartoon expressing a less sanguine viewpoint. It consisted of two panels. One featured people waiting for the Long Island Rail Road with a sign reading: “30 MIN. DELAY POWER FAILURE.” The other showed people waiting at a heliport with a sign reading: “30 MIN. DELAY FOG.” Underneath was a caption: Thirty Minutes No Matter How You Look At It.

Initially, enthusiasm prevailed. One year later, the first heliport in the U.S. certified for scheduled passenger service opened on the west side of Manhattan at 30th Street, and by December New York Airways was flying passengers on scheduled flights to LaGuardia and Kennedy Airport. In 1960, the Downtown Manhattan Heliport opened on Pier 6. This was the so-called golden age of helicopter travel, which ended in 1977 when a helicopter from Kennedy landing on the heliport that opened atop the Pan Am Building in 1965 tipped over and killed five people — four passengers waiting to board and one woman on the street below hit by falling debris.

New York Airways went out of business two years later and other such companies around the nation soon folded, too. Chartered helicopters continued to fly, of course, but various attempts were made to bring back regular scheduled helicopter service but each failed, including one by Donald Trump who operated Trump Air between the city and East Hampton from 1989 to 1992 and from the West 30th Street Heliport to Atlantic City for his casino patrons.

In 2013, BLADE brought back scheduled helicopter service to the airports and the Hamptons.

But the once-hopeful denizens of Rockville Centre, Garden City, Long Beach, Great Neck, Freeport, Babylon, Patchogue, Islip, Smithtown and Port Jefferson are still ground-bound, stuck with the LIRR or their cars — and, perhaps, every once in a while casting a longing look to the skies.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com, Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com