Republican Rep.-elect George Santos admits to lying about his credentials — Transcript

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1. 0:03an incoming New York congressman
2. 0:04says he still plans on taking
3. 0:07his seat next congress despite
4. 0:08admitting he misled voters about
5. 0:09his credentials.
6. 0:12Congressional correspondent Lisa
7. 0:14Desjardins is here to break down
8. 0:16what happened, what's next, and
9. 0:17what we still do not know about
10. 0:18representative-elect George
11. 0:18Santos.
12. 0:23Hello, Lisa.
13. 0:25An extraordinary story.
14. 0:27What exactly did he claim and
15. 0:30what is true?
16. 0:30Lisa: Let me take you to long
17. 0:33Island where he won an open and
18. 0:36competitive C.
19. 0:38George Santos is 34 years old,
20. 0:40and yours may be familiar with
21. 0:42him because he made history as
22. 0:44the first Republican who will
23. 0:45enter congress as an openly gay
24. 0:47person.
25. 0:49As part of his campaign, he made
26. 0:51several claims about his life
27. 0:52history.
28. 0:53Let's look at what he has
29. 0:54claimed and what he is now
30. 0:56admitting.
31. 0:58First of all he claimed he
32. 1:00worked for citigroup and Goldman
33. 1:01Sachs, he says that's not true,
34. 1:03he now says he worked at a firm
35. 1:04that works with them.
36. 1:06He also claimed he graduated
37. 1:11from college, he never graduated
38. 1:11from college.
39. 1:12He also claimed to be a
40. 1:15successful businessman, owning
41. 1:1617 properties, he now says he
42. 1:19doesn't own any property, and
43. 1:20for the time being he is living
44. 1:21with his sister.
45. 1:23How does he explain all of this?
46. 1:26He's been doing interviews with
47. 1:27local media and he says these
48. 1:28were embellishments he says is
49. 1:30part of media culture.
50. 1:33Some gymnastic logic.
51. 1:35In this interview, he pointed to
52. 1:37the New York Times for example
53. 1:38as calling a job he had as a
54. 1:40customer service rep an audit
55. 1:42job.
56. 1:45Mr. Santos: For the New York
57. 1:46Times to diminish it and call it
58. 1:48an odd job just shows you the
59. 1:49type of preconceived notion that
60. 1:50people give to people who work
61. 1:50hard.
62. 1:54So that's where I probably felt
63. 1:56in a sense, the need to not
64. 1:58share that and the need to
65. 2:00embellish a little bit, my
66. 2:01resume, which I regret,
67. 2:02regrettably, and in hindsight
68. 2:07and hindsight vision is 20/20.
69. 2:09Lisa: Still so many questions
70. 2:12including the $700,000 he
71. 2:15personally loaned to his
72. 2:15campaign and it is not clear
73. 2:16where it came from.
74. 2:17Judy: He even misled voters
75. 2:20about his own heritage.
76. 2:21Lisa: This is significant.
77. 2:25He claimed his grandparents
78. 2:25through his mother were jewish
79. 2:28and fled to Brazil, he said,
80. 2:31from Ukraine and persecution
81. 2:33during World War II.
82. 2:34An independent American jewish
83. 2:36media outlet looked into his
84. 2:39past and found those
85. 2:40grandparents were born in Brazil
86. 2:44, not in Europe or Ukraine,
87. 2:45before World War II.
88. 2:47He has talked about this as
89. 2:48well.
90. 2:50He has said he was going off of
91. 2:51family stories.
92. 2:53Mr. Santos: I always joke I'm
93. 2:56catholic, but I'm also jew-ish.
94. 2:58As in 'ish,' and I've made that
95. 3:01joke because growing up, I grew
96. 3:02up fully aware that my
97. 3:03grandparents were jewish.
98. 3:07Lisa: So jew-ish is not
99. 3:13something ringing well with the
100. 3:14actual jewish community in
101. 3:15America.
102. 3:17The Republican jewish coalition,
103. 3:19a group supporting him, came out
104. 3:20with this today, they say, "He
105. 3:23deceived us and misrepresented
106. 3:24his heritage and he will not be
107. 3:26welcome at future events."
108. 3:30That is an important American
109. 3:31conservative jewish group.
110. 3:33And also worthy of note, that
111. 3:35district has a significant
112. 3:36jewish population as well.
113. 3:37Judy: So you cover congress and
114. 3:40you know the rules.
115. 3:41What happens now?
116. 3:44Can he be prevented from taking
117. 3:45office before he is to be sworn
118. 3:46in?
119. 3:46Lisa: The constitution dictates
120. 3:52only congress itself can expel
121. 3:53members and it takes a two
122. 3:55thirds vote of the house chamber
123. 3:55to do that.
124. 3:57There is no expectation that
125. 3:58will happen.
126. 4:00One reason, Kevin Mccarthy has a
127. 4:03very slim Republican majority in
128. 4:05the house and cannot afford to
129. 4:08lose any votes, certainly not
130. 4:09when he is trying to become
131. 4:10speaker a week from today.
132. 4:13What could happen, some,
133. 4:15including Republicans, are
134. 4:16calling for an ethics
135. 4:19investigation.
136. 4:19A house ethics committee is
137. 4:20evenly divided and they could
138. 4:21recommend send, a -- recommend
139. 4:26censurw, a reprimand.
140. 4:31They will look at his finances
141. 4:33and campaign disclosures
142. 4:34overall.
143. 4:34Judy: This is not the first time
144. 4:37Mr. Santos ran for congress.
145. 4:39He ran in 2016.
146. 4:40What it did Republicans know
147. 4:42about his back around and what
148. 4:43about everybody else involved?
149. 4:44Lisa: I have a prominent closely
150. 4:47involved source told me that the
151. 4:51Republican committee that runs
152. 4:52campaigns for house Republicans
153. 4:54new about George Santos's issues
154. 4:56and problems, that there were in
155. 4:57fact false woods -- falsehoods
156. 5:00on his resume, for the election,
157. 5:03and did not disclose it.
158. 5:04Also that Kevin Mccarthy did no.
159. 5:10The rcc says they did not know.
160. 5:15Republicans will say privately,
161. 5:17we will not say anything bad
162. 5:18about one of our guys.
163. 5:22Democrats, their jobs are to
164. 5:22find out columns with opponents.
165. 5:26Democrats say we only look at
166. 5:28public information and a lot of
167. 5:28this was private, where he went
168. 5:31to school, if he went to school.
169. 5:33I think the truth is that the
170. 5:34Democrats feel this is a missed
171. 5:36opportunity.
172. 5:38It right now looks like there
173. 5:39will be another race in that
174. 5:41district not for two years.
175. 5:42Judy: He gets to take a seat and
176. 5:45serve as a memory of congress?
177. 5:46Lisa: He will take a seat,
178. 5:50unless Moore comes out, and he
179. 5:51said he will prove to voters he
180. 5:53should come back into years.
181. 5:54We will see.
182. 5:54Judy: Remarkable.
183. 5:56Lisa: It is incredible.
184. 5:58[Laughter]
185. 5:59Judy: Lisa, thank you.