Santos Gives Floor Speeches Amid Calls for His Resignation

(RepublicanNews.org) – New York Republican George Santos is back on the floor of the Senate giving short speeches about political oppression. At the same time, his own party wants him out for allegedly lying about his past during his congressional campaign.

Santos, 34, claimed on social media and on his campaign website to be the descendant of Jewish Holocaust refugees. The magazine The Forward’s investigation claimed the lawmaker was instead descended from Catholics who were born in Brazil before WWII.

Responding to the New York Post’s questions about his claims about his heritage, Santos said he was “Jew-ish,” not “Jewish.”

Santos’ website also claims he is the “first openly gay Republican elected to Congress”. Newsweek reports that despite his claim to be married to a man, no records could be found to substantiate this.

On January 25, Santos took the House floor to praise what he called “brave Iranian protestors” fighting against barbarians. He said the protestors are engaged in a “revolution” based on “women, life, and freedom.”

Strangely, Santos also chose to take on a topic that only re-focuses attention on his apparent deceptions about his alleged Jewish heritage. The Nassau County Republican praised the grandmother of one of his staffers, who, he said, fled Nazi persecution.

Sticking with the topic on January 27, Santos said the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp should be a reminder “that we must honor” victims and survivors, as well as the liberators.

The topic seemed an odd choice, given that Santos has received sharp criticism for earlier claiming to have a Jewish background when it appears his grandparents were Catholics from Brazil-born after the second world war.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that if an ethics investigation found Santos broke any laws, “we will remove him.”

At the beginning of January, Santos said he would only step down if the 142,000 people who voted for him requested it. It was not clear how that process could be accomplished.