The Nassau County Republican Committee and other local elected GOP officials from New York on Wednesday called for Rep. George Santos (R-NY) to resign for breaking the public trust.
Santos, who defeated Democratic candidate Robert Zimmerman during the 2022 midterm elections, has repeatedly been accused of misrepresenting himself on the campaign trail.
The Santos campaign was one of “deceit, lies, and fabrication,” said Nassau County GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo during a press conference, adding that Santos has “disgraced the House of Representatives” and is no longer welcome at the Nassau County Republican Committee. Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, representing New York’s 4th congressional district, has also called on Santos to resign.
Santos told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he will not resign.
🚨Rep. George Santos tells @rachelvscott and me he will NOT resign pic.twitter.com/vBMvotq3Y0
— Lalee Ibssa (@LaleeIbssa) January 11, 2023
Cairo initially argued Santos should be given the opportunity to address the accusations, saying at the time, “Every person deserves an opportunity to ‘clear’ his/her name in the face of accusations. I am committed to this principle, and I look forward to the Congressman-Elect’s responses to the news reports.”
About a week later, after Santos admitted to lying about his resume, Cairo said he was “deeply disappointed” about the apparent misrepresentation. “Congressman-Elect George Santos has broken the public trust by making serious misstatements regarding his background, experience and education, among other issues,” the chairman said in a statement issued December 27.
Santos, who ran as openly gay, has been accused of omitting a past marriage to a woman. The GOP congressman also declared in his campaign biography that he worked at the Wall Street firms Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but both companies told CNN and The New York Times that they have no record of him working there.
In another unconfirmed aspect of the congressman’s past, Santos said that he founded and ran a charity called “Friends of Pets United.” CNN reported that a search showed that there appears to be no record of the non-profit organization, according to the IRS.
There’s also a question concerning Santos involves his claimed Jewish ancestry. The Forward reported last month that the congressman lied when he said that his grandparents fled anti-Jewish persecution during World War II. Instead, a genealogical search showed his mother’s parents were born in Brazil instead of Ukraine or Belgium, as his campaign website asserted, according to The Forward.
Dillon Burroughs contributed to this report.