Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Dem Rep. Masterfully Trolls George Santos With Name Of New Bill To Punish Lying Candidates

Ritchie Torres; George Santos
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Wade Vandervort/AFP via Getty Images

Ritchie Torres introduces SANTOS Act to punish any members of Congress who lie under oath about their employment, military service or education.

New York Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres introduced the SANTOS Act to punish any members of Congress who lie under oath about their employment, military service or education—and trolled New York Republican Representative-elect George Santos in the process.

Torres crafted the bill in response to the evolving scandal surrounding Santos, who is facing calls to resign after admitting to “embellishing” his résumé following an extensive investigation by The New York Times that exposed multiple lies he told about his life story.


Additional lies have been exposed since then.

The soon-to-be legislator—whose election on Long Island last month helped Republicans secure a slim majority in the House of Representatives—had earlier fessed up to at least some of his lies in an interview with The New York Post.

Santos told the Rupert Murdoch owned conservative tabloid he is “embarrassed” by his false and misleading statements but that he nonetheless believes he will be an “effective” House Republican once the new Congress is seated in January.

It's rather fitting then that Santos inspired the name of the bill—the acronym SANTOS stands for Stop Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker, a stark rebuke of Santos as he's come under scrutiny.

Torres' announcement came in the wake of a Times exposé in which journalists Grace Ashford and Michael Gold reported that Santos "misrepresented a number of his career highlights" despite building his candidacy "on the notion that he was the 'full embodiment of the American dream' and was running to safeguard it for others."

A Times review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil—where Santos, the son of Brazilian immigrants, spent some time—as well as "various attempts to verify claims" Santos made on the campaign trail, concluded that Santos had lied about everything from his education to his work history at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and even his source of income.

For instance, Santos claims he graduated from Baruch College but neither the Times nor a separate investigation by NPR could confirm this and the school told the latter outlet that it could find no match for a George Santos in its database. And while Santos has described himself as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor,” neither Citigroup nor Goldman Sachs had records of him working at their firms.

Santos—who claims to have been gay all his life and did not reveal during his campaign that he had divorced a woman in 2019—even said in one interview that four of his employees died in the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, claims that did not hold up under scrutiny.

And where Santos gets his income is still a mystery even though he reported a $750,000 salary and dividends of over $1 million from his company, the Devolder Organization, which doesn't appear to exist.

The Times has since reported that a company called Cleaner 123 over the course of four months received nearly $11,000 from Santos' campaign and that the expenditures were listed as “apartment rental for staff” on Santos' campaign disclosure forms and gave the address as a home on Long Island.

A neighbor told the newspaper that Santos and his husband lived there, which the Times pointed out is a "possible violation of the rule prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal expenses." Joe Murray, a lawyer for Santos, said some money had been spent “unwisely” by a firm that had been fired by the campaign more than a year earlier, but insisted all expenditures were legal.

Murray said that any suggestion the Santos campaign "engaged in any irresponsible spending of campaign funds is just ludicrous" but when Times reporters contacted Cleaner 123 by phone, a representative hung up before answering why it had received rent payments from Santos.

Additionally, Santos' campaign disclosures show he spent $40,000 on air travel, a number "so exorbitant" that it "resembles the campaign filings of party leaders in Congress" and listed dozens of expenses at $199.99, one cent below the threshold a campaign must show receipts per federal law.

Given these developments, Twitter users couldn't help but applaud Torres' move and commend him for throwing some pretty masterful shade.



Earlier this week, Long Island prosecutors confirmed they've opened an investigation into Santos for deceiving voters amid mounting questions about his fitness for federal office.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, a Republican, called Santos' lies "nothing short of stunning," adding that "residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress."

Democrats and some commentators have expressed surprise and disappointment that opposition research did not detect or act on Santos' résumé discrepancies before the election.

However, in September, months before The New York Times published the results of its investigation, a tiny Long Island newspaper called The North Shore Leader published an article about the "inexplicable rise" in Santos' alleged net worth to $11 million and noted other inconsistencies in his biography.

While the Leader's scoop is the type of hard-hitting local reporting that, once verified and amplified by regional outlets, has been known to inform the public of emerging political scandals, no one took notice of the story before Election Day.

In response to that glaring oversight, the newspaper published an editorial titled "The Leader Told You So: US Rep-Elect George Santos is a Fraud - and Wanted Criminal" which denounced Santos as "a deepfake liar who has falsified his background, assets, and contacts" and compared him to the pathological liars and con artists played by actors Will Smith and Matt Damon in Six Degrees of Separation and The Talented Mr. Ripley respectively.

More from News

Joanna and Chip Gaines
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images

HGTV Stars Respond To Backlash From Christian Fans For Casting Same-Sex Couple In Their New Series

Back in 2016, home renovation and lifestyle power couple Joanna and Chip Gaines faced accusations of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. The criticism stemmed from their attendance at a Waco, Texas church that preached against LGBTQ+ equality and basic human rights.

At the time, the couple owned and operated Magnolia Homes, a remodeling and design business in Waco, Texas, and their HGTV program Fixer Upper was a hit. After the show ended in 2018, the couple created their own Magnolia Network in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery in 2020 to create original content and air other home and lifestyle programs.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshots from video of JD Vance at Disneyland
@janekleeb/X

JD Vance Called Out For Hypocrisy As He Visits Disneyland With His Family Amid Boos

On Saturday, one-time vehement Trump critic turned MAGA Republican convert Vice President JD Vance went on vacation to Disneyland in blue state California, despite Disney World in red state Florida being closer to Washington D.C. and in the middle of MAGA territory.

The administration of MAGA Republican President Donald Trump is currently engaged in a face-off with California over occupying forces sent by Trump to Los Angeles, which is about 50 miles from Anaheim where Disneyland is located, making Vance's choice even more questionable.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Joe Biden
Mandel Ngan/Pool/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Joe Biden Calls Out 'Liar' Trump Over His Claims About Biden's Use Of Autopen For Pardons

Speaking to The New York Times, former President Joe Biden called President Donald Trump a "liar" over claims that Biden's pardons are "void" because they were done by autopen, a conspiracy theory heavily promoted by Republicans who've already suggested many times that Biden was not mentally fit while in office.

In the final hours of his presidency, Biden issued a series of preemptive pardons, including ones for his relatives, all members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack—such as former Congresswoman Liz Cheney—and several of Trump’s most prominent adversaries, including General Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Keep ReadingShow less
Nancy Mace
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Rep. Nancy Mace Gets Brutal Reminder On X After She Tried To Praise Trump For 'Rebuilding' The U.S.

South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace was fact-checked by an X Community Note after she tried to praise President Donald Trump for "rebuilding" the country, when she herself voted against President Biden's 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

The IIJA authorized $1.2 trillion in funding and the increased federal spending in recent years has improved U.S. ports, roads, parks, and other services in a country that civil engineers have long said spends too little on infrastructure.

Keep ReadingShow less
black Lamborghini parked in front of a boutique
Danilo Capece on Unsplash

Surprising Things Poor People Learned When Dating Someone Rich

There are life lessons learned through adversity. Some of them are actual survival skills while others are about managing expectations and disappointment.

But some people face very few hardships in their lives due to the power of money.

Keep ReadingShow less