Welcome to what is the 1235th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the sitting U.S. House Representative from New York’s 3rd Congressional District, George Devolder Santos aka Anthony Dee aka Kitara Ravanche aka Delio, who was elected in 2022 after an unsuccessful 2020 bid for Congress. You probably have heard of George Santos in the context of “Whoa, that guy’s on a whole other level for lying as a politician, how the hell did this happen, and how is Kevin McCarthy so spineless that he hasn’t forced his resignation?”
Normally when we post profiles of sitting Republican members of Congress, we do a whole chronological list of disappointing decisions they’ve made as legislators. Let’s be real… George Santos has had eight months and little to show of it in terms of a voting record (although, being an openly LGBTQ Republican that’s sponsoring anti-trans legislation shouldn’t be ignored) but he has a long, long list of lies he’s been caught telling, and refuses to admit deceiving the public. Some were obviously egregious and to make him seem like a better candidate… some are just stupid, easily proven white lies, and some are more indicative that he is frankly some blend of pathological liar, malignant narcissist, and complete con man. So grab a chair, because this is gonna take a minute:
- While living in Brazil, Santos claimed to be very rich, and his family was well off, even though neighbors allege his family was stealing electricity off the grid, and the father he claimed was a wealthy executive was an American house painter.
- After the now sworn in Rep. Santos is infamous online in January of 2023, a Brazilian drag queen posts a photo of Santos allegedly performing as drag queen Kitara Ravanche, Santos denies the photograph is of him on Twitter. Months later, a lot of the drag community in Rio DeJaneiro are remembering Kitara/Santos performing or lying about where they were performing circa 2005-2007, although he wore out his welcome by claiming Kitara Ravanche performed at a lot of venues they hadn’t, or they knew an actress from the Brazilian soap opera Malhação.
- In 2008 in Brazil, George Santos first is caught using stealing checks from an elderly man his mother is working for to fraudulently buy himself clothes. He ends up charged with and wire fraud, fleeing Brazil before the case is settled in 2011. He would plead guilty in 2023.
- In 2010, Santos’ mother fixes him up with Adrianna Parizzi, who had a sizable inheritance from her parents. Santos convinced her to flee with him to New York, most of that inheritance was spent on expensive furniture to keep up appearances of his supposed wealth in their new home in New York. She alleges she kept finding cash she had placed in drawers missing, and Santos would deny stealing from her. The marriage became strained enough that Parizzi alleges he threatened to hit her in the face. Parizzi left the United States in 2015 and returned to Brazil penniless, now living off of government support.
- From 2012 through 2019, Santos was married to a different Brazilian woman in exchange for $20,000 to help her get a Green card, and multiple former roommates of Santos corroborate the story about the marriage. Just a reminder, Santos spews anti-immigrant views.
- In May of 2016, Santos takes financial advantage of a veteran whose service dog had a tumor, and he was staring down a $3000 vet bill to have it removed. Santos, working under the name Anthony DeVolder, set up a GoFundMe and raised the money for the sick dog’s surgery… AND THEN KEPT IT. After being repeatedly asked by multiple veterans to pay it. The dog, Sapphire, had to be euthanized in January of 2017.
- In 2017, after the arrest of a different Brazilian man, Gustavo Trelha for credit card fraud, an investigator’s follow-up interviews led to them talking to George Santos, and he ended up testifying in court at Trelha’s bail hearing, assuring a judge that he worked at Goldman Sachs (where he has never worked). Today, Trelha claims Santos was the ringleader of a criminal enterprise who taught him how to skim cards.
- In 2019, as he prepared a Congressional run, Santos said his family had paid for him to attend Horace Mann preparatory school in the Bronx, but his family had to pull him out in 2008 due to the financial crisis of that year. He also claimed to have an MBA from New York University.
- Santos also claimed that from 2013-2018, he ran a 501(c)3 called “Friends of Pets United”, but there is no record for as any kind of charity.
- In October 2020, George Santos claims he attended Baruch College (he didn’t go there), earned a Bachalor’s from there (he didn’t) on a full scholarship (he didn’t) that he was awarded as a star NCAA volleyball player.
- Santos claims to have worked as a successful Wall Street financer and investor for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, both of whom have confirmed to the press he never worked a day for them.
- During his 2022 Congressional campaign, George Santos told potential donors that he was a producer of the 2011 Broadway disaster “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”. Which frankly, is nothing to brag about.
- Santos also lied and claimed that he had Jewish ancestors who fled the Nazis during the Holocaust, but eventually amended his history that he was “Jew-ish”, when genealogy records revealed his family emigrated to Brazil from Germany in 1918, which is a probably about 10-15 years too early to fit his narrative.
- Throughout 2020, Santos’ roommates notice items go missing from around the house… checks. Phones. Shirts. A Burberry scarf…
- In spite of losing his first Congressional campaign in 2020 to Tom Suozzi… Santos, trying to “fake it until he makes it”, shows up to Congressional orientation anyway.
- January 5th, 2021: George Santos appears at a “Stop the Steal” rally on the eve of the attack on the Capitol a day later. He claimed his Congressional race was “stolen” from him, as well. He’s wearing the Burberry scarf he’s alleged to have stolen from his former roommate as he lies about “a stolen election”.
- In February of 2021, Santos gets on Twitter to complain about not receiving rent on 13 properties he owns from tenants due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no evidence he has ever owned ANY property in New York, but bonus fact… his sister got evicted after not paying $40,000 in rent over three years around that same timeline to another actual landlord.
- In April of 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission looked into George Santos’ work at Harbor City Capitol Corp and assessed it as “a classic Ponzi scheme”.
- In July of 2021, George Santos lies and says his mother died in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. His mother wasn’t even in the United States in 2001, and actually died in 2016.
- In September of 2022, on his financial disclosure forms, Santos claims he earned $750,000 in 2021 and 2022, and that me made $1-2 million dollars in dividends. Everyone else in the financial industry says that those claims are impossible.
- In November of 2022, George Santos, in an interview with Brian Lehrer, lies and says that he had four employees of his who were victims in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. None of the victims of that shooting ever worked for Santos. When caught, he tries lying his way out of it to say he was GOING to create a business for them to work at, but there’s no evidence of that either.
- January 27th, 2023: There are still major questions about who actually funded Santos’ Congressional campaigns, as a follow up investigation by Mother Jones found that over a dozen major donors to his campaign apparently don’t exist.
- May of 2023: Santos is indicted on 13 federal charges, and investigators reportedly have 80,000 pages of evidence against him. The most glaring charge would be fraudulently collecting $120,000 of unemployment benefits, while his party seek to strip those benefits.
- In July of 2023, George Santos gets on Twitter to compare himself to Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks because he supposedly “refused to sit in the back of Congress”.
- In August of 2023, Sam Miele, a fundraiser for George Santos, is indicted on four counts of wire fraud and identity theft. The person whose identity he stole? The long time Chief of Staff of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
There’s… a lot to unpack here. How has this man avoided jail? How did he ally himself as a part of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” and still fail up into Congress? Especially given all the rampant and blatant fraud in his financial disclosure forms, let alone his campaign biography? How did the supposed New York media drop the ball on this in their own backyard? Is Kevin McCarthy the most toothless House Speaker in American History that he hasn’t forced Santos’ resignation, even while people connected to his campaign committed identity theft against his own Chief of Staff?
Republicans have embraced lies as a party plank in the era of Trump. And while the logical thing to do in 2024 would be to primary this trench-coat full of rodents impersonating a man with ANYONE else… would it be emblematic of the current Republican Party to rally around George Santos because “he triggers the left” who would prefer Congress wasn’t filled with con men? There are only 14 other choices in the race…
We’ll find out how much longer we’ll have to discuss Santos on June 25th, 2024, and hopefully have good news when we update this profile in one year’s time.
One Year Ago, September 3rd, 2022: Tom Whatley (AL)
Two Years Ago, September 3rd, 2021: Bob Lancia (RI)
Three Years Ago, September 3rd, 2020: Mike Folmer (PA)
Four Years Ago, September 3rd, 2019: Mike Yenni (LA)
Five Years Ago, September 3rd, 2018: Wesley Goodman (OH)
Six Years Ago, September 3rd, 2017: Bob Dixon (MO)
Seven Years Ago, September 3rd, 2016: Mike Pryor (IA)
Eight Years Ago, September 3rd, 2015: Chris Lee (NY)
Nine Years Ago, September 3rd, 2014: Troy King (AL)