While George Santos dodged reporters inside the Capitol building on Tuesday, constituents of New York’s 3rd Congressional District gathered outside his campaign office in Oyster Bay to call for his resignation.
Santos, the 34-year-old Republican who won the November 2022 election in NY-03, is facing an onslaught of criticism and at least four investigations after he admitted to lying on his resume and left questions about his campaign finances and background unanswered following the New York Times’ bombshell Dec. 19, 2022 article exposing a laundry list of falsehoods he perpetuated about himself.
“I can’t believe that there’s nothing we can do to stop him from being seated,” said NY-03 resident Jonathan Rudes. “We deserve somebody who is going to represent us fairly and appropriately, and it’s certainly not George Santos.”
Nassau County Leg. Joshua Lafazan (I-Woodbury), who in 2022 lost in a primary race in NY-03 to Santos’ Democratic challenger Robert Zimmerman, hosted the rally in front of Santos’ campaign headquarters. According to Lafazan, Santos has yet to establish a local office as the district’s representative in Congress.
More than 800 residents have signed an online petition calling for Santos to resign. The petition was started by Judy Kass Finkel, a resident of the district and community activist.
“People didn’t have the truth about who this guy was,” Finkel said. “In my 30-plus years in the nonprofit world, lobbying for environmental, health and affordable housing issues in Washington and Albany, I’ve never seen anyone with such an arrogant contempt for the truth or his constituents. While the whole country is aghast at Santos’s lies and utter disregard for decency, the residents of NY-03 have the most to lose.”
The outgoing U.S. representative for NY-03, Democrat Tom Suozzi, published an op-ed in the New York Times Tuesday entitled “A Con Man Is Succeeding Me in Congress Today.”
“I’ve lost track of how many evasions and lies Mr. Santos has told about himself, his finances and his history and relationship with our stretch of Long Island and northeastern Queens,” Suozzi wrote. “When he is seated, it will diminish our Congress, our country and my constituents — soon his constituents.”
Meanwhile, Santos avoided reporters and ignored their questions as he arrived at his Washington, D.C. office before he was set to be sworn in, as shown in videos taken by Newsday reporters on Tuesday.
Democrats, and even some Republicans, are calling for the House ethics committee to investigate Santos. There are also open investigations of his potentially illegal conduct in the offices of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, and Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz. The federal government is also reportedly looking into the matter.
The George Santos campaign has not responded to the Press‘ requests for comment.
