Opponents intensify calls for Rep.-elect Santos to step down

MINEOLA, Ny. – Robert Zimmerman, the Democratic candidate who ran against Republican Rep.-Elect George Santos for the U.S. House seat representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District, held a press conference Thursday afternoon outside the Nassau County Courthouse on Long Island, to argue that his former opponent “does not belong in Congress.”

Zimmerman called for a House Ethics Committee investigation into Santos over his extraordinary lies and deceptions, many revealed for the first time over the course of the last couple of weeks by multiple news and media organizations.

Those who have been outraged by Santos’s shady financial dealings and fabrications on the campaign trail concerning his life and career ought to “make sure investigations proceed on the federal, state, and county levels,” Zimmerman said.

So far, investigations into Santos have been opened by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the Republican district attorney of Nassau County, Anne Donnelly, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

Addressing the crowd ahead of Zimmerman was New York State Sen. Anna Kaplan, who represents part of the region that includes the 3rd Congressional District.

Kaplan urged investigations into Santos’s business dealings, questioning how he was able to self-fund his candidacy “despite having no legitimate career to speak of,” which prompted chants of “follow the money!”

Additionally, she said, “we all deserve an apology for [Santos’s] reprehensible lies about his nonexistent Jewish faith and completely fake connection to the Holocaust.”

On Wednesday evening, the House Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus released a statement calling for the Congressman-Elect to “step down immediately.” The move follows several public declarations by Democratic lawmakers that Santos not be seated with the next Congress.

The statement was cosigned by the Caucus Chair, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, along with Co-Chairs Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), and Ritchie Torres (D-Ny.), and incoming Reps. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.).

“Over the past few weeks, there have been numerous reports of Representative-elect Santos lying about his education, employment history, and his personal life, including, among other fabrications, that he is Jewish, that he ‘lost four employees’ in the Pulse nightclub massacre, that he graduated Baruch College, and that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup,” the Caucus wrote in the statement.

The statement reads, in part, “Integrity and honesty are central to being a Member of the House of Representatives and to properly represent your community—both one’s district and the LGBTQ+ community. Mr. Santos has demonstrated that he lacks these values.”

“We are especially appalled that Mr. Santos would lie about losing four employees in the Pulse nightclub massacre. The Pulse nightclub massacre was the deadliest U.S. hate crime committed against our community in recent memory, and a person who misrepresents their connection to that tragedy for political sympathy does not deserve to be a Member of Congress.”

Finally, the Caucus called on Santos to “step down immediately” because “The LGBTQ+ community and the people of New York’s Third Congressional District deserve better.”