George Santos is in deeper trouble than we thought
On Tuesday, local Long Island Republican leaders called on George Santos to resign from Congress. This is a big deal, given that the last thing these Long Island Republican leaders probably want to do right now is have to gear up for a special election in their House district under these scandalous circumstances. Yet they’re calling for Santos’ ouster anyway – and there may be a reason for it.
Santos’ endless lies about his personal and professional life have gotten most of the headlines thus far. But Santos’ fate is likely to be determined by whether he committed any provable crimes while essentially running for office as a fictional character. Santos is reportedly already under federal and state criminal investigation in relation to his 2022 campaign finances. And that’s now taking a turn for the uglier.
CNBC is reporting that one of Santos’ campaign advisers allegedly spent the 2020 and 2022 elections soliciting campaign donations while pretending to be Kevin McCarthy’s Chief of Staff. This is just plain weird, and yet it seems to fit with everything else we’ve learned about Santos. More importantly, if it proves true, that campaign adviser is surely looking at prison, given how specific campaign finance laws are when it comes to this kind of thing. So this would give federal and state prosecutors an easy opportunity to flip this Santos adviser against Santos, which always helps strengthen any criminal charges brought, and helps increase the odds of conviction at trial.
In other words, this thing has legs. Of course Santos’ entire financial story is highly suspicious, including a job at an alleged pyramid scheme in Florida, which he quit shortly before the Feds busted the place, followed by a mysterious Florida company that he formed on his own, whose revenue was then donated to Santos’ campaign. It’s the kind of thing that maybe doesn’t get criminally investigated when a political candidate loses and drops off the radar, but it’ll absolutely be investigated now that Santos is squatting in Congress and refusing to leave.
No wonder Long Island Republican leaders are trying to cut their losses with this guy now. The George Santos scandal will only get uglier from here. Because Kevin McCarthy has such a tiny majority and because he’s such a shameless weakling, he may passively decide to let Santos stick around all the way until he’s indicted. But then McCarthy, whose speakership could theoretically collapse at any time, is thinking short term. Long Island Republican leaders have got be thinking that since Santos is unlikely to make it to the end of his term anyway, they’d rather cut their losses now.
As always, the total lack of leadership from Kevin McCarthy – who at this point is being shown up by a bunch of local nobodies from the Nassau County Republican Committee – is about what you’d expect from McCarthy. As for George Santos, when you’ve reached the point where you have to emphatically tweet “I will NOT resign,” it probably means you’re going to eventually end up having to resign.
