NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Rep. George Santos said he wouldn’t have gotten his congressional nomination from the Nassau County GOP if he hadn’t lied about attending Baruch College, given the nature of New York politics.
“Here’s the deal, I would have never gotten the nomination from the Nassau County GOP if I had not concluded college,” Santos told Newsmax in an interview Thursday night from the U.S. House Rotunda.
“That was really the main driver, because of the way of the nature of their politics over there, it’s just plain and simple, right?” he said. “So, I made that bad decision.”
The 34-year-old congressman added, “I might have made some stupid decisions, and I regret them.”
“To say that I deceived, and it was a campaign of deceit and deception, is just not fair,” Santos went on to say. “That's just the political spin that the Nassau County GOP wants to create on this narrative.”
“As you know, New York politics, it's pretty simple,” he continued. “The party bosses run the narrative, and everyone follows suit, and this is what’s going on at the moment,” he said.
Santos admitted in December to “embellishing my resume,” including about earning a degree in finance and economics from Baruch in Manhattan, as well as working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Since then, reports have documented a deluge of lies and embellishments about his professional and personal life, earning him the reputation of a serial fabulist and making him the target of multiple local and federal investigations.
Santos said he’s trying to regain the goodwill of his constituents in Nassau County and Queens. A recent Newsday/Siena College poll found 78% of voters in New York’s 3rd congressional district want him to resign, just three months after his upset, eight-point victory over Democrat Robert Zimmerman.
“Here's the reality,” Santos told Newsmax. “I'm human and I've made mistakes. I've made peace with those mistakes, and I've come clean on those mistakes.”
Nassau County GOP leadership and other Long Island Republicans denounced Santos last month as they called for his resignation.
After meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in private last week, Santos announced he would step aside from his committee assignments ahead of an expected House Ethics Committee probe.
McCarthy said Tuesday the situation with Santos would work its way through the House Ethics Committee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related
Related
Related
