McCarthy says he was ‘always’ skeptical of George Santos resume

Christine Queally Attachments Fri, Jan 13, 3:21 PM (4 days ago) to Chris, Editors, reporters, webdesk, Web, Stacey, Christopher, Jennifer

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he was always skeptical of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) as he and other GOP leaders face questions over what and when they knew of the New York Republican’s falsehoods.

McCarthy so far hasn’t condemned Santos, even as every other freshman Republican from New York has called on him to resign. Among the apparent fabrications are Santos’s claims that he is descended from Holocaust survivors, worked for Goldman Sachs, and graduated from New York University and Baruch College.

GEORGE SANTOS SCANDAL: A RUNNING LIST OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN’S MOST QUESTIONABLE CLAIMS

“I never knew all about his resume or not, but I always had a few questions about it,” McCarthy told reporters Monday.

Santos also may have had a member of his campaign staff pose as McCarthy’s chief of staff while soliciting contributions. McCarthy said he didn’t know about it until later.

“It happened, and I know they corrected, but I was not notified about that until a later date,” he said, adding that he’s spoken to Santos about the situation.

McCarthy has said he’s withholding judgment on Santos after House Democrats filed an ethics complaint against him, though he said Santos wouldn’t get any prime committee positions. If Santos stepped down, he would leave McCarthy with an even smaller majority than he currently has, with a cushion of only three GOP votes.

“Well, what I find is the voters have elected George Santos. If there’s a concern, he will go through [the Ethics Committee]. If there is something that is found, he will be dealt with in that manner. But they have a voice in this process,” he told reporters at a press conference last week.

Santos is defiant, saying he hasn’t done anything wrong and has no plans to resign.

“Look, I’ve worked my entire life,” Santos said on the War Room podcast Thursday. “I’ve lived an honest life. I’ve never been accused of … any bad doings, so, you know, it’s … the equity of my hard-working self, and I’ve invested inside of me.”

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Santos flipped a competitive new district in November that had a partisan lean of D+2. A special election could result in it flipping back to Democratic control.

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