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"Did I embellish my resume? Yes, I did."

He's under investigation for misrepresenting himself to voters. These are the many lies of Congressman George Santos, exposed.
Transcript
00:00I dare anybody to stand up and try to cancel me.
00:05Did I embellish my resume? Yes, I did. And I'm sorry.
00:09Congressman George Santos has been facing a storm of controversy amid reports that he
00:13fabricated key details about his education, work experience, heritage, and more.
00:18These are blatant lies. Do you have no shame?
00:22Tulsi, I can say the same thing about the Democrats.
00:24On November 9, 2022, George Santos was elected to Congress,
00:28flipping New York's 3rd District and helping the GOP clinch a slim majority in the House.
00:32He made history as the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.
00:36But just over a month after his win, an expose by the New York Times unraveled a string of
00:40lies he told about his background, prompting even more discrepancies to be spotted.
00:44We were bamboozled, absolutely lied to,
00:47and we do not want this representation in New York District 3.
00:58I put myself through college and got an MBA from NYU, and I have zero debt.
01:04Nothing in life is free. And the harder you work for something, the more rewarding it is.
01:10Today I stand very proud with a bachelor's and master's degree,
01:13all New York educated, Baruch College and NYU for my MBA.
01:18Santos' website once claimed he got a bachelor's degree in economics and finance from Baruch
01:22College. His biography on the National Republican Congressional Committee's website also previously
01:27mentioned him studying at New York University. Both Baruch and NYU, however, told the Times they
01:32could not find any records of him attending. Santos has since admitted to the lies to the New York Post.
01:49Santos' campaign site, which has since been updated,
01:51initially stated that he began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced
01:55to become an associate asset manager in the real asset division of the firm.
01:59His bio also indicated he briefly worked for Goldman Sachs. Spokespeople for Citigroup and
02:03Goldman Sachs, however, told the New York Times they could not confirm his past employment.
02:07In subsequent interviews, Santos clarified that he instead had worked
02:10for a company that did business with the firms.
02:12I used a poor word, use of words, but I did work in the industry for a number of years.
02:25According to her obituary, Santos' mother actually died in 2016, more than 15 years after 9-11.
02:33Santos himself confirmed the year of her death in a tweet just months later.
02:38Santos later claimed his father was also on ground zero the day of the attack and again
02:42confirmed neither of them died that day. My parents were both down there on the day
02:46of the attacks, and fortunately, none of them passed.
02:49The current version of his website states his mother, quote,
02:52survived the tragic events on September 11th,
02:54but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.
02:57While it is possible his mother could have developed cancer from toxins released during
03:01the attack, people are pointing out that 15 years is more than a few years
03:05and that her obituary makes no mention of 9-11.
03:13Well, good morning, Shabbat Shalom to everybody.
03:16Lee has served as an inspiration, as a friend, and as a leader for the Jewish folks in Congress,
03:23at one point being just two members. So now we're going to be three.
03:28That was Santos speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas last November,
03:33noting that with his election, there would now be three Jewish members of Congress.
03:37But less than two weeks later, he said this.
03:39I'm Jew-ish. I come from a Jewish family. My mother's family is Jewish.
03:44I grew up and I was raised Roman Catholic. My father's Roman Catholic.
03:48And just about a month later, he said this to the New York Post.
04:01I've seen how socialism destroys people's lives because my grandparents survived the Holocaust.
04:07We're no stranger to persecution. My grandfather fleeing Ukraine in 1920s to Belgium,
04:13then fleeing Belgium to Brazil in 1940.
04:18It's a story of survival, of tenacity, of grit, as we like to call it.
04:24According to genealogy records first uncovered by the Jewish news site The Forward,
04:28Santos' grandparents were both born in Brazil before the Nazis came to power.
04:32CNN also interviewed multiple genealogists,
04:35none of whom could confirm the claim that Santos' grandparents had fled the Holocaust.
04:38Since all of these revelations were made,
04:40people in Santos' district have been calling on him to resign.
04:44We need to stand together because we do not want to be represented by a clown in Albany.
04:54Facing outrage, Santos himself admitted to, quote, embellishing.
04:58Did I embellish my resume? Yes, I did. And I'm sorry.
05:02The reality is, is I'm human.
05:05More aspects of Santos' life have since come into question.
05:08Claims about his income, his philanthropic credentials, his property ownerships,
05:12his mother's career, and even a claim that he lost employees to the Pulse massacre.
05:16At the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016,
05:19which I happened to at the time have people that worked for me in the club,
05:24my company at the time, we lost four employees.
05:26How dare he? How dare he try to score political points
05:31or gain sympathy by lying about losing employees?
05:35Santos is now under investigation by local and federal authorities for misrepresenting
05:39himself to voters and for potential crimes regarding his finances and campaign spending.
05:44Authorities in Brazil also told the New York Times that Santos is facing charges for check fraud,
05:48which they say he admitted to in 2010.
05:50All in all, not the best start for Congressman George Santos.
05:54The craziness of it all was captured on this parody clip by the late show with Stephen Colbert.