Republican governor holds George Santos to account

Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican from Arkansas, said Sunday that Representative-elect George Santos, a Republican from New York, must face responsibility for lying on his resume to his constituents.

Hutchinson spoke with ABC This week Sunday and said: “There must be accountability for this, it’s unacceptable. I don’t know if you’re going so far as not to sit it down, but the ethics committee should definitely deal with it. “It’s unacceptable in politics. It breaks the trust between the electorate and their elected representative.”

Santos flipped New York’s 3rd congressional district by defeating Rob Zimmerman in what had been a Democratic seat. Shortly after winning, investigations opened by The New York Times and CNN revealed that many of the things Santos said about his life were untrue, while others remain unsubstantiated.

Santos told the New York Post that he “embellished” his resume, but insisted it “wouldn’t stop me from having good legislative success” in Congress.

In a statement sent to Newsweek On Wednesday, Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, also a Republican, said, “The many fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-elect Santos are simply stunning.

She continued, “Residents of Nassau County and other parts of the 3rd District must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime has been committed in this county, we will pursue it.”

Meanwhile, Craig Agranoff, political analyst and professor at Florida Atlantic University, said Newsweek Sunday, “whether or not a person is allowed to sit in Congress or any other elected office will depend on the laws and regulations that apply to the situation.”

He added: “If a candidate for Congress is found to have lied on his resume or falsified other official documents, he may face consequences such as disqualification from election or removal from office if he has already been elected.”

Santos also admitted to lying about graduating from Baruch College in 2010, during his interview with the New York Post.

“I didn’t graduate from any college. I’m embarrassed and sorry for embellishing my resume,” Santos said.

Santos also admitted that he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. Instead, he said he had done business with the finance companies while working for a company called Link Bridge, calling his original claim a “poor choice of words”.

Meanwhile, he also received a major denial for saying he was the grandson of Holocaust survivors, but an investigation by the Cheeky discovered that Santos’ maternal grandparents were born in Brazil before World War II.

Santos told the New York Post that he never claimed to be Jewish, but “because I learned that my maternal family was of Jewish descent, I said that I was ‘Jewish'”.

“If he [Santos] was so willing to lie to the public, time and time again, that he should be held accountable to voters who might have supported him because of those lies. In other words, some voters might want their vote back,” Agranoff said.