Everyone loves the story of a good con man. We see them all of the time in movies and TV. We read books and stories of the legends. But what happens when one lies themselves into one of the highest offices possible?
George Santos is a former congressman from New York with a troubled past and an even more troubled recent past. He was born to Brazilian immigrants on Long Island. After his parents separated, he lived with his mom.
His life of deceit and lies started early, according to friends and family. He was known for stealing things and lying to his parents from a young age. He got his GED before moving to Brazil.
In 2008, he moved to Rio de Janeiro. Friends and anonymous sources told Reuters that Santos was a dedicated advocate for the Brazilian LGTBQ+ community during his time there, and he competed as a drag queen in the Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro competition.
Upon his return to America, Santos began his official career as a businessman and politician. He eventually founded the Devolder Organization, LLC. Documents said his income went up substantially at the firm.
In 2020, Santos ran for the U.S. House of Representatives against Tom Suozzi, the incumbent Democrat. Despite losing that election, Santos impressed local Republicans with his diligence and his attempts to get his formerly unknown name out there. When the time came in 2022 to run again, he defeated Tom Zimmerman after Suozzi decided not to run.
Although Santos won, news agencies started to discover fallacies in his accounts of his life and career. He claimed to hold a degree from Baruch College and said that he was a volleyball star there, but he refused to show his diploma. Along with this, The North Shore Leader discovered that he had shady business dealings and lied about the amount of money he was making through the Devolder Organization.
Soon came the efforts to expel Santos from Congress. After a few attempts, he became the first Republican ever successfully expelled from the House and the only member expelled without any federal charges filed at the time.
After Santos left office, the Department of Justice charged him with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty without resistance and admitted to his lies, according to a DOJ press release. Santos received a sentence of seven years in prison.
Recently, Santos was back in the headlines as Trump pardoned him following less than three months of his sentence, according to the Hill. Neither side of the aisle was really pushing for this—the vote to expel Santos from the House was practically unanimous. Also, Santos had left the Republican party, so Trump’s decision to pardon him was questionable.
We as the American people need to learn a few lessons from the Santos debacle and even more from his pardoning.
First of all, in an age where we are all hyperaware of fake news and misinformation, how did we let Santos get elected in the first place? Sure, he checked the boxes that the people in his district needed checked, but how did they ignore the inconsistencies in his campaign?
I think this is due to the Republican party not doing their due diligence into his former endeavors and digging into Santos’ background. They saw a charismatic and controversial character who could win and bring some press along with him. They did not see a weave of lies and, most of all, an extreme lack of political experience. I like that anyone can run for office in this country, but if liars like Santos are the ones getting party support, what does that do to our trust in our well-established institutions? It certainly does not help mine.
I also do not support Trump’s pardoning of Santos. Plain and simple.
Not only was Santos convicted of all crimes charged against him, he pleaded guilty to them. He admitted to the mountain of lies that he formed and was going to pay the price for them.
I am unsure of why Trump pardoned Santos. Maybe Santos had a deal for Trump. If Santos could con his way into one of the highest offices in the land, maybe he could con his way out of prison. I do not want to believe this, but Santos has publicly shamed the Republican Party, so why would Trump pardon him for loyalty purposes? Trump has the power to pardon, and he is not going to be up for reelection in 2028, so maybe this was just a show of party support that would not have election implications.
Why would Trump do this? There are inconsistencies in this story, just like the ones in Santos’ claims during his campaign. I think the practice of presidential pardons is a fair one, but this pardon of Santos raises too many questions about the overreach of presidential power to ignore.
