U.S. Rep. George Santos, of New York, misled voters with elaborate lies about his background while on the campaign trail. Santos, a Republican who was elected to an open seat in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, admitted to fabricating large chunks of his resume, including where he went to college, his professional history and real estate holdings. He also misled voters about his heritage with false claims to Jewish ancestry.
But the walls appear to be closing in. Santos now faces local, state and federal investigations—and authorities in Brazil have revived a fraud case against him in Rio de Janeiro.
Still, the question on people’s minds is: How did the Democrats not discover these glaring gaps in his resume over the course of several years? “The greatest shortcoming in this situation is Democrats’ failure to uncover and expose Santos’ lies during the campaign,” says Costas Panagopoulos, head of Northeastern’s political science department. “That’s exactly what campaigns are all about.”
