Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) ripped into Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) over his elaborations and fabrications about his background, asking him point-blank, “Do you haven’t any disgrace?”
“If I have been a type of in New York’s third District proper now, now that the election is over, and I’m discovering out all of those lies that you simply’ve informed, not only one little lie or one little embellishment — these are blatant lies — my query is, do you haven’t any disgrace?” Gabbard requested whereas filling in for Fox Information host Tucker Carlson in an interview with Santos on Tuesday night. “Do you haven’t any disgrace? And the people who find themselves now, you’re asking to belief you to go and be their voice for them, their households and their children in Washington?”
“Tulsi, I can say the identical factor concerning the Democrats,” Santos responded. “Take a look at Joe Biden. Joe Biden has been mendacity to the American individuals for 40 years. He’s the president of america. Democrats resoundingly help him. Have they got no disgrace?”
Gabbard interjected, saying that her query was not concerning the Democrats.
Santos has emerged from days of silence following studies from The New York Occasions and different retailers this month that exposed misrepresentations, fabrications and lies about his private background.
In varied interviews with the New York Submit and elsewhere this week, Santos has admitted to “embellishing” his resume, together with saying that he didn’t graduate from faculty and that he didn’t work immediately for monetary giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Santos says a poor selection of phrases led to confusion about his work historical past, insisting that he did enterprise with each corporations and helped make “capital introductions” by way of “restricted partnerships.” He relayed a few of that rationalization within the interview with Gabbard.
He has additionally come underneath fireplace for representing himself as an “American Jew” and saying that his maternal grandparents fled Europe throughout World Warfare II, despite the fact that studies have emerged that these grandparents have been born in Brazil earlier than the battle.
Gabbard pressed Santos on these factors.
“My heritage is Jewish. I’ve all the time recognized as Jewish. I used to be raised as a working towards Catholic,” Santos mentioned. “Not being raised a working towards Jew, I’ve all the time joked with mates and circles, even throughout the marketing campaign, I’d say, guys, I’m ‘Jew-ish.’ Bear in mind, I used to be raised Catholic.”
“So, look, I perceive all people desires to nitpick at me. I’m gonna reassure this as soon as and for all. I’m not a facade. I’m not a persona. I’ve an intensive profession that I labored actually onerous to attain. And I’m going to ship from my expertise as a result of I stay dedicated in delivering outcomes for the American individuals,” Santos mentioned.
Gabbard later ended the interview with sharp phrases for the 34-year-old incoming congressman.
“Congressman-elect Santos, we’ve given you plenty of time. I feel the time that’s owed is to the individuals of New York’s third. It’s onerous to think about how they might probably belief your explanations if you’re probably not even keen to confess the depth of your deception to them,” Gabbard mentioned.
Gabbard is the second former Democratic member of Congress to interview Santos this week. He additionally spoke with former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who resigned in 2011 after the revelation of sexually specific messages he despatched to a minor, on WABC radio this week.
