It’s the train wreck that I can’t stop staring at.
There has been an avalanche of national news since late last week, at a time when things are generally slower. Testimony overload from the January 6th Committee. Donald Trump’s taxes were released. The House Speaker drama. Southwest Airlines. The weather.
Then we have the train wreck that is New York Congressman-elect George Santos.
A different Santos lie seemed to be revealed each day, each one cringier than the last.
He claimed to have gone to an “elite prep school”. Nope.
He claimed that he had degrees from Baruch College and New York University. Nope.
He claimed his Jewish grandparents escaped the Holocaust. Nope. They were apparently Catholic, the same as Santos. Later, he backed off his claim of being Jewish, instead saying he was Jew-ish.
He claimed his mother died as a result of 9-11. Nope. She died 15 years after the fact.
He claimed four employees were killed in the Pulse nightclub massacre. Nope.
He claimed that he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Nope and nope.
He claimed to have founded a not-for-profit pet rescue charity. Nope.
Aesop wrote The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing 2,600 years ago. The fable is about a wolf who disguised itself in sheep skin to blend in amongst a flock of sheep. The wolf did what wolves do and ate one of the sheep. The shepherd, wanting lamb stew, killed the wolf thinking it was a sheep. The wolf got its comeuppance.
Santos has claimed that he’s not a criminal. That is actually true. For the moment.
Brazilian authorities have revived a fraud case against Santos in which he allegedly confessed to the crime in 2010 but hadn’t been convicted because they couldn’t locate him. Technically you aren’t a criminal until you’ve been convicted. Guess what? Everyone knows where he is now. He has brought enough attention to himself with his overwhelming number of brazen lies to warrant multiple state and federal investigations. His reaction to the allegations; “Absolutely not. That didn’t happen.”
The Congressman-elect had vowed that he wouldn’t resign and would claim his seat in the United States House of Representatives.
A liar does what liars do. They can’t help themselves any more than Aesop’s wolf. Do they get away with it? Sometimes yes, at least initially. The wolf did.
Santos’ lies likely got him elected.
In my optimistic, glass-half-full, rose-colored world, Liars are eventually exposed.
Santos is about to get his comeuppance.
I hope those lies were worth it because they will also be his undoing.
dougb@news-baner.com
