There are more problems for New York's GOP Rep.-elect George Santos for being less than truthful about his background after the Republican Jewish Coalition rebuked him Tuesday for lying to them that he was Jewish.
"We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos. He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage," RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks told Business Insider Tuesday. "In public comments, and to us personally, he previously claimed to be Jewish. He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note. He will not be welcome at any future RJC event."
Santos attended the RJC's annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas.
"Well, good morning, shabbat shalom to everybody," he reportedly said to the group during the Nov. 19 meeting.
On Monday, however, Santos said during an interview with the New York Post that he was not really of Jewish descent, but that he considered himself "Jew-ish" because of family connections on his mother's family's side.
"I never claimed to be Jewish," he told the Post during the interview. "I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was 'Jew-ish.' "
In a subsequent interview with City & State New York, Santos tried to defend the deceit.
"It just strikes me so odd that people are rushing to disinherit me from being Jewish, or for even allowing to care for Israel and Judaism, in a time, in an era, where antisemitism is at an all-time rise," he said during that interview. "Here's somebody who actually cares about Jews, cares about Israel, and somebody willing to fight for them, and we have people pushing me away."
The coalition is the latest group to disavow Santos, who flipped New York's 3rd Congressional District from Democrat to Republican Nov. 8 and is scheduled to take office next week.
A number of Congressional Democrats are calling for him to resign before being sworn into Congress, or at least face an ethics investigation for lying not only about his heritage, but also his education and work experience.
Among his bogus claims were that he graduated college and ended up working directly for major New York investment firms on Wall Street such as Goldman Sachs.
"I am not a criminal," Santos said at one point during the Post interview. "This will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good. My sins here are embellishing my resume. I'm sorry."
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