Elise Stefanik sticks by Rep. George Santos despite more reports of lies
House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-North Country) expressed no regrets Friday about supporting the elec𒉰tion of liar Long Island Rep. George Santos as his downstate constituents keep pushing for his resignation.
“I stand with my colleagues in supporting those Republican candidates who helped deliver this majority [in 2022],” Stefanik told reporters at an upstate press conference when asked if she felt a sense of responsibility for boosting the truth-challenged 34-year-old.
In response, Stefanik noted that she had been joined in supporting Santos by “every other member of Republican leadership [and] every other prominent Republican in New York State that supported all of the targeted districts.”
“Elections matter and the voters of that district are going to decide,” she added.
Later in the news conference, Stefanik was asked if she would support Santos if he ran for reဣ-election in 2024, as a series of reports have suggested in recent days.
“I support the Republican nominee,” Stefanik said. “Certainly there are questions and there’s an investigation and people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law when they break the law. And in this case, there are investigations that are pending, and it’s not the first time I’ve served with colleagues in Congress who have been under investigation.
“What I would say,” she added, “is we need to be looking at Hunter Biden’s corruption and the Biden family’s crime corruption, which we are going to focus on because it’s directly tied to Joe Biden, who is the big guy.”
Other New York Republicans, like freshman Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito and Marc Molinaro have called for Santos to resign over a litany of falsehoods about his professional background and family history — including a recently﷽ debunked claim about donating money to help children sickened by the genetic disorder epider🎉molysis bullosa.
But party leaders like Stefanik, the No. 4 House Republican, have stuck by Santos, who recently gave up his committee assignments while he faces investigations over his sketchy campaign finances.
A recent poll conducted by Newsday and Siena College showed 83% of voters in the Third Congressionꦿal District w൩ant Santos to resign — including a whopping 78% of Republicans.
Yet, the ongoing cascade of bad headlines has no♈t made Stefanik rethink her tacit support for Santos.
“I know the press wants to choose who they elect and I know the press loves to support Democrats, but in this case, the people made that decision,” she said at one point Friday.
The North Country MAGA superstar played an outsized role in helping Santos get elected two years after he unsuccessfully ran fo🥂r the seat, including helping him raise money for his successful run.
Santos has downplayed the seriousness of his falsehoods in recent weeks by whining about the “enormous inquisition” into his finances while suggesting he had to lie because the political process was supposedly sta🐼cked against him.
“It wasn’t about tricking people,” he said in a recent interview with Po🌱st colu💛mnist Piers Morgan. “This was about gett൲ing accඣepted by the party here locally.”
Under pressure
Santos’ constituents are continuing to mobilize for his ouster despite his attempts to cling to his congressional seat and the steady paycheck that comes with it.
On Saturday, a “caravan” of several dozen vehicles will tour sites in the Third District tied to Santos’ documented misdeeds, including a pricey Queens restaurant where he reportedly lived large on campaign funds as well as a local community center to highlight his much-mocked claim of being “Jew-ish.”
An expected crowd of approximately 100 people will deliver a batch of comment cards at Santos’ district office in Queens to express their feelings about the embattled rep.
“If Stefanik did the right thing, we wouldn’t have to go member by member,” Jody Kass, a spokesperson for the grassroots group Concerned Citizens of NY-03, told The Post.
The volume and apparent willfulness of Santos’ lies, which include demonstrably false claims of having a mother who died on 9/11 as well as grandparents who escaped the Holocaust, makes his “deliberate con” very different, Kass said.
“She’s very powerful in Washington. And so, you know, as a New Yorker, we had hoped that she would do the right thing here,” Kass said. “There’s never been an imposter voted into Congress before. And there’s a huge diffe🌼rence between embellishment and an imposter. And so I think we’re in an extraordinary place when it comes to George Santos.”
