Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) compared himself to civil rights icon Rosa Parks during a podcast interview last week, saying as “a Latino gay man” he will not “sit in the back.”
During an appearance he made on the far-right, MAGA talk show host Mike Crispi’s “Unafraid” podcast, Santos went on a long rant about what he called “sellout” Republicans.
“They come for me, I go right back for them because I think for far too long they’ve gotten away with going along to get along. So no, it’s not going to stay that way anymore,” Santos said. “I’m gonna call them out. You want to call me a liar? I’ll call you a sellout.”
Santos continued by singling out Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): The two had a mini but very public confrontation during the last State of the Union when Romney told the New York Republican he doesn’t belong in Congress.
“Given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation, he should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet,” Romney later told reporters, when asked about the altercation.
It was that comment, in particular, that suggested to Santos that he might be similar to Rosa Parks.
“I mean Mitt Romney, the man goes to the State of the Union of the United States wearing a Ukraine lapel pin, tells me, a Latino gay man, that I shouldn’t sit in the front and that I should be in the back,” Santos complained. ”Well, guess what? Rosa Parks wouldn’t sit in the back and neither am I going to sit in the back. That’s just the reality of how it works.”
Santos has been under close scrutiny since late last year, when he admitted to “embellishing” parts of his resume while running for Congress — including acknowledging he never “worked directly” for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup and saying he never claimed to be Jewish, just “Jew-ish.”
Since then, the many lies and fabrications surrounding his life story — some of which he has publicly admitted to — have piled up. They also invited scrutiny from federal and state investigators.
In May, the first-term congressman was hit with a 13-count federal indictment that included seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. Santos pleaded not guilty to all federal charges against him and was released on a $500,000 bond.
And in March, the House Ethics Committee announced it opened a formal investigation to look into whether Santos “engaged in unlawful activity” during his 2022 election campaign. The bipartisan group of lawmakers have been looking into whether Santos “engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office.”
