Lying a new art form
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To the editor:
It is generally accepted that all politicians lie but since 2016 we have seen lying raised to an art form.
On a Meet the Press Interview, January 22, 2017, Kellyanne Conway defended Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Chuck Todd asked Kelleyanne to explain “why Spicer would utter a provable false hood,” Conway stated that Spicer was giving “alternative facts.” To which Todd responded, “Look alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.”
Between 2017 and 2021, the nation was flooded with “alternate facts,” the most dangerous being that the 2020 election was stolen leading to the January 6 Insurrection. Since the 2022 midterms, a new front runner has been added to the “lexicon of liars,” newly elected Republican legislator from the third district of New York State, George Santos.
When confronted with the many lies, he told the voters, he said to Tulsi Gabbard, guest host of Tucker Carlson, “I made a mistake.” Ms. Gabbard said, “have you no shame, are you asking the voters to trust you to be their spokesman?” He explained his lies as “resume embellishment.”
The Brazilian born Santos says he is a Roman Catholic but is also Jewish because his maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors–they were not, they were born in Brazil. He said he went to Horace Mann, an elite private school in New York City. There is no record of his attendance there.
A firestorm of criticism has swirled around Santos over his claims that his “grandparents fled Jewish persecution in the Ukraine, settled in Belgium and again fled persecution during World War II, that he received a degree in economics and finance from CUNY’s Baruch College, that he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, that he owned 13 rental properties where tenants have not paid rent for a year”–all of which were untrue.
Santos further embellished his resume with personal stories such as his mother was a victim of 9/11. There is no record of his mother, Fatima Devolder, working at the South Tower and she died on December 23, 2016.
Comedian Steve Bluestein wrote, “when you think about Jorge Santos’ resume how could it be anything but phony? Gay, Jewish, ran an animal rescue, parents survived the holocaust. . .. The only hot talking point he didn’t put on there was he saved lives at the Hindenburg disaster and danced with the Rockettes.”
As to Ms. Gabbard’s question to Santos of have you no shame? Apparently not, he plans to be sworn in and take his seat in the House of Representatives.
Mary Kathryn Gepner
Benton