RREdmondsDec 19, 2022
Seth Cotlar
The NYTimes today published a piece showing that this newly elected GOP Congressman from NY fabricated most of the life story he told on the campaign trail. The fact that this statement on his behalf ends with a fake Churchill quote is just...I mean come on now...if I wrote it in a piece of fiction you'd give me a stern talking to about how hamfisted that detail was.
Dec 19, 2022 at 10:37pmWeb
Show threadAndy PearlmanDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar literally ripping off from Animal House
Show threadBrentDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar This statement from the lawyer is telling. At no point does it dispute any part of the article. Instead it is a poorly worded broadside directed toward the Democrats and the NYTimes. Weak!!
Show threadRuss CopelandDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar hamfisted is the new editorial standard at the times...
Show threadWarren TerraDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar
It's not even a good fake Churchill quote, sounds nothing like him.
Show threadGrumbleDec 19, 2022

@sethcotlar At some point, pro-wrestling stopped hiring athletes with acting ability and hired actors who were buff.

Why should GOP politics be any different?

Show threadMacCruiskeenDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar Note that he doesn't exactly say that they are wrong.
Show threadAngry CentristDec 21, 2022
@maccruiskeen @sethcotlar Not even a single denial of one of the many points...
Show threadJJ PetersonDec 19, 2022

@sethcotlar

No one at the New York Times and it’s hundreds of NYS residents on staff thought voters should know this before the election? While Maggie was droppping book excerpts and PeterSue were likely withholding this info for their next book? Wtf is their job?

Show threadPurple ConverseDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar - no admission just deflection. Pathetic GOP as usual.
Show threadBlanding S TurtleDec 19, 2022

@sethcotlar Nobody checked the guy's history until after the election?

Had the race been for county clerk or dog catcher, understandable. But US Congress? How does this happen?

Is local journalism actually dead?

Show threadJetStreamDec 19, 2022
@peatbog @sethcotlar unfortunately, the culture in US is trending more towards packaging and presenting rather than benchmarking and demonstrating. This is not just true in elections but also in other places, such as college application. Social media boosts this notion that what all matter is what other “think” or “perceive” who are. What you really are doesn’t matter in those situations. It is sad in a way that the society values more on superficial not substance
Show threadBlanding S TurtleDec 19, 2022

@harryhy @sethcotlar
You're describing a world with Lucifer openly in charge and mass murder soon to follow.

Anyone with the power to make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Show threadMs. UnderstoodDec 20, 2022
@harryhy @peatbog @sethcotlar summarizing your post in 1 word: optics
Show threadKelli Blue 📸Dec 20, 2022
@peatbog @sethcotlar the answer is yes
Show threadLauraDec 20, 2022
@peatbog @sethcotlar Yes, it is—or at least on its very last feeble legs. But oddly enough, that’s the not problem here. NY has multiple local newspapers plus the NYT. Clearly, vetting politicians, at least Republicans in this case, is not the focus of those journalists. Maybe they should rethink.
Show threadCarlGDec 19, 2022

@sethcotlar This is basically saying "it's a witch hunt" w/o saying anything specific, without any rebuttal, and not calling the article authors liars and opening himself up to a potential defamation lawsuit.

Santos's own backers are probably embarrassed at how awful this lawyer's statement is.

If the House Ethics Committee has jurisdiction over pre-election lies/fraud, then this freshman congressman is in for a very uncomfortable welcome to his new job.

#GeorgeSantos

Show threadCarlGDec 19, 2022

An excellent statement from Rep. Swalwell sums this up better than I could:

"There 132 words in this statement. But not one addresses the mountain of evidence that you’re a wanted international criminal who lied about graduating college and where you worked."

https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1604964490814148608

#GeorgeSantos

Rep. Eric Swalwell on Twitter

“There 132 words in this statement. But not one addresses the mountain of evidence that you’re a wanted international criminal who lied about graduating college and where you worked.”

Twitter
Show threadA. LizardDec 21, 2022
@CarlG314
Perhaps some public spirited citizen can inform a Peruvian court where to serve a bench warrant on George Santos ...
Show threadLizardDec 20, 2022
@CarlG314 @sethcotlar "This is nothing but a witch hunt!" declared the High Warlock, as he piloted his broom over the heads of the crowd, casting lightning bolts at his detractors.
Show threadDannyboyguymanDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar WA-03 narrowly avoided seating a similar fraud in congress, but for a handful of local journalists and @DavidNeiwert
Show threadThomas PaineDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar what’s so confounding is how his Democratic opponent- a longtime dem operative - didn’t bother finding this out before the election.
Show threadjoedobnerDec 20, 2022
@tompainetoday @sethcotlar "Washington Generals forward fails to make easy layup over Globetrotters' point guard" is the lede of an article nobody would read.
Show threadhohumDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar This is not his finest hour
Show threadMike the Mad BiologistDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar "But did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"
Show threadklausfiend has movedDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar the Trump-era GOP has pretty much made satire impossible, which for me is _almost_ as bad as all the varied criming and bigotry
Show threadMalaclypseDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar And when it turned out that the quote was based on Mussolini's "Many Enemies; Much Honor" slogan they would toss you out of the building.
Show threadWilliam B. TurnerDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar. And why does he have to be gay? We have enough problems as it is.
Show threadRobIsEverywhere 🏳️‍🌈Dec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar Now a warning?
Show threadKen BurnsideDec 19, 2022

@sethcotlar And it was reported by local news, and his opponent's campaign, multiple times...while the world news organs were chasing The Outrage Du Jour or giving air time to Trump's grievances and lies (but I repeat myself).

Quite simply, Staten Island's voters were far more interested in Sticking It To The Libs to actually ask who could do the job.

Which is on brand for that part of New York. They're effectively all "second ring" suburbanites and the only issues they care about:

A) Cut my taxes! I don't want to pay for Dark Skinned People's Drug Addictions.
B) Pay more cops! I don't want Someone With Melanin moving into MY Neighborhood and lowering My Property Values!

And the NY State Democratic Party more or less played into their hands.

Show threadsOlOw-NHDec 19, 2022
Relish the lies...
Show threadEdith PrickleyDec 19, 2022
@sethcotlar This story is shocking. How did this guy breeze in with literally zero vetting? Is anyone at Nassau County GOP answering the phone? Or sober?
Show threaddialalphaDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar his lawyer probably used #ChatGPT to generate the statement.
Show thread@dlenaresDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar More troubling than the fraud and deceit is that it's unknown who is funding him. How did he go from not being able to pay $2000 in rent to head of a mysterious million dollar company with no named clients?
Show threadRichardDec 20, 2022

@sethcotlar It is breathtakingly awful and yet another example that Republicans cannot be trusted to pick people to run for higher office.

That said, it pisses me off that this story is running over a month after election day, and only after his SECOND run for US Congress in a district that is local to the TImes. A follow-up article (that they won't run) should be about why they didn't print this earlier, why the Democrats didn't hammer him on this stuff, whether the Republicans knew, etc.

Show threadDavid WaldmanDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar My theory is that Santos is the first AI chat bot elected to Congress.
Show threadPeter PrincipleDec 20, 2022

@sethcotlar That'a not even a "non-denial denial."

It's a "non-denial non-denial."

Show threadThe Velvet HammerDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar looks like his attorney practices the same imaginative bovine excrement that he does.
Show threadSouthern LeftistDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar Problems with American society:
- People being dumb enough to vote for Republicans.
- Not conducting background checks, literacy tests, etc. on political candidates preelection.
- Media outlets spewing right-wing hate speech without ramifications.
- The Republican Party.
#VoteRepublicansOut #Left #republican #Dems
Show threadJeffDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar Santos a lying weizel
Show threadBarneyRCN🇨🇦⚓️🎓Dec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar Keep at him! Nothing good can come of a lying congress person!
Show threadCatherine McKenzie CampbellDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar Did the Democrats just not do *any* oppo research? Gah!
Show threaddragonfrogDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar it's going to be awkward if Brazil makes a request under their extradition treaty...
Show threadPaul EvertonDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar lol
Show threadRadical EdwardDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar going to be honest my CV says I served in the British Thermal Unit during the second Punic war. No one has ever questioned it
Show threadgshevlinDec 20, 2022
@sethcotlar
What is the likelihood that "Joseph Murray, Esq" does not exist?
Show threadlolonurseDec 21, 2022
@sethcotlar
He needs to be recalled. He's counterfeit, and counterfeit things have no value, & counterfeiters go to jail!
Show threadThomas DavidDec 22, 2022

@sethcotlar

Why didn't the 4th estate look into this guy before he got elected? Now what recourse is there? People like this don't resign out of shame....

Show threadJimDec 24, 2022
@sethcotlar It's getting even worse, he has a recent divorce.