Republican Jewish Coalition denounces Santos for lies about his credentials

The Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday condemned Rep.-elect George Santos after he admitted to lying about key details of his credentials and misrepresenting his Jewish heritage.

“We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos,” RJC, a political group that supports Jewish Republicans, said in a statement. “He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage.”

After a New York Times investigation last week called out inconsistencies in his résumé, Santos (R-N.Y.) on Monday told the New York Post that he had indeed fabricated elements of his background in the lead-up to November’s midterm elections. Santos admitted he hadn’t “directly” worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and had not graduated from Baruch College, nor “from any institution of higher learning.”

Santos also conceded that he’d embellished his family’s Jewish history, having previously claimed his mother was Jewish and his maternal grandparents escaped the Holocaust during World War II. The congressman-elect conversely told the New York Post that he is “clearly Catholic” and that his grandmother had told stories about being Jewish and later converting to Catholicism.

The 34-year-old Long Island Republican has in public comments referred to himself as “half Jewish” and a “Latino Jew.” Santos during his campaign wrote in a position paper obtained by Forward — a nonprofit Jewish news website — that he was “a proud American Jew.”

He told the Post on Monday that he had “never claimed to be Jewish” but had rather asserted he was “Jew-ish.”

“In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish,” RJC said in its statement Tuesday. “He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note. He will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”

RJC’s condemnation of Santos is one of the first to come from the right, as Republicans have largely remained silent on the controversy thus far. Democrats, on the other hand, are calling for Santos to resign his seat in light of the scandal.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had previously touted Santos’ election to Congress as contributing to the largest Republican Jewish caucus in more than 24 years. But McCarthy has yet to comment on Santos — who has publicly voiced his support for McCarthy’s potential House speakership — since the controversy broke.

Santos was elected in November to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District, home to a large Jewish population, and told the New York Post that the recent controversy wouldn’t deter him from serving his two-year term in Congress.