{"id":602243,"date":"2023-01-27T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/27\/i-have-no-enemies-at-least-where-santos-really-stands-in-the-house-gop\/"},"modified":"2023-01-27T03:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T09:30:00","slug":"i-have-no-enemies-at-least-where-santos-really-stands-in-the-house-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/27\/i-have-no-enemies-at-least-where-santos-really-stands-in-the-house-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I have no enemies, at least\u2019: Where Santos really stands in the House GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nThe New York Republican became a migraine for his party only last month after reports raised questions about whether George Santos lied extensively about his past. | Alex Brandon\/AP Photo\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Everyone in the Capitol seems to be talking about George Santos. Almost no fellow Republican, however, appears to be forging real bonds with him.<\/p>\n

The New York Republican became a migraine for his party only last month after reports raised questions about whether Santos lied extensively about his past \u2014 not to mention about the controversial far-right group he\u2019s associated with<\/a>. But even as Santos finds himself taking questions live on the radio from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), it\u2019s far from clear that he\u2019s welcome among most conservative lawmakers. <\/p>\n

During conversations with a dozen House Republicans, a picture emerged of a Santos who\u2019s more reserved among his colleagues than his recent spotlight-seeking suggests, holding friendly conversations here and there without directly cultivating many allies. Members often remarked they had no idea who he spends time with \u2014 but it certainly isn\u2019t them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cTo my knowledge, hardly any of the New York members speak with him,\u201d said first-term Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), the first GOP member to call for Santos to resign. \u201cThere\u2019s really nothing to speak about. He\u2019s a totally untrustworthy individual who has broken the public\u2019s trust \u2026 He\u2019s become an embarrassment. He\u2019s become a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos himself demurred when POLITICO asked about his standing in the conference: \u201cI\u2019m not gonna say they\u2019re all my friends \u2026 I have no enemies at least,\u201d he said, adding he has \u201cconfidantes\u201d but noting it is \u201ctoo soon\u201d in his term for \u201cspecial relationships.\u201d He quipped that he\u2019s in more of a \u201crelationship\u201d with the political press.<\/p>\n

His status as a man on an island could prove politically risky, particularly if the consequences of his apparent fabrications continue to pile up and prompt more resignation calls. For the moment, Santos\u2019 biggest ally may be the speaker who needs his vote in a slim majority, even though Kevin McCarthy\u2019s famous freshman has done little but cause PR problems. <\/p>\n

Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) agreed, when asked, that most House Republicans are keeping their distance from Santos.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number one thing in this town is, people don\u2019t like being criticized for what they do. They really don\u2019t like answering questions about what somebody else has done,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cIf nothing but out of political expedience, people are gonna avoid him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos tends to flash a smile as he bounces around the Capitol halls, often encircled by an aggressive barrage of news cameras and persistent press questions. This week he took the practice of catering to the spotlight rather literally,laying out Chick-fil-A and Dunkin\u2019 Donuts<\/a> for the reporters waiting outside his office. <\/p>\n

Few of his colleagues expect that glare to dim quickly. Asked whether Santos\u2019 seat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee would cast a brighter light on a typically wonky panel, Chair Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) laughed and replied: \u201cThe Science Committee in recent times has a reputation for being a rather calm, focused, some people almost would say sedate existence. We\u2019re gonna get livened up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas projected little concern about Santos becoming a distraction to his committee, observing that \u201cevery member has strengths, every member has weaknesses\u201d and adding that he would have to \u201cfigure out, in this particular case, what those are, and work with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But other Republicans are less copacetic about the Santos Show that\u2019s taking shape this Congress. Those who saw his ascension as a blatant manipulation of the party apparatus, from the National Republican Congressional Committee to the staffers on his campaign payroll, are particularly alarmed that he\u2019s managing to hang on despite lacking major allies.<\/p>\n

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), a former NRCC chair, said that \u201cI don\u2019t know what he told\u201d the campaign arm, but \u201cif he deceived them, he deceived our conference. … You always have to be sensitive to who are going to be your candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Republicans close to Santos\u2019 team say they, too, were completely in the dark about his fabrications, recalling that he often mentioned stories unprompted that later proved inaccurate, such as his claims to have played volleyball for Baruch College.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not an inside job. We were all duped here,\u201d said one of the Republicans close to Santos\u2019 team, before referring to a famed con woman who inspired a Netflix TV series: \u201cWe got Anna Delvey\u2019d.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos\u2019 campaign had assembled its own opposition file to review the candidate\u2019s vulnerabilities, according to these two Republicans, both of whom were briefed on its contents. They said the file included parking tickets, details about his ex-wife and questions about his education \u2014 but that Santos was quick to explain away the questions about his schooling, attributing them at times to recording errors based on multiple names he had used and to his frequent moves.<\/p>\n

At one frenetic point in the campaign, according to the two Republicans, Santos declared to a room of aides that he needed a moment to collect himself because he had just learned that his cancer had returned \u2014 he\u2019s asserted a brain tumor occasionally in the past<\/a> but avoided follow-up questions about it. His team immediately pulled back their demand to express support, underscoring what both Republicans close to his team referred to as a genuinely high level of kindness between the candidate and his staff. <\/p>\n

But the issue of his cancer faded from the conversation on the trail almost as quickly as it materialized. <\/p>\n

One of the Republicans close to his team said that some donors have urged Santos to stay in office amid the GOP\u2019s thin margins and the reality that his district would be tough for another Republican to win.<\/p>\n

Santos\u2019 office did not respond to a request for comment about his health claims or questions about the internal opposition file.<\/p>\n

Weeks before the first reports brought Santos\u2019 misrepresentations to light, the House GOP was already catching on to his future pariah status. After then-Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) finished giving GOP members-elect a Capitol tour in November, Davis remarked in an interview that Santos would trigger the next Congress\u2019 first special election.<\/p>\n

Now that Santos is a full-fledged House GOP conference member, fellow Republican lawmakers are tied to his falsehoods as they push for accountability and transparency in their pending oversight of the Biden administration. And they\u2019re not certain whether he has any path to redemption inside the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the answer to that question,\u201d one House Republican said, speaking candidly about Santos\u2019 standing on condition of anonymity. \u201cI think it\u2019s just going to depend on what [the] Ethics [committee] and [the Justice Department] find.\u201d <\/p>\n

Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), themselves at odds during McCarthy\u2019s speakership battle, have stuck up for Santos in public by arguing that he should receive committee assignments. The Floridian, who got a taste of ostracism during a federal sex trafficking probe that ensnared him before he was cleared last year, told CNN earlier this month that Santos shouldn\u2019t be \u201csubject to shunning\u201d by his colleagues. <\/p>\n

Asked why he would defend Santos, Gaetz spoke on principle, saying that his colleague \u201crepresents 700,000-plus people \u2026 if they voted for him and sent him here, they don\u2019t deserve to have their representative ignored on substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t quite mean Santos is considered a friend. When that question came up, Gaetz cheekily replied: \u201cWe take all sinners on my row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos, for his part, brushed off the calls for him to resign, arguing that \u201ceverybody\u2019s entitled to their opinion and to their prerogative, but at the end of the day, we\u2019re all working here in this body.\u201d But even if he can finish his term, his time in office may be limited to two years: He\u2019d face an incredibly steep climb to reelection, with the Nassau County GOP and New York Conservative Party already pushing for his departure.<\/p>\n

So for the time being, Washington might find him next seeking relationships across the aisle. Santos also said in an interview that he \u201ccan\u2019t wait to start talking to Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n By Olivia Beavers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Republican became a migraine for his party only last month after reports raised questions about whether George Santos lied extensively about his past. | Alex Brandon\/AP Photo Everyone in the Capitol seems to be talking about George Santos. Almost no fellow Republican, however, appears to be forging real bonds with him. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":602244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67013,534,2673],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-602243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-enemies","8":"category-financial","9":"category-least"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}