Rumor Round-Up: Santos, Suozzi, GOP

                                                                                  

George Santos

This blog tries to write news that is not covered by other media: Hence the name: Liuncoverednews.

But finding something new to write about Congressman-Elect George Santos is hard. It seems that every news outlet in the nation is now writing about every aspect of the strange Republican's life since the New York Times revealed two weeks ago that Santos' public resume is filled with lies and misrepresentations.

It's not even certain where he lives. Queens? Huntington?

It was obvious to old-timers in the news business that the New York Times story was an orchestrated political hit against a member of the slim new Republican majority U.S. House.

Otherwise, why didn't the Times --  or nearly anyone else -- report Santos suspect background before the election?

Only two small weekly chains in the North Shore Nassau Congressional Third District hit Santos about his questionable past before the election but nobody picked up on it. It wasn't national news until Santos in November beat Democrat Robert Zimmerman, who was the expected winner of the race.

Both Republican Grant Lally, who runs the North Shore Leader weekly chain and left-leaning Steve Blank who runs theIsland360 weeklies, slammed Santos before the election. Lally in particular pointed out the financial discrepancies in his campaign reports.

But nobody else picked up, including Newsday, Long Island's newspaper of record, which has been more interested in investigating old police misconduct incidents than current news in an apparent campaign for a Pulitzer Prize.

The reason:  Nobody expected Santos to win.

Santos always seemed strange and suspect. It was never clear what he did for a living. And he seldom gave interviews to any news outlet. 

A younger Santos

But the major blame must be placed on outgoing U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), who ran against Santos in 2020 but decided against seeking re-election this year, and Zimmerman, a national Democratic committeeman  and public relations executive who is respected by all sides of the political spectrum.

During the campaign, Zimmerman never issued a new release stressing Santos questionable claims, nor confronted him during the Newsday debate. He says the media knew about the lies, but Zimmernan's focus, like all the state Democrats this year,  was on gun control and abortion rights.  

Suozzi also never revealed Santos lies, which were just as prevalent in the 2020 campaign as this year.

Former Democratic Congressman Steve Israel wrote about Suozzi in a story for the Atlantic:
"I asked Suozzi if he'd found anything of note in his opposition research, but Suozzi said he hadn't bothered to do much. 'It was the middle of COVID.' He said Santos 'had only $40,000 in his campaign account and he was a nut. We ignored him and won by 12 points.'"

Suozzi told MSNBC, "I didn't take him that seriously."

Nobody did even after Santos beat Suozzi on election night by nearly 4,200 votes. Absentee ballots subsequently put Suozzi over the top.

Talking about Suozzi, there is gossip out there that instead of taking the expected job with Optimum or Northwell, where all defeated politicians seem to land, he is taking a position with an international food charity, an odd rumor at best. But if true, that would take him out of running again for the Third District, which many have speculated.

Perhaps that would explain the near daily rash of press releases slamming Santos by Nassau Legis. Josh Lafazan (D-Woodbury).

Lafazan was endorsed by Suozzi in the crowded Democratic primary for the Third District. He also used Suozzi's chief spokesperson, Kim Devlin during the primary campaign but ran a poor third in the race despite spending the most money.

Perhaps Lafazan knows Suozzi is out of the race and hopes to run again, even though he faces his own ethical problems. (A questionable 'student loan" that he didn't disclose on his county financial reports for two years and campaign support from PAC essentially funded by accused cryptocurrency fraudster, Sam Bankman-Fried.)

More rumor and speculation: There is talk that national Republicans, who have denounced Santos lies but stopped short of calling for his ouster, will demand his resignation after he is sworn in and votes for Kevin McCarthy as the new House speaker.

National and Nassau Republicans always found Santos suspect. When McCarthy and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise came to Long Island before the election to help Republican Anthony D'Esposito, who won his race for the Fourth District congressional seat,  and U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, who lost his challenge against Democrat Kathy Hochul for governor, they apparently did not visit with Santos. If they did, it was kept very quiet.

Again, nobody expected Santos to win, even though the polls were showing he was ahead before the election.

News outlets are now looking at Santos campaign expenditures, which  deserve scrutiny. But no, his spending wasn't completely outlandish as suggested by Newsday.

Santos was a piker in terms of his reported campaign spending on food and drink compared to former Republican Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano.

Newsday reports Santos, in two years, spent $31,270 at restaurants.

The campaign committee for Mangano, who now serving a 12-year prison term after being convicted in federal court for taking kickbacks and bribes from restaurateur Harendra Singh, spent $56,000 on food in drink in the six months from Jan. 14 through July 14, 2014, Newsday reported then. 

The tab included  $317.74 for a Hooter's restaurant in Orlando, which wasn't illegal. Just questionable. And Mangano was not running for re-election at that time.

Mangano is appealing his conviction.

In comparison, the NY Post reports that Santos' campaign filings lists 37 expenditures between April 2021 and February 2022 — each totaling exactly $199.99. The figure is one cent below the minimum amount at which federal law requires receipts.

Santos camp claims it was a data base error.