George Santos is the first openly gay Republican congressman who represents the state of New York. As a minority, Santos should give credible insight to prevent discrimination; however, Santos has abused his newly found power and turned to lies. 

Santos has done inappropriate things with the money he has been granted due to his political power. Nymag.com reports, “He used campaign money for personal travel and Botox.” The report states. It can be easily concluded that Botox and travel expenses are not appropriate for any congress members to be using tax money on. However, this isn’t the only thing Santos has purchased with his embezzled money. 

As can be assumed, these allegations weren’t taken lightly by the citizens of New York who have been continuously lied to by a government official. As justice.gov states, “He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives.” Santos manipulated his citizens to gain the trust of his role as a congressman. 

After this, he abused his role by going against the government’s back and embezzling money for his expenses. As a result of this, Santos was charged with embezzling money from his campaign. As apnews.com states, “The 23-count indictment filed Tuesday replaces one filed in May against the New York Republican charging him with embezzling money from his campaign and lying to Congress about his wealth, among other offenses.” As concluded, Santos was charged with embezzling money and lying. 

Santos has also made shaky-at-best controversial topics such as victimhood faced by his family during the Holocaust. Santos is quoted saying in a 2022 interview, “My grandparents survived the Holocaust,” according to cnn.com. 

However, as rollingstone.com also states, “Members of Santos’ family were not listed in refugee records from the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center.” With how prominently Santos featured this quote in his speeches, despite it having no official proof, it is likely he used it in order to gain empathy for political gain. 

As citizens began to catch onto Santos’s schemes, the demand for an apology became profound. As a result of the pressure, Santos had no choice but to respond to the accusations. During a following interview, Santos responded by saying “I never claimed to be Jewish… I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”, according to timesofisrael.com. Instead of addressing the issue and apologizing, Santos tried to justify his claims.