Republican-elect George Santos of New York admitted to lying about certain things on his resume in two separate interviews on Monday. However, he said he hasn’t committed any crimes and intends to serve in Congress. Santos’s employment and education history have been under scrutiny ever since discrepancies arose. He spoke with WABC radio and the New York Post about the matter for the first time and acknowledged he did fabricate certain items.
“I am not a criminal. Not here, not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes,” Santos told WABC radio host John Catsimatidis.
“To get down to the nit and gritty, I’m not a fraud. I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictional character and ran for Congress. I’ve been around a long time. I mean, a lot of people know me. They know who I am. They’ve done business dealings with me,” he added.
Talking about his past employment, Santos said that he has never worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs directly. Although, he says he did work for the financial firms, through his company. He told New York Post that it was a “poor choice of words” to say he worked for them.
He also admitted to never having graduated from any college or university, contrary to his earlier claims that he holds degrees from Baruch College and New York University.
“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he told the Post. “We do stupid things in life,” he added.
“I want to make sure that if I disappointed anyone by resume embellishment, I am sorry.”
Issues with his college education and employment history in his resume were first pointed out by the New York Times last week.
A CNN report says that Santos’s claims that his grandparents survived the Holocaust also seem to be contradicted by family trees compiled by genealogy websites, records on Jewish refugees and interviews with several genealogists.
“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos told the Post. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
(With inputs from agencies)
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