George Santos Swears He Can Name All Those Other Frauds in Congress
George Santos insisted he was ready to expose all those other frauds in Congress, talked about his political future, and tried to remember some Civil Rights icons during his eagerly anticipated post-expulsion interview with Ziwe.
To the extent that anything “news-y” came out of the 18-minute “exposé,” you could maybe look to Santos’ insistence of rampant fraud in the halls of Congress. “If you were to put them all under the same scrutiny I was put under, you’d fucking vacate the whole goddamn building,” he said.
Ziwe then named a handful of congresspeople and Santos replied fraud or not, but without giving specifics. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, according to Santos, were not frauds, while Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, and Bob Menendez were. When asked about his former fellow New York congressperson, Dan Goldman, Santos parroted recent claims from a lawsuit that Goldman owes “$180,000 worth of rent right now on his $45,000 monthly rent, which is what most Americans fucking make a year.” (Goldman has denied the allegations.)
Elsewhere, Santos declared he wouldn’t be “ruling out” another run for Congress in the future. He said he’d potentially run again as a Republican, but also floated pivoting to an independent. Later, when grumbling about his expulsion, Santos declared, “I’ll be back … I’m 35, they’re all in their 50s. I’ll outlive them, each and last one of them.”
Really, though, the whole exercise was about the bits, starting with the bag stuffed with cash not-so-subtly placed on the book shelf behind Santos’ shoulder. The interview began with Santos struggling to remember, let alone say anything of note, about the contributions of major Civil Rights activists and thinkers, like Marsha P. Johnson, James Baldwin, and Harvey Milk. He did say he liked Bowen Yang’s impression of him on SNL, though.
Ziwe also managed to rope Santos into spitting Nicki Minaj lyrics, saying “icon” and “slay the boots house down” on multiple occasions, and discussing the one day he spent as a drag queen. “If I was a career drag queen then — like everybody likes to claim — then I must be a myth of a drag queen now cause I wear far more makeup today than I did in that picture,” Santos said of himself.
During a rapid fire round, Ziwe asked if Santos would rather shoplift from Sephora or Ulta, and replied “Neither, I don’t do petty crimes.” Not missing a beat, Ziwe said, “White collar,” and moved on.
To his absolute minimal credit, Santos did get one burn on Ziwe near the end of the interview. When Ziwe asked Santos if he was like Tinkerbell, and would disappear if we all stopped clapping, he curtly replied, “No.” When Ziwe asked what could be done to make him disappear, Santos retorted, “Stop inviting me to your gigs.”
He added a few moments later: “But you can’t, because people want the content.”
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