Congressional Republicans are treating George Santos like a skunk. But they would do well to smell themselves. Because, thanks to Donald Trump, Santos personifies what their party has become.
‘Today, on behalf of the Nassau County Republican Committee, I’m calling for his immediate resignation,’ chairman Joseph G. Cairo said at a news conference on Long Island, adding that the congressman’s campaign was made up ‘of deceit, lies and fabrication.’
‘He deceived voters,’ Cairo said. “His lies were not mere fibs. He disgraced the House of Representatives. … He’s not welcome here at Republican headquarters.”
(CNN, January 12, 2023)
George Santos personifies MAGA Republicans
For Republicans, hypocrisy is now a virtue. And those calling for Santos to resign are demonstrating this.
After all, Trump’s presidential campaign was made up of “deceit, lies, and fabrication.” And this pathological liar is still telling the big lie that he won the 2020 presidential election. That one lie has disgraced the country and endangered its democracy. It makes all the lies Santos has told look like harmless white lies.
Yet the Republicans calling for Santos to resign are calling for Trump to run again. The gaslighting afoot is stupefying.
They are saying, for example, that Santos “deceived voters” by embellishing his resume. Yet the whole world now knows Trump did the same in spades. He even refused to release his tax returns. No doubt because he feared they would expose him as a tax-dodger and business charlatan.
The Speaker has spoken
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is highlighting the hypocrisy that now defines the Republican Party. It has become an article of political faith among Republicans.
That’s why McCarthy is admonishing the born-again Republicans calling for Santos to resign.
Look, the voters decide. That’s what his decision is to make. The voters elected him to serve.
(CNBC, January 12, 2023)
Trump was a conduit to political power. And that’s all that mattered to Republicans. Santos can provide a key vote to sustain his power. And that’s all that matters to McCarthy.
For the record, the most shocking of his debunked lies is that he’s not even gay or Jewish. But wait until we find out he’s not even “a man”…