Republicans have a growing election fraud problem: columnist

The deep dive into lies used by New York Republican George Santos to get himself elected to Congress has opened up a can of worms for Republicans as more GOP lawmakers are being scrutinized over biographical claims that don't match up with reality.

With new revelations about the New York Republican's sketchy seemingly dropping every day, Santos has drawn the major share of scrutiny, but two of his House colleagues, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (FL) and Andrew Ogles (TN), are also now being forced to explain what can be charitably be described as misrepresentations.

According to Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, the Republican Party has a new and different type of election problem.

In her column, she noted that a party that has looked the other way while Donald Trump made an estimated 30,573 "false or misleading claims," according to the Washington Post, has become a haven for those lawmakers willing to play fast and loose with facts if that will get them in positions of power.

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"This shouldn’t be surprising. Republicans have long abandoned the notion that politics is about problem solving or 'public service.' When politics becomes performance art, the more extravagant the claims they make — whether they are about themselves or the world — the better," she wrote. "Moreover, Trump and right-wing media (including the Fox News anchors who privately disparaged viewers and conceded that Trump was lying about the election) have proved that a large segment of Republican voters will buy anything."

Worse still, she charged, the Republican leadership appears to condone lying within their caucus by not doing anything about it.

"These characters certainly know that GOP leaders will exact no punishment for scamming voters. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) is so desperate to keep his job that he has sacrificed critical powers and returned extreme characters such as Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) to House committees. He isn’t about to eject members for making up degrees or phony heroic details about their past," she wrote before bluntly concluding, "When a party decides to peddle in lies and propaganda, they can expect liars and propagandists to fill their ranks. When the incentive to mislead voters is greater than any incentive to tell the truth, you wind up with a party of charlatans. In other words, today’s GOP."

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