Behind the sketchy George Santos scheme Republicans used to flip House seat
A newly elected Democratic lawmaker broke down a potentially illegal scheme George Santos and his Republican backers used to flip a House seat in New York.
The New York Republican has admitted to fabricating his background during the campaign, and fellow congressman-elect Dan Goldman told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Santos was emblematic of the GOP's "win-at-all-costs" view of election integrity.
"It's not being rebuked by House leadership, there's no comment, and what it really just goes to show is that George Santos' view of elections is very consistent with Republicans' view of elections, is that they no longer need to be free and fair," Goldman said. "They just need to make sure that Republicans win, and in addition to his lies about his background, his education, his work experience, his religion, his properties, I mean, the list goes on and on and on, he's got real, real suspicious financial activity, and I think the easiest way to explain it is, there are either two situations here, both of which are bad for him."
"One is that he used his entity that he created as a pass-through for donors to far exceed campaign finance limits by, essentially, giving his corporation money, which then Santos transferred from the corporation to his own bank account, and then from his bank account to his campaign," Goldman continued. "That's a violation of campaign finance laws. But even if it was legitimate, and even if somehow this corporation that was created a year ago all of a sudden had millions of dollars of, quote, contracts or agreements, it still isn't legal because then Santos is the pass-through for a corporation to give to his own campaign."
Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into the arrangement described by Goldman, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped lead the 2019 impeachment of Donald Trump, and Santos' other financial arrangements.
"What we know is that very wealthy Republican donors have agreements with Santos," Goldman said, "but that begs the question is this really a way to funnel even more money into his campaign for his seat in New York."
Goldman agreed the state's Democratic Party or reporters should have uncovered Santos' deception before the election, but he said that missed the point.
"It is not investigative journalism's fault or the Democrats' fault that we have a con man who absolutely obliterated the truth in order to get elected," he said. "That is George Santos' fault, and that needs to be where the conversation is. This guy is clearly an impostor who continues to lie and lie. It's not the media fault, it's not the Democrats' fault. It's George Santos' fault, and it's now the Republicans' fault because they're not speaking out against him and they're welcoming him into Congress because they can become an anti-democratic party that does not care about free and fare elections."
"Instead, they care about power and winning and they'll do it at all costs," Goldman added. "We saw tell with Donald Trump in 2020 and across the country in recent elections, but George Santos is the continuation of that attack on democracy, and until the Republican Party will stand up for democracy, that is the greatest threat for our country."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
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