'Complete chaos': Reporter struggles to contain laughter while discussing new George Santos scandal
MSNBC's Chris Hayes and The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger struggled to contain their laughter on Wednesday evening while trying to explain the latest round of controversy surrounding Rep. George Santos (R-NY), the embattled lawmaker caught lying about almost every aspect of his campaign biography.
This comes amid reports that the Santos campaign has "amended" their filings with the Federal Election Commission to reflect that $500,000 of a supposed personal loan Santos gave himself wasn't actually his money — while leaving it unclear where the money actually came from, and raising the possibility it was contributed illegally.
"So this is something I have always — I don't feel we have a clear answer on we may not yet," said Hayes "There's $700,000 total of loans that were recorded by the FEC of Santos loaning his campaign. And the question always was to me, where did the money come from? Did Santos get rich, suddenly, through opaque means and loan himself the money? Did someone else loan him the money and Santos was the kind of way station for it? Or, given that it's Santos, it just never existed and no one loaned the campaign the money and it's totally invented. I feel like I still don't know which of those three it is."
"I think I can confidently say that it's probably not the third," said Sollenberger. "The campaign has reported spending almost as much money as it took in. So you can see it going in, but there are questions on how some of that spending plays out. That's been the subject of a complaint with the FEC about Santos's finances. But it does appear to me as if the money did come into the campaign. It's true. But I think the most pressing question, is where the money come from?"
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There is still possibility, Sollenberger added, that it came from corporate spending by his own firm, or that he was acting as his own straw donor with someone else transferring him the cash — either of which would be against federal law.
"So let's just establish this," said Hayes. "It looks like from the FEC that that money did flow in. And now we have an amended filing saying it wasn't personal loans. The question, is where'd the money come from?"
"Yeah, so there is a treasurer that he has had who was a treasurer for a number of campaigns," said Sollenberger. "She's been handling his books. She filed a ton of amendments just yesterday and then unchecked these boxes. The treasurer has criminal liability that the candidate doesn't. You have to swear to the government that what you're telling them was accurate and true. And several campaign finance experts told me today, if they were that treasurer and they suddenly had questions about claims they made on forms saying that they knew these came from the candidates personal funds and they actually didn't know that for a fact to be true, they would uncheck that box."
"I see what you're saying," said Hayes. "And this woman, who was also a treasurer for a very fairly prominent, well-known Republican figure, she has not answered questions from the press. No one's been able to track her down for questions, is that right?"
"I don't know anybody who has been in touch with her, but they also changed treasurers today," said Sollenberger, cracking a smile. "And the new treasurer also is a noted treasurer. His lawyer told me that that was a mistake, that he never accepted the job and they don't know how those filings got there. So it's unclear to me whether he even has a treasurer. You needed a treasurer to raise money, that's the law also. It's just complete chaos here."
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