Rep. George Santos (R-NY) said that he could not prove that his maternal grandparents fled from the Holocaust while Russia was at war with Ukraine.
On Sunday, CNN's Manu Raju noted before his interview with Santos that media outlets have been unable to find evidence of his grandmother fleeing to Brazil.
"Oh, it's true," Santos told Raju. "I spent the last ten months, DNA, hiring genealogists."
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"I don't think there's documentation of this," Raju said.
"That's what I spent the last ten months doing, putting together," Santos insisted. "But unfortunately, Ukraine is in the middle of a freaking war. And my grandfather comes from Ukraine."
Santos called the effort to prove his genealogy "the biggest lift that I've had to do my entire life."
"I am working on finishing getting the last pieces of it, specifically the piece in Brazil, where they go to Brazil and then have documents forged so that they can blend in and all of that," the embattled lawmaker explained.
"And once I have everything ready, I will allow the same company I hired to submit the report to the press with glee, because that is going to be that one thing that I'm going to be able to say, I never intended to hurt anybody," he concluded.
Watch the video below from CNN or at the link.
