George Santos resignation calls mount as Republicans seek replacements

Pressure is mounting on House Republican George Santos to give up his seat after it was revealed he made up large parts of his resume, including his educational, work and family background.

The leader of the Nassau County Republican Party, which makes up much of Santos’ New York 3^approx Congressional District, said it will issue a statement about the “disgraced” congressman at 11:30 a.m. ET today.

Chairman Joseph G. Cairo Jr. will be accompanied by “dozens of Nassau GOP-elected officials,” sparking online speculation they may ask Santos to resign.

According to Semafor reporter Kadia Goba, local Republicans have already debated who should run in place of Santos, who flipped the formerly Democrat-controlled seat in November.

She tweeted, “The Nassau County GOP will make an important announcement Wednesday regarding the ‘disgraced’ George Santos.

“When they hear if this is a call for his resignation, they will support newly elected NY State Senator Jack Martins as the Republican nominee for NY-3.”

news week asked Martins for comment.

NEW: Nassau County GOP will make a major announcement regarding the “disgraced” George Santos on Wednesday.

When they hear if this is a call for his resignation, they will support newly elected NY State Senator Jack Martins as the Republican nominee for NY-3. pic.twitter.com/ptG4U13LbE

— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) January 11, 2023

Washington Post Reporter Azi Paybarah retweeted Goba’s post, adding, “Support for Santos in NY-03 appears to be… non-existent.”

Martins represented New York’s 7th^th District in the State Senate between 2011 and 2016 and was re-elected in November 2022 and took office on January 1.

On December 31st the Washington Post New York State Conservative Party leader Gerard Kassar said Santos “made it clear to me that he had no intention of running for office again.”

Citizens for Ethics, a campaign group targeting officials it believes have “sacrificed the public good for special interests and personal gain,” on Tuesday called on Santos to resign, adding he should not receive intelligence information if he refuses.

In a statement, the group said: “George Santos should resign from Congress, but if he refuses, Kevin McCarthy must not put Santos on a committee where he is given access to classified information, according to a letter sent by CREW today.

“Santos’s misrepresentations of large swaths of his background have demonstrated his tendency to lie for reasons of power and personal gain.

In conversation with the New York Post In December, Santos admitted he hadn’t worked at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, or graduated from Baruch College, as he had claimed.

Santos had claimed to be the “grandson of Holocaust refugees” who fled Ukraine and then Belgium, but an investigation was carried out The forward concluded that they had been born in Brazil before World War II.

In response, Santos said, “I never claimed to be Jewish. I am catholic. Because I learned that my maternal family was of Jewish background, I said I was ‘Jewish’.”

On Tuesday, a video of Santos being followed by reporters through Congress while refusing to answer their questions went viral, garnering more than 5.7 million views on Twitter.

George Santos has been contacted for comment.