Introducing - Deep Cover: George Santos

Published Sep 25, 2024, 7:00 AM

George Santos, the former Republican Congressman from New York, told a lot of stories about his life and his credentials. Many of which, it turns out, were not true. 

Deep Cover Producer Amy Gaines McQuade, who grew up in Santos’ congressional district, speaks with insiders and experts to try to answer the question: Who is George Santos… really? Listen to Deep Cover: George Santos wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Jake Calbern and I'm in your feed with a preview of my podcast, deep Cover George Santos. It's all about the former Republican congressman from New York who told a lot of stories about his life and his credentials, many of which turns out were not true. But how deep do his lives go? If you enjoy this preview, you can find deep Cover George Santos wherever you listen to podcasts. Okay, so how are you going to start this?

Well, I'm really excited. This is kind of new for us.

Absolutely a little role reversal. Amy Gains McQuaid is my producer. She's worked on the past four seasons of deep Cover. It may not have heard Amy's voice, but in effect you did, because when we do a season of deep Cover, Amy's the one that reads through all thousand pages of the court transcript and knows every last detail. She's the one who helps me track down sources and we through hours of interviews to make the episodes that you've heard. So while we're hard at work on the next season of deep Cover, we have a special mini series for you in a brand new format, about a year ago. Amy comes to me and says, look, there's this story I really want to report, A story that took place in fact where Amy had grown up, A story about a man who may just be one of the greatest liars of all time, which got my attention because it sounded an awful lot like a deep cover story unfolding in real time.

George Anthony de Volder Santos, Oh.

Good morning, chabatchallme to everybody.

This is him speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition in twenty twenty two.

I'm a first generation born American, like many in our great nation. My parents came to this country in search of the American dream.

Today he ran for Congress to represent New York's third District on Long Island, which is where I grew up, and a huge part of his message was this that he was the embodiment of the American dream. And that message worked because he won.

Only in this country can the little boy born in a basement apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City become a United States Congressman at thirty four?

Okay?

Interesting, So I know there's a lot more that he said on the campaign trail, but can you just give me the recap.

So the version of George Santos that he sold on the campaign trail was that George Stantos was a successful businessman working in the financial industry. He claimed that he'd worked for Goldman, Sachs and City Group. He claimed that he had gone to college at Baruch and NYU. He had also told some stories about his personal life.

I'm very proud of my Jewish heritage. I'm very proud of my grandparents'.

Story, claiming Jewish heritage, and said that some of his family members had survived the Holocaust. Here he is speaking to a reporter for a Jewish news service.

I'm so proud to be able to keep our family going forward and showing that not only did we survive, but now I'm able to go advocate and fight for other Jewish people all across my district.

So the story that he told was an inspiring one. Here he was the son of Brazilian immigrants who had built this impressive life for himself, living in New York City as an openly gay man working on Wall Street, getting into politics, and it seemed like this moment when he won would just be the cherry on top. He was going to be a congressman.

I mean it's inspiring. I'm kind of inspired hearing it.

But in the coming weeks and months, another narrative would start to emerge, a different version of George Santos, one that was far more alarming. And if it were true, then this was a man who lied, cheated, and stole from people who trusted him. Basically one man with two faces, and it left a lot of people, including myself, wondering who is the real George Santos. I think the thing that a lot of people might remember is the New York Times story that broke in December of twenty twenty two, because it was pretty explosive.

Yeah, I remember that headline.

The story revealed that Santos had essentially fabricated a lot of information on his resume. But through my reporting, I've been finding that that story was really just the beginning. So George Santos is actually scheduled to go to trial in just a few weeks in September. He's facing a whole bunch of charges, wirefraud, money laundering, falsifying records, identity theft, a whole bunch. I've been talking with lots of people to essentially try and figure out how did George Santos go from lies about where he went to school and where he worked, to allegations of serious federal crimes, crimes that could land him in prison for roughly two decades, and just how deep do his lives go. This is deep Cover George Santos Episode one, the campaign. Jake, I want to go back in time to that moment when the New York Times story broke, because that's when the cracks in Santos's facade really start to show. Okay, So two journalists at the New York Times, their names are Grace Ashford and Michael Gold. They come out with this massive story. It's called who is Rep. Elect George Santos? His resume may be largely fiction. The headline from this story is really, maybe this guy isn't who he claimed to be? And that for me was a moment where I heard from basically everyone in my life who knew I was from Long Island and knew that I worked on stories like this, and just you know, asking me, what the fuck what happened here? Who is this guy? And how did he get elected? He's you know, living this double life essentially, who he says he is in public, but who he actually is in private? And one person who is in the center of this mess was George Santos's communications director. Her name is Nasa Woomer. Do you remember where you were when the New York Times story broke? Oh? I do? I know exactly where.

I was.

Actually coming out of the Starbucks and it broke, and I was heading into our office right by the State House.

And the time here is really interesting because she actually accepted the job right before the New York Times story broke. Everyone is sending like, Nissa, have you seen this?

Oh?

My god, is this the guy you're working for? My stomach had dropped and I thought, what the well. I don't want to say the F bomb, but that's what I'm thinking.

At this point, Like how many days on the job is she?

By the way, so Nasa hasn't actually started working for Santos in that moment. She's still working in Boston for the Republican administration there, so she's not actually even in touch with George Santos, but she did hear through the grape vine through some staffer that a story about Santos would be coming.

I already knew there was going to be a hit piece. But my understanding was that this was just going to be We thought it was going to be a traditional hit piece of conservative Republican Flip's Democrat seat.

But of course that was not the New York Times story at all. The New York Times story made clear that a lot of the stories that George Santos had told on the campaign trail were at best inaccurate, at worst entirely fabricated. And so after the story publishes, Santos comes out with this statement through his attorney that says, quote, it's no surprise that Congressmen Elect Santos has enemies at the New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.

I even spoke with the chief of staff and he said he's speaking with his lawyers.

They're going to handle it.

And I just said, okay, well, like they need to handle it immediately, because you know, this is this is really bad.

And is Santo's freaking out at this point.

So I can't vouch for how Santos was feeling because I have not spoken with him directly. We've tried, yes, yes, we've reached out to him for comment. So far he's declined those requests. But Santos appears you have been attempting some damage control. He's not giving a ton of interviews, but he does grant one to Fox News and it's a guest anchor. So it is Tulsi Gabbard conducting the interview. First question I really want to ask you now that all this has been revealed, is what does the word integrity mean to you?

Well, Tulsi, thank you for having me, you know, to answer your question. Integrity is very important, and Bellisi, what does it mean?

Though?

What does it mean? Because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice.

Of course, it means to carry yourself in an honorable way. And I made a mistake, and I think humans are flawed and we all make mistakes.

Tulsi, this is Fox News, and he's a Republican and he's getting very hostile treatment here. So, I mean, lord knows what would happen if he had gone on MSNBC or even CNN. I'm wondering how is this playing out with his constituents?

Yeah, I mean I remember the reaction was pretty swift.

George Chantos's campaign last year was a campaign of decee wise fabrication. He deceived the voters of the third Congressional District.

That's Joe Cairo, the head of the Republican Party in Nasa County. This is from a press conference they held where he, along with other New York Republicans, actually asked for Santos' resignation.

There's absolutely no way mister Santos can be an effective member of Congress and represent the people who elected him.

One of the questions I have is, like, talk to me about this district that elects him.

Yeah.

So Santos ran in New York's third Congressional District, which, if you've ever looked at a political map, you know these districts get drawn in a kind of crazy, nonsensical way. When you look at the district itself, it holds part of Nasa County, which is where I grew up, and specifically in my neighborhood. I can say it's a lot of working class folks, so people who commute into New York City every day, cops, firefighters, teachers. It also includes the north shore of Long Island, which is like Gatsbey Country. There's lots of big houses and old money and over the years, the district has changed, the lines have been redrawn, but by the time that Santos was running, the district included a little sliver of Queens, which is actually where Santos grew up.

It's funny because when you describe it, I totally almost get why he would have to be a guy, that would be a chameleon, that would have to be able to play a lot of different parts, because his constituency is just like a crazy cross section of America.

Yeah, and I think when George Santos is running for office, he is building the narrative around himself that he started from nothing and built himself into a successful businessman in the financial industry. So he claims that he was working for Goldman Sachs, he claims that he was working for City Group.

None of these things are true. None of that is a crime, that's true.

But it's around the same moment in time that new reports are emerging that Santos is being investigated for actual crimes he may have committed.

The Republican District Attorney of Nassau County says she's looking into whether any of those fabrications amounted to crimes and federal Prosecutors are also looking into Santos's financial disclosures. Stunning revelations and questions about his personal and professional life continue to come to light, including new questions about the money he spent on his campaign.

We'll be right back

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