It’s a small miracle if a day passes without the media uncovering an absurd new lie from George Santos. Politico reported on Thursday, for instance, that the scandal-ridden congressman was once charged with passing bad checks to Amish dog breeders. It isn’t a great look for the Republican Party, and Mitt Romney, maybe the only GOP lawmaker with any concern for upholding decorum, took issue with Santos’ flair for fabrication at Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “You don’t belong here,” Romney reportedly sniped at Santos. “Go tell that to the 142,000 that voted for me!” Santos shot back.
Santos has had a rough go of it, deservedly, but he did tell Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on Thursday that he found an ally in another full-of-shit opportunist: Kyrsten Sinema. “As she was walking by, the senator from Arizona, she said something to the effect of, ‘Hang in there buddy,’” Santos recounted of the fracas on Tuesday. “I said, ‘Thank you, Madame Senator.’ She was very polite and very kind-hearted. She is a good person, unlike Mr. Romney.”
Santos says that we he told Romney during their interaction at SOTU was “not meant for television” but adds that Kyrsten Sinema reassured him, saying “hang in there” pic.twitter.com/kjI4ubBrxY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 10, 2023
Santos may have been lying about this, too.
“This is a blatant lie,” a Sinema spokesperson Pablo Sierra Carmona told Bryan Metzger of Insider. “Kyrsten didn’t say a word to Rep. Santos — and didn’t even know about the exchange with Senator Romney until they got to their seats.”
It’s tempting to believe Santos lied about the exchange, as he’s already lied about nearly every aspect of his backstory, and literally nothing he says can be taken at face value. It would also be hilarious for him to have made up an exchange about “kind-hearted” Kyrsten Sinema defending him out of thin air.
Still, there’s plenty of reason to doubt the denial from Sinema, an enterprising politician who has demonstrated a willingness to throw people — or an entire political party — under the bus for personal gain. Her office could be engaging in some light damage control here, as “ally of George Santos” probably isn’t a great tagline for any lawmaker. There’s also the video.
Have a look for yourself. Santos is speaking with Romney, and at about the seven-second mark, he turns and speaks to what appears to be a blonde-haired woman. The camera pulls out a few seconds later to reveal that the woman is Sinema.
The exchange is very brief, and it’s unclear what was said, but the video makes it hard to believe that “Kyrsten didn’t say a word to Rep. Santos.” It’s possible she didn’t know the exchange between Santos and Romney was heated, although she’s standing right there as they’re talking and even appears to interrupt them.
Sinema seems to think the video proves her side of the story. “It takes less time to watch video that proves two dudes are lying than it does to write the story repeating the lie @newsweek & @thehill,” she tweeted in response to a Newsweek article about how Santos “seems to have found a friend” in Sinema. “Instead you publish their lies for the clicks. Journalism used to be about the truth, but today Americans can’t count on an objective truth.”
It’s impossible to know who’s lying and who’s telling the truth about what happened during those few seconds on Tuesday. Sinema certainly seems very upset, though, either because she gave no such encouragement to Santos or because she has something to lose if people believe she did. Santos seemed nonplussed as he recounted the alleged incident during the interview with Kelly, either because he’s such a seasoned liar, or, like a broken clock is right twice a day or a blind pig occasionally might come across a truffle, he might, every once in a while, be capable of telling the truth.
