George Santos’ Comical ‘Jew-Ish’ Defense Undercut by His Own Campaign Document

When congressman-elect George Santos admitted to fabricating key details of his life story this weekend, he waved off further scrutiny of his claim to have Jewish ancestry, insisting that he only ever said he was “Jew-ish.” But Jewish news outlet the Forward obtained a position paper Tuesday that Santos provided to community leaders during his campaign in which he described himself as a “proud American Jew.” The Forward previously used genealogy records to debunk Santos’ claim that his grandparents escaped the Holocaust; birth records revealed they actually were from Brazil. The campaign document obtained by the Forward further claimed Santos had visited Israel “numerous times” for “educational, business, and leisurely trips,” despite no record of these trips having taken place. The Daily Beast revealed that Santos was married to a woman while simultaneously claiming he was openly gay. “My sins here are embellishing my resume,” Santos said in an interview with the New York Post Monday. “I'm sorry.”