U.S. Navy veteran Richard Osthoff said in a CNN interview Wednesday that he was “sick” when he realized only “a week ago” that serial liar Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was the man who he had known as “Anthony Devolder”—the same person who he alleged stole $3,000 intended to pay for surgery on Osthoff’s service dog.
Osthoff, who appeared alongside New Jersey Veterans Network President Michael Boll, brought to the interview the cremated remains of his dog, Sapphire, who died in 2017. “I had to bring her,” he said, touching a wooden urn. “That’s my baby, right there. It’s all I have left of her.”
Osthoff recalled how he was homeless around the time he was connected to the future congressman. “One of the vet techs in the place said, ‘I know this guy. He runs a charity and he saves a lot of animals,’” Osthoff said, adding that a GoFundMe was up shortly thereafter.
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After some apparent hang-ups along the way, Boll said he spoke with Santos, who “was not listening to what I was saying,” as he put it.
“I was really upset because this is Rich’s lifeline. I work with veterans every day, and dogs save people’s lives,” Boll explained. “And he needed this dog every day to be in his life. And I felt horrible to tell him that I failed him because of feeling that Mr. Devolder at the time was going to do the right thing and he did not.”
When CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked Osthoff at what point did he identify Santos as the person allegedly behind the bait-and-switch, he said he made the connection “a week ago.”
“I saw him on TV and I was like, ‘I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach about this guy. Who is he and why do I recognize him?’” he recalled.
“That was in December right around Christmas time,” he continued. “Just about a week ago, he was in the Capitol and there were a bunch of reporters following him around asking questions… and one of them said, ‘What’s your name today? Is it Anthony Devolder or is it George Santos?’”
Osthoff said of the moment when the realization kicked in: “I was sick. To see that somebody like that that could do something that dastardly could [rise] to such a high position. That shouldn’t be right. That shouldn’t happen.”
The freshman congressman has already been exposed for false statements on a variety of topics, including his race, religion, and where he has worked. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that immigration records show that Santos’ mother wasn’t in the U.S. on 9/11 despite him claiming that she was “in her office in the South Tower.” A former roommate also claimed Tuesday on CNN that Santos used a Jewish-sounding name as a ploy to get Jewish donors to be more generous to his online fundraisers.
Despite all this, as well as how he allegedly wore a stolen scarf to a “Stop the Steal” rally in January 2021, GOP leadership awarded Santos a seat on the House Small Business Committee and the Science Committee.
