The biggest liar in US politics Messina Denaro – Italy’s most wanted mafioso and boss of Cosa Nostra – arrested

Patricia Highsmith wrote a crime classic in 1955 with «The Talented Mr. Ripley». In it, she describes how a young man from a humble background is allowed to travel to Italy with a wealthy friend, get used to the luxurious life, kill the wealthy colleague, assume his identity and live a comfortable life from then on.

Highsmith turns conventional crime logic on its head. Not only does the killer go unpunished, the readers also develop an understanding of his crime. Who wouldn’t want to have a life like the rich and beautiful?

What is still fiction at Highsmith, George Santos, has become reality. The 34-year-old man was sent to Washington last November as a Republican representative from Nassau County (New York state). However, it has now become a national scandal and – next to the secret documents found about President Joe Biden – the most important news item of recent days. What happened?

Like the talented Mr. Ripley, Santos didn’t spruce up his resume—as politicians sometimes do—he’s, as The New York Times has since revealed, almost made it up.

A child of Brazilian immigrants, Santos grew up in humble circumstances and has no college degree. Until recently, he had to earn a meager living on an annual income of only $50,000, doing so with dubious jobs in the financial sector. His apartment was evicted twice due to rent arrears.

In his resume, on the other hand, it all looks very different. In it, he portrays himself as someone who attended an elite school and graduated from the renowned New York University. He claims to have worked for the two banks Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but none of that is true.

His private life is also full of lies. Santos married a woman, but then divorced and fled as a gay man. What is especially bizarre is his maneuver to pretend to be a Jew, even though he was raised Catholic. He even went so far as to claim that his grandmother narrowly escaped the holocaust.

Even Judaism was fake

The construction of lies was blown and Santos now admits that he lied on his resume. Anyone would do this, that’s his reasoning, with which he couldn’t even convince Fox News. In an interview, he was downright confused by presenter Tulsi Gabbard.

His alleged Judaism in particular was very badly received. His excuse, which unfortunately can only be reproduced in English, is even worse. He never said he was “Jew,” but “Jewish,” Santos said. In German this can be roughly translated as follows: He is not a Jew, but a kind of Jew.

The Santos case raises two fundamental questions: How come his blatant lies were not exposed sooner? And why is he still allowed to serve as a member of Congress?

The first question can be answered as follows: First, no one really took Santos seriously. He clearly lost an election two years ago. The neighborhood also turned out to be a safe haven for the Democrats. His Democratic opponent therefore did not think it necessary to screen Santos. The regional media, which should have done the same, no longer have the necessary resources and manpower.

Even within his own party, no one really cared about Santos, especially since he also enjoyed the support of Elise Stefanik, the number three Republican in the House of Representatives. There was also luck: a New York state court overturned the previously valid division of the electoral districts, and the safe seat of the Democrats suddenly became less safe.

The answer to the second question is banal: Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, depends on every vote. He simply cannot afford to exclude Santos because in a midterm election, a Democrat would most likely win the race. Santos has therefore not only been elected, but also confirmed.

However, unlike the talented Mr. Ripley, he cannot enjoy his made-up life. Even Republican MPs are shunning him, and New York’s Grand Old Party (GOP) leadership is even calling for his resignation. When he leaves the parliamentary hall or his office, Santos is chased by a horde of journalists who want to know when he will resign.

In addition, the criminal authorities are also aware of Santos. Until 2022, he worked for a windy investment company that made exaggerated returns to its clients and has since been shut down by the stock exchange authority. It is also puzzling how Santos could suddenly report an income of more than a million dollars in 2022 and donate $700,000 to his own campaign. Meanwhile, authorities in Brazil are investigating a case of check fraud allegedly involving Santos.

The GOP isn’t exactly happy with their lie baron either. He has become a symbol of the state of the party. As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, “In a way, Santos is the sad, distorted version of what Trump did to the party. Trump has led the GOP to the land of unreality, the continent of lies. Trump’s takeover of the GOP was not primarily ideological, but psychological and moral. I feel sorry for Santos, but not Trump because he is too cruel. But Trump has hammered that pathetic tone into our national psyche on a much larger scale.”