The former firefighter and veteran of 9/11 who is set to be the guest of embattled New York Republican George Santos at Joe Biden’s State of the Union address has admitted he is wary of being “sullied” by the congressman’s lies.
Mr Santos - still facing multiple investigations over a series of lies he is alleged to have told about his background - will be accompanied by Michael Weinstock, a lawyer who served as a volunteer firefighter in the Big Apple between 1990 and 2001 and is understood to have helped rescue people trapped under rubble at Ground Zero after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center of 11 September 2001.
Mr Weinstock is a Democrat who ran for the same district now represented by Mr Santos in 2020 and reportedly suffers from neuropathy, a neurological condition he says is related to his time as an emergency worker.
In a press release accompanying the announcement, the freshman congressman said that his guest’s condition “is a direct result of the dust and toxins released from the World Trade Center, and the condition is not covered under the World Trade Center Health Program.”
The invitation is therefore intended to draw attention to the plight of New Yorkers still suffering from 9/11-related illnesses two decades on and the need for expanded health coverage.
Mr Weinstock is quoted in the statement as saying: “I have travelled to Washington to bring attention to firefighters with neuropathy. This is an issue that transcends politics and speaks to my heart.”
“Michael’s story is one of many that have yet to be told to a wider audience,” Mr Santos said during a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on Monday, explaining his reason for extending the invitation.
However, the situation is complicated by the fact that one of the lies Mr Santos has been accused of telling concerns the death of his mother, Fatima Devolder, who he said was killed in the terror attacks while working as an executive for a financial firm at the Twin Towers.
“9/11 claimed my mother’s life,” Mr Santos said on Twitter on 21 July last year, only for The New York Times to debunk the story and report that she in fact died 15 years later in 2016 and may not even have been in the country at the time of the al-Qaeda attacks.
The newspaper cited a much more recent obituary in local media as well as immigration documents from 2003 in which Devolder, then very much alive, told officials she had left the US in 1999 and not returned, also giving her occupation as a housekeeper and home help, not an executive.
Mr Santos appears to have first met Mr Weinstock in April 2021 and paid tribute to him on Instagram several months later on what was the 20th anniversary of 9/11, writing: “I can’t thank Michael enough for his brave actions and for having been a first responder.”
Asked about his decision to attend Mr Biden’s speech as Mr Santos’s guest by The NYT, Mr Weinstock revealed he had been let go by his employer over the association but felt it was more important to draw attention to his cause.
“I know your motivations are pure, but George Santos is so toxic, I don’t want any association with Santos and this firm,” his boss reportedly told him before dismissing him.
However, Mr Weinstock remained defiant and told the newspaper: “I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to stay focused enough on the issue of 9/11 responders receiving the healthcare that they need without being sullied by George Santos.”
