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Disgraced former congressman George Santos has now weighed in on the viral photos appearing to show JD Vance dressed in a skirt and blonde wig, calling it “bad drag.”
Photos allegedly showing the Republican nominee for vice president in drag have circulated on social media this week, racking up more than 17 million views since they were first shared by Matt Bernstein, a content creator and host of A Bit Fruity podcast.
Critics have branded Vance a “hyprocrite” over the images due to his stance on LGBT+ issues.
“Ladies and gentleman, a picture of JD Vance in drag while attending Yale Law School. I don’t share this to shame those who do drag, but rather to shame those who attack drag while having a history of enjoying the art form themselves,” one person posted on X.
Another person chimed in: “Don’t call JD Vance weird because he wore drag. Call him a hypocrite and a bigot for demonizing others who wear drag.”
“The thing about the JD Vance in drag thing is that we Millennials [sic] gays know precisely the type of guy he is. We all had friends who were liberal in their 20s, and once Trump came around, veered far to the right and blamed you for it,” another person posted.
The vice presidential hopeful has not spoken publicly about the pictures but a source close to Vance told The Independent: “JD put on a bad wig at a party in college – not exactly scandalous.”
Vance’s spokesperson didn’t deny the photo is of the Ohio senator when contacted for comment.
But now Santos, who appeared in a Long Island court today ahead of his corruption trial, has joined in the saga.
Speaking to TMZ, Santos, 35, said: “It’s so funny that people are so obsessed that someone’s in drag or someone’s put a wig on. In my case 18 years ago when I was a minor and nobody held back punches at something I did as a kid and had fun.
“Now JD Vance, if that’s drag then I guess all these other drag queens on Ru Paul’s Drag Race can all be considered cisgender women at this point because, holy crap, is that bad drag.”
He added: “To call that drag is disingenuous and I think most dudes at some point in their lives have played around with costumes that are gender bender.
“Couples do that all the time. The wife will dress up as a guy, the husband will dress up as a woman. It’s definitely not drag.”
Santos’s comments come more than a year after photos of his own drag persona, Kitara Ravache, were shared widely online.
He initially denied he was the drag queen but has since revived Ravache in Cameo videos since he was ousted from Congress. Santos has bragged that he pockets six figures from making videos at $300 a go on the site where people can pay celebrities for personal video messages.
On Tuesday, Santos appeared in a Long Island court for a hearing ahead of his corruption trial on charges including defrauding campaign donors.
The trial is set to begin on September 9 and will last approximately three weeks, his lawyers said.
Prosecutors have accused Santos of a range of crimes including lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while actually working, and using campaign contributions to pay for such personal expenses as designer clothing.
Santos pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment in October.
The former congressman was expelled from the US House of Representatives in December after an Ethics Committee report found that there was “substantial evidence” that he had “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House”.
He was first elected to Congress in 2022 after losing his first attempt in 2020. Reports later revealed he had told a string of lies about his background including that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and his mother died on 9/11.
