Marjorie Taylor Greene is leaping to the defence of George Santos, a Republican congressman-elect from New York who has earned fierce criticisms from the right and left for lying or distorting key aspects of his biography, including his career history, education, and family background.
Mr Santos, who is slated to represent parts of Long Island and Queens, falsely claimed to be a successful landlord who worked at top Wall Street firms after graduating Baruch College and New York University. He also may have lied about being descended from Jewish migrants fleeing WWII.
After former Congress member and guest Fox News host Tulsi Gabbard grilled Mr Santos on Tuesday, Ms Greene tore into her former congressional colleague.
“I too believe actions and words are extremely important, but I don’t think a former Democrat who’s actions on the House floor as recent as 2020 that gave her an A from Planned Parenthood, an F from the NRA, and introduced a climate agenda signature piece of legislation called the OFF Act - designed to end all fossil fuels (the same as AOC’s Green New Deal) should lecture a newly elected Republican member of Congress on how he should vote to represent his Republican district,” she wrote on Tuesday in a lengthy Twitter thread.
“I do appreciate that Tulsi says words that sound conservative now even though she can’t take action to back them up,” Ms Greene added.
The Georgia Republican argued that the GOP should give Mr Santos “a chance” before writing him off.
(Ms Greene has faced her own accusations of lying in important political contexts. In April, in the course of a lawsuit seeking to bar her from Congress for her support of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, she denied having a discussion about implementing marshall law with Trump officials, despite text messages from the time that suggest otherwise.)
During the Fox News interview, Ms Gabbard questioned the New York Republican about how voters could trust him.
“If I were one of those in New York’s 3rd District right now, now that the election is over, and I’m finding out all of these lies that you’ve told, not just one little lie or one little embellishment — these are blatant lies,” Ms Gabbard said while filling in for Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday.
“My question is — do you have no shame?” she continued.
Mr Santos, the first gay man elected to the House as a Republican non-incumbent, defended his record.
“So, look, I understand everybody wants to nitpick at me,” he said. “I’m gonna reassure this once and for all. I’m not a facade. I’m not a persona. I have an extensive career that I worked really hard to achieve.”
