A recently elected GOP congressman has confessed to lying about his job experience, college education and religion during a successful campaign for a seat in the US House of Representatives.
New York Republican Rep. George Santos admitted "sins" of "embellishing" his CV when questioned on the matter yesterday.
In an interview with the New York Post, Santos said: "My sins here are embellishing my resume. I'm sorry."
He also told the newspaper: "I campaigned talking about the people's concerns, not my resume" and added, "I intend to deliver on the promises I made during the campaign."
Another news outlet, Jewish American site The Forward, had questioned a claim on Santos' campaign website that his grandparents "fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII."
"I never claimed to be Jewish," Santos told the Post. "I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was `Jew-ish."'
The Queens resident had said he had obtained a degree from Baruch College in New York, but the school said that couldn't be confirmed.
On Monday, Santos acknowledged: "I didn't graduate from any institution of higher learning. I'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume."
He added: "I own up to that. - We do stupid things in life."
Santos had also said he had worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but neither company could find any records verifying that.
Santos told the Post he had "never worked directly" for either financial firm, saying he had used a "poor choice of words."
He told the Post that Link Bridge, an investment company where he was a vice president, did business with both.
The New York Times raised questions last week about the life story that Santos, 34, had presented during his campaign.
Santos first ran for Congress in 2020 and lost. He ran again in 2022 and won in the district that includes some Long Island suburbs and a small part of Queens.
