New York elected representative, George Santos, has admitted that he fabricated some details about his biography during his successful campaign for a seat in the U.S. House.
Santos who said this on Monday admitted that he lied about his job experience and college education during the electioneering period to convince his supporters.
In an interview with the New York Post, Santos said: “My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry.”
“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.”
The New York Times raised concerns last week about Santos’s life story, which he presented during his campaign.
The Queens resident claimed to have a degree from New York’s Baruch College, but the school said that couldn’t be confirmed.
He continued: “I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume.”
“I own up to that. … We do stupid things in life.”
Santos earlier said that 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.
Also, the 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.”
He first contested 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.
