The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) cut ties with Republican Rep.-elect George Santos of New York after it was revealed that Santos falsely claimed he was Jewish during his campaign.
Santos came under fire Monday after he admitted to lying about getting a college degree and working for Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup after a New York Times investigation. RJC CEO Matt Brooks announced on Twitter that Santos had also fabricated his Jewish identity in both public and private conversations.
“[Santos] deceived us and misrepresented his heritage,” the statement read. “In public comments and to us personally, he previously claimed to be Jewish.”
Santos’ campaign website claimed that his mother was Jewish and that his grandparents escaped Nazi Germany during World War II, according to the New York Post. After the interview, Santos identified as “Catholic” and stated that he “never claimed to be Jewish” but that his grandmother had told him stories of their Jewish heritage before converting to Catholicism.
“I am Catholic,” Santos stated. “Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
As a result, RJC decided to ban Santos from any of the Jewish organization’s events.
“He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note,” Brooks wrote. “He will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”
Santos also said on a radio interview late last week with WABC-AM that he was not a “criminal” and that “a lot of people overstate” or “twist” their resumes.
“I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that, I’m just saying, I’ve done so much good work in my career,” Santos said. “I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country.”
Santos made waves as the first openly gay GOP candidate to win a House seat as a “non-incumbent,” according to the Times. Santos claimed to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010 but school officials denied this, and several of Santos’ financial endeavors were partially or completely fabricated.
Multiple Democratic lawmakers have called for Santos to resign his office, according to The Washington Post. Senior members of the GOP were allegedly aware of Santos’ tendency to exaggerate and made it a “running joke,” according to the Post.
Santos and the RJC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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