Story by Josephine Harvey • Sunday - HuffPost
VIDEOS
Fresh Fibs From Lyin’ George Santos?
Duration 1:47
View on Watch
CNN' Sue me for having a life': Santos responds to drag photo
3:35
MSNBC What the George Santos drag queen denial reveals about the Republican Party
4:52
MSNBC New twists in George Santos saga
7:44
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) appeared to tell reporters on Saturday that he had dressed in drag but insisted that he was never a drag queen.
“No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life,” Santos told reporters at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, according to CNN.
A Brazilian drag performer recently told journalists that Santos, who is gay, performed in Brazil as a drag queen named Kitara. She provided a picture of herself with another person in drag who she said was Santos at a parade in Rio de Janeiro.
In a tweet last week, Santos said the suggestion he was a drag performer was “categorically false.”
However, it appears Santos himself may have confirmed more than a decade ago that he performed in drag as a teenager in Brazil, Politico reported. According to a 2011 Wikipedia entry written by a user named Anthony Devolder ― one of Santos’ aliases ― Devolder started his “stage life at age 17 as [a] gay night club DRAG QUEEN.”
The embattled lawmaker is under multiple federal and local-level investigations as a tally of falsehoods about the background he sold to voters continues to grow. He has admitted to lying about his work experience, heritage and education and is also being probed over alleged campaign finance violations.
Though Republicans in Congress have done little to punish the lawmaker over the lies he told to get elected, appearances as a drag queen could cause a stir within the party, whose members have been targeting drag artists as part of their anti-LGBTQ hate campaign.
Reporters on Saturday also grilled Santos about his claim that his mother was inside the World Trade Center’s south tower during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Records have shown that she was in Brazil at the time and she died in 2016.
According to CNN, Santos ignored the questions and lashed out at reporters for asking them.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 05: U.S. Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) watches proceedings in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn more than 218 votes on several ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot.
Fresh Fibs From Lyin’ George Santos?
Duration 1:47
View on Watch
CNN' Sue me for having a life': Santos responds to drag photo
3:35
MSNBC What the George Santos drag queen denial reveals about the Republican Party
4:52
MSNBC New twists in George Santos saga
7:44
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) appeared to tell reporters on Saturday that he had dressed in drag but insisted that he was never a drag queen.
“No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys. I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life,” Santos told reporters at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, according to CNN.
A Brazilian drag performer recently told journalists that Santos, who is gay, performed in Brazil as a drag queen named Kitara. She provided a picture of herself with another person in drag who she said was Santos at a parade in Rio de Janeiro.
In a tweet last week, Santos said the suggestion he was a drag performer was “categorically false.”
However, it appears Santos himself may have confirmed more than a decade ago that he performed in drag as a teenager in Brazil, Politico reported. According to a 2011 Wikipedia entry written by a user named Anthony Devolder ― one of Santos’ aliases ― Devolder started his “stage life at age 17 as [a] gay night club DRAG QUEEN.”
The embattled lawmaker is under multiple federal and local-level investigations as a tally of falsehoods about the background he sold to voters continues to grow. He has admitted to lying about his work experience, heritage and education and is also being probed over alleged campaign finance violations.
Though Republicans in Congress have done little to punish the lawmaker over the lies he told to get elected, appearances as a drag queen could cause a stir within the party, whose members have been targeting drag artists as part of their anti-LGBTQ hate campaign.
Reporters on Saturday also grilled Santos about his claim that his mother was inside the World Trade Center’s south tower during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Records have shown that she was in Brazil at the time and she died in 2016.
According to CNN, Santos ignored the questions and lashed out at reporters for asking them.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 05: U.S. Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) watches proceedings in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn more than 218 votes on several ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot.
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
George Santos' Drag Queen Admission Is a Complete Disaster for Republicans
NEWSWEEK
ON 1/23/23
Newly elected Republican congressman George Santos continues to be a headache for his own party, as the representative finally confirmed he has performed in drag on at least one occasion.
The admission, made in an interview with ABC 7 on Saturday as the congressman returned home to New York over the weekend, came after Santos had repeatedly denied ever dressing in drag despite evidence to the contrary.
Several images and videos showing Santos in drag have recently resurfaced online and have been widely circulated on social media. But the New York congressman claimed he only ever dressed in drag once at a festival in Brazil.
"I was young and I had fun at a festival—sue me for having a life," he told ABC 7 on Saturday. Last week, he described claims he had performed in drag as "outrageous" and "categorically false."
While Santos' drag performances aren't an issue per se, the reports—as well as his denial of the claims and now his admission—are likely to put the Republican Party in a very awkward spot.
Newly elected Republican congressman George Santos continues to be a headache for his own party, as the representative finally confirmed he has performed in drag on at least one occasion.
The admission, made in an interview with ABC 7 on Saturday as the congressman returned home to New York over the weekend, came after Santos had repeatedly denied ever dressing in drag despite evidence to the contrary.
Several images and videos showing Santos in drag have recently resurfaced online and have been widely circulated on social media. But the New York congressman claimed he only ever dressed in drag once at a festival in Brazil.
"I was young and I had fun at a festival—sue me for having a life," he told ABC 7 on Saturday. Last week, he described claims he had performed in drag as "outrageous" and "categorically false."
While Santos' drag performances aren't an issue per se, the reports—as well as his denial of the claims and now his admission—are likely to put the Republican Party in a very awkward spot.
As part of a broader right-wing push against LGBTQ rights, several Republican lawmakers have recently tried to limit or ban drag performances—especially those with kids in the audience, like drag story hour—claiming the shows are inherently sexual or obscene and harmful to children.
In at least eight states—including Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas—legislators have proposed anti-drag bills in recent months.
Republican lawmakers in Arizona and Oklahoma have this year proposed bills comparing drag shows to "adult cabaret performances," seeking to make it a misdemeanor or even a felony to hold a drag performance in a public space where children could be in attendance.
In this combination image, U.S. Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) in the House Chamber during the second day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 4, 2023, and a file photo of a drag queen. Santos has admitted to performing in drag, claims he had previously denied.
In November last year, a Texas lawmaker introduced a bill that would classify venues hosting drag performances as "sexually oriented" businesses and would make it a misdemeanor to admit anyone under 18 in the audience. In June last year, Michigan Republicans proposed a law allowing parents to sue their children's schools for hosting drag shows.
Attempts at criminalizing drag shows—performances which have long been celebrated by the LGBTQ community—and recent attacks on trans and LGBTQ rights by conservatives across the country have led to an increase in anti-LGBTQ sentiment, threats and violent protests against performers and the community at large.
Santos made history last month when he was elected as the GOP's first non-incumbent openly gay candidate to Congress. While many touted his victory as the sign of a new generation of LGBTQ conservatives emerging within the GOP, the revelation that he performed in drag hit the party at the core of what have been its recent battles against the LGTBQ community.
And perhaps the biggest headache for the GOP is that Santos initially denied claims he had ever performed in drag, apparently not telling the truth about his past.
The congressman has recently come under fire for lying about several aspects of his career and biography during his electoral campaign, including graduating from college and working for two major Wall Street firms. Among other fabrications, Santos claimed that his mother was inside the World Trade Center on 9/11, while in reality she was living in Brazil.
While Santos appears to be in line with his party on many issues, including supporting anti-LGBTQ legislation like the Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill, the scandals that have recently hit the congressman may make him something of a liability for the GOP.
Several Republican members of Congress called for the congressman to resign following the exposure of his largely fictional résumé, but party leaders are standing by him, keen to avoid losing the narrow majority in the House.
Drag artist says George Santos was a left-wing Lula supporter in Brazil before going to the US and turning into 'this crazy thing'
Nicole Gaudiano, Virginia Alves
Mon, January 23, 2023
Embattled Rep. George Santos campaigned as an ultra conservative.
A drag artist who knew him in the mid-2000s told Insider Santos supported Brazil's left-wing president then.
Santos now faces scrutiny over multiple fabrications about his past.
A Brazilian drag artist who says she knew George Santos when he dressed in drag in Brazil remembers the congressman during his younger years as a supporter of the country's progressive president, not as the ultra-conservative politician he says he is now.
The artist Eula Rochard made headlines for circulating a photo she says is of Santos dressed in a red dress.
But in an interview with Insider, she said what's puzzling to her is how Santos went from backing left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as "Lula," to his current political incarnation.
Rochard said Santos supported Lula and then "goes to the US and turns into this crazy thing there. What craziness is this?"
Santos, who represents parts of Queens and Long Island, now embraces former President Donald Trump and policies considered anti-LGBTQ. He has accused the left of trying to "groom" kids, a conservative talking point equating gender and sexuality discussion with priming for sexual abuse.
But in the mid-2000s, Rochard supported a Brazilian president who one expert said had more in common, at least on economic policy, with the progressive politics of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Rochard said many gay people living in the city of Niterói at the time supported Lula, a left-wing reformer who served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010 and who was just reelected for a third term, starting this month.
"Lula promised to make laws to help us gays. They were all Lulistas and Anthony was too because he hung out with us," Rochard told Insider, using the name Rochard says Santos used in Brazil, "Anthony."
Brazilian drag artist Eula Rochard holds a newspaper from 2008 that she says shows GOP Rep. George Santos in drag attire.Insider screen shot.
It's not surprising that Santos, as a gay person, would have supported Lula in the 2000s, said Rafael Ioris, a professor of Latin American history at the University of Denver. Lula represented the chance for the expansion of civil rights for minority groups in Brazil, and most members of the LGBTQ community were aligned with that perspective, he said.
It's hard to imagine a member of today's Republican Party in the US aligning with Lula, even as he became more moderate while governing. Lula is a former trade unionist who built his political career on policies similar to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party: a higher minimum wage and spending more on health care and education.
Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted his congratulations to Lula in October when he defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, whose supporters this month stormed government buildings, refusing to accept the results.
"It's a pretty dramatic shift," Ioris said of Santos. People change, he said, but "how did that happen?"
It's one of the many questions swirling around Santos, who is at the center of a scandal about lies on his resume, falsely claiming his mother died on 9/11, and unexplained wealth that helped finance his congressional bid.
Freelance journalist Marisa Kabas broke the story in a Substack post about Santos dressing in drag under the name Kitara in the mid-2000s. Rochard also told Kabas that Santos' friends in Brazil were left-leaning.
Santos, whose staff did not respond to a request for comment, at first denied that he performed as a drag queen but later told reporters, "I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life." More videos have since emerged, suggesting it was more than a one-off.
Rochard met Santos when he was about 17 years old and said she used to catch Santos in "little white lies." She said he wanted to be famous "no matter what."
"He wasn't a bad person," Rochard said. "He was a regular gay teenager in a country where there were no laws protecting gay people."
Nicole Gaudiano, Virginia Alves
Mon, January 23, 2023
Embattled Rep. George Santos campaigned as an ultra conservative.
A drag artist who knew him in the mid-2000s told Insider Santos supported Brazil's left-wing president then.
Santos now faces scrutiny over multiple fabrications about his past.
A Brazilian drag artist who says she knew George Santos when he dressed in drag in Brazil remembers the congressman during his younger years as a supporter of the country's progressive president, not as the ultra-conservative politician he says he is now.
The artist Eula Rochard made headlines for circulating a photo she says is of Santos dressed in a red dress.
But in an interview with Insider, she said what's puzzling to her is how Santos went from backing left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as "Lula," to his current political incarnation.
Rochard said Santos supported Lula and then "goes to the US and turns into this crazy thing there. What craziness is this?"
Santos, who represents parts of Queens and Long Island, now embraces former President Donald Trump and policies considered anti-LGBTQ. He has accused the left of trying to "groom" kids, a conservative talking point equating gender and sexuality discussion with priming for sexual abuse.
But in the mid-2000s, Rochard supported a Brazilian president who one expert said had more in common, at least on economic policy, with the progressive politics of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Rochard said many gay people living in the city of Niterói at the time supported Lula, a left-wing reformer who served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010 and who was just reelected for a third term, starting this month.
"Lula promised to make laws to help us gays. They were all Lulistas and Anthony was too because he hung out with us," Rochard told Insider, using the name Rochard says Santos used in Brazil, "Anthony."
Brazilian drag artist Eula Rochard holds a newspaper from 2008 that she says shows GOP Rep. George Santos in drag attire.Insider screen shot.
It's not surprising that Santos, as a gay person, would have supported Lula in the 2000s, said Rafael Ioris, a professor of Latin American history at the University of Denver. Lula represented the chance for the expansion of civil rights for minority groups in Brazil, and most members of the LGBTQ community were aligned with that perspective, he said.
It's hard to imagine a member of today's Republican Party in the US aligning with Lula, even as he became more moderate while governing. Lula is a former trade unionist who built his political career on policies similar to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party: a higher minimum wage and spending more on health care and education.
Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted his congratulations to Lula in October when he defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, whose supporters this month stormed government buildings, refusing to accept the results.
"It's a pretty dramatic shift," Ioris said of Santos. People change, he said, but "how did that happen?"
It's one of the many questions swirling around Santos, who is at the center of a scandal about lies on his resume, falsely claiming his mother died on 9/11, and unexplained wealth that helped finance his congressional bid.
Freelance journalist Marisa Kabas broke the story in a Substack post about Santos dressing in drag under the name Kitara in the mid-2000s. Rochard also told Kabas that Santos' friends in Brazil were left-leaning.
Santos, whose staff did not respond to a request for comment, at first denied that he performed as a drag queen but later told reporters, "I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life." More videos have since emerged, suggesting it was more than a one-off.
Rochard met Santos when he was about 17 years old and said she used to catch Santos in "little white lies." She said he wanted to be famous "no matter what."
"He wasn't a bad person," Rochard said. "He was a regular gay teenager in a country where there were no laws protecting gay people."
Wild New George Santos Claim Astonishes Rachel Maddow: 'Surreal Is 1 Word For It'
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday aired an exclusive video of serial liar Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) claiming to have been the subject of an assassination plot and the victim of a mugging on Fifth Avenue in New York.
“We have already suffered an attempt on my life, an assassination attempt, a threatening letter, having to have the police, a police escort standing in front of our house,” the then-congressman-elect told the Brazilian podcast “Radio Novelo Apresenta” in December.
Santos alleged his Florida home was vandalized in January 2021 “because we were at a Republican party” to celebrate the new year.
And he said two white men mugged him “in broad daylight” on Fifth Avenue in the summer of 2021, stealing his shoes, watch and briefcase.
“That wasn’t the worst of it,” he told the podcast host. “Nobody did anything. Nobody did anything. The fear is real. It’s surreal what we live through here.”
“Surreal is one word for it,” Maddow said after showing the footage.
After Santos won his congressional seat in the 2022 midterms, it emerged that he had fabricated much of his life story.
Santos did not respond to Maddow’s request for comment on the claim, she said. “We have also put in a records request with the NYPD for any police report that matches what Mr. Santos described,” the anchor added.
Watch the video here:
No comments:
Post a Comment