In one of the key amendment votes on Thursday night, all of the Island congressmembers voted the same way— except one. Bob Good’s amendment to prohibit changing the names of bases named for Confederate traitors failed 177-253 because dozens of Republicans defected and every Democrat voted against it. These 4 Republicans represent swing districts on Long Island, just like George Santos does. They voted no.
NY-01 Nick LaLota- R+3
NY-02 Andrew Garbarino- R+3
NY-04 Anthony D’Esposito- D+5
Santos, on the other hand, stuck with the far right extremists who were pushing this, like Good, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Traitor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs and others with treason foremost on their minds. Santos' Nassau County/Queens district, NY-03, has a PVI of D+2, much safer than D’Esposito’s, not as safe as LaLota’s or Garbarino’s.
All 4 of the Republican districts are considered vulnerable to flipping next year. Biden beat Trump in NY 01 by a fraction of a point but beat Trump in Santos' district by 8.2 points, beat Trump in D’Esposito’s by 14.5 points and lost to Trump in Garbarino’s by 1.5 points. None of these figures would have predicted Santos’ pro-Confederate vote. But if he was seriously-- or even semi-seriously-- planning on running next year, he would have done exactly what LaLota, Garbarino and D’Esposito did— not to mention fellow New York Republicans Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, Marc Molinaro and Nick Langworthy. (Brandon Williams hid in the cloakroom during the vote.)
There are 11 Republicans talking about primarying Santos, including the Republican the Long Island GOP establishment is behind, state Sen Jack Martins. And there are the same number of Democrats in the mix, several of whom are already campaigning, from conservative shitbag Josh Lafazan to former state Sen. Anna Kaplan and fundraiser Zak Malamed. Not campaigning though: George Santos. He’s collecting contributions… but not spending the money, at least not on a campaign. This last cycle, his campaign paid him $85,000, part of what the campaign owes him from last cycle when he put hundreds of thousands of dollars— close to a million— in mysterious Russian money into it.
Reporting for the Washington Post yesterday, John Wagner wrote that “Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission underscore the difficult road ahead that Santos, who is under federal indictment, has in funding a campaign that is unlikely to draw support from Republican leaders nationally.” His opponents are outraging him and he “reported having just more than $55,000 in the bank for his race next year.”
More than 30 donors gave the legal maximum of $3,300, the report says. The occupations listed for those donors include several retirees, college students and a “parttime job/casher” (sic).
Only about 1 in 5 of Santos’s identified donors have New York addresses. Addresses in California, New Jersey and Texas were as common.
…In the federal case pending against him, Santos faces seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of lying to the House of Representatives on financial forms.
Wire fraud, the most serious charge, carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. If Santos is found guilty of multiple counts, a judge would decide whether he should serve his sentences concurrently or consecutively.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has said in recent months that he wouldn’t support Santos for reelection and that he shouldn’t run, but he voiced confidence that Republicans could hang onto his seat.
By the end of the day yesterday, Roger Sollenberger and Sam Brody were onto something new: it isn’t how much Santos is raising that’s remarkable; it’s how he’s getting the money— and it looks like highly illegal straw donors from crooked far right Chinese billionaire (or “billionaire,” no one knows for sure) Guo Wengui, who has more pseudonyms that Kitara does.
“The vast majority of Santos’ fundraising haul—a total of $101,861—rolled in over the course of just three days, between May 20 and May 22,” wrote Sollenberger and Brodey. “All of those donors had Chinese surnames, almost all of them contributed the maximum allowable amount of $3,300, and 26 of them had never given to Santos previously, according to Federal Election Commission data. For 14 of those donors, it was their first political contribution ever. On June 23, that same pattern returned, this time to the tune of $24,100, all from donors who had never given to him previously. And the bulk of that cash, it turns out, went right back into Santos’ personal pocket. In all, Santos received $125,961 from those donors. About $66,000 of that amount came from donors who had never given to any federal committee before, and more than $50,000 came from first-time Santos donors. Of all his donors this quarter, only five had given to him previously— accounting for just $157 of his $133,000 haul.”
The Daily Beast attempted to contact nearly all of these donors. Almost every number associated with these donors had an automated voice message. One woman picked up but quickly hung up after saying she didn’t speak English.
There was, however, one Santos donor who told the Daily Beast why they had given to the embattled congressman. The donor pointed to legislation Santos had sponsored, specifically a bill introduced to support Guo Wengui, the self-identifying Chinese Communist Party dissident who was recently brought up on federal charges related to a $1 billion fraud scheme.
Santos has lent vocal support to Guo in recent months, and has sponsored a total of 11 bills targeting the CCP over the course of his brief tenure in Congress, all of which were introduced after Guo’s arrest in March.
“He is working on the direction that I believe will benefit United State of America and the world,” this donor told the Daily Beast. “So when he asked to chip in, I chip in.”
“I support him because he is not a talker,” the donor texted. “He did what he promised. He said he will propose a #FreeMilesGuo bill, he actually did it.” The donor, who appears in prior FEC records, said that while he had supported other candidates based on their promises, he had been “disappointed every time.”
“You can find the info you need on GETTR,” the donor added.
A search for “George Santos” on GETTR returned top results that were almost entirely related to his support for Guo. Santos’ pinned post on his own GETTR profile has a link to his online WinRed donation page. It has more than 600 likes and has been shared more than 320 times.
When the Daily Beast contacted Santos about the donations, he said, “when you see a cluster of donation [sic] of a similar amount it’s safe to assume it’s a fundraiser that took place.”
“That’s the extent of my comments to you,” Santos wrote in a separate text message. “Best of luck writing your hit piece.”
Santos did not answer additional questions about when this purported fundraiser would have taken place or the circumstances that would have brought together a collection of donors from across the country.
Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance law expert at Documented, told the Daily Beast that the clustered names and dates do indeed suggest a coordinated fundraising push.
“It certainly appears like there was some kind of organized fundraising effort for Santos,” Fischer said. He observed that a large amount of that money went to pay down Santos’ personal loans.
Many of those donors marked their occupation as “retired.” Some, however, listed occupations that aren’t characteristic of big donors.
The fact pattern might raise “red flags” with prosecutors investigating Santos’ financial statements, according to campaign finance specialist Brett Kappel at Harmon Curran.
“This filing would raise red flags with the lawyers running the Santos investigation in the Eastern District of New York,” Kappel told the Daily Beast, adding that many donors listed occupations that “seem to be incompatible with the size of their reported contributions,” such as a part-time cashier, a housewife, and multiple college students.
“It’s unusual for students to make any reportable contributions, much less the largest permissible contribution,” he said.
In May, federal prosecutors charged Santos with wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making materially false statements to Congress— the body that is also currently investigating his finances, criminal history, and statements about his past.
Nick Fandos and team added that all the Santos’ “contributions came from roughly 50 donors, only four of whom reported living” in the district… A plurality of the donors said they lived in California, and reached for comment, some said they supported the congressman as a gag.” In summation…
Santos has no intention to run again
Santos still thinks he’s bulletproof and will never pay for his crimes… which he continues committing
