Jewish Republican House member joins calls for Santos resignation
Rep. George Santos. A Jewish Republican member of the House is calling for him to step down, citing lies Santos told about his grandparents being Holocaust survivors. Photo by Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
By Adam Kovac January 13, 2023
Rep. Max Miller of Ohio, a Jewish Republican, has added his voice to the chorus demanding the resignation of George Santos, singling out the beleaguered Santos’ false statements about descending from Holocaust survivors.
On Thursday, Miller called on Santos to step down, saying that members of the House must be held “to the very highest standard of honesty and trustworthiness.”
“It is not okay to fabricate or lie for political gain,” he added. “This is especially true when the lie seeks benefit from the murder of millions of Jewish people. I do not believe George Santos can effectively serve and should resign.”
Since the Nov. 8 election, a staggering number of Santos’ exaggerations, untruths and outright lies have been uncovered. Among them is his claim to be Jewish — he later said he had actually called himself “Jew-ish” — and that his grandparents had fled to Brazil to escape Nazi persecution. Genealogical records indicated his grandparents were born in Brazil years before the Nazis came to power. In a position paper he shared during the campaign he called himself a “proud American Jew.”
A small group of upper-level Republican campaign professionals had been aware of Santos’ falsehoods early on in the campaign, and several of his vendors also knew and resigned because of them, The New York Times reported Friday.
On Wednesday, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito became the first sitting House Republican to say Santos should resign. Six others, including Miller, have since joined in. Miller is the only House Republican not from New York to say Santos should resign.
An email to a spokesperson for Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee, the other Jewish House Republican, was not immediately answered.
On Wednesday, more than a dozen Long Island Republicans said Santos should resign immediately, adding he would not be welcome at Nassau County Republican headquarters for meetings or other events.
Members of the party’s House leadership have said they are not currently considering any action against Santos.
Santos has remained defiant, saying he will not step down unless he is defeated in the next election in two years. On Thursday, he said he would step down if 142 people called on him to do so, but corrected himself later in the day, saying he meant the 142,000 people who voted for him. Despite the clarification, a number of petitions have begun circulating calling on Santos to vacate his seat.
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