Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) claps during the State of the Union on Feb. 7, 2023. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh February 9, 2023

Two Jewish members of Congress introduced Thursday, along with several of their Democratic colleagues, a House resolution to expel Rep. George Santos, Republican from New York, over a web of lies about his background. 

In a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol, Reps. Dan Goldman from New York and Becca Balint from Vermont mentioned Santos’ lies about having Jewish grandparents who fled persecution during World War II and calling himself a “proud American Jew” during the campaign. 

Balint said that as the granddaughter of someone killed in the Holocaust, she was “outraged that he used that to get elected.” Balint’s paternal grandfather, Leopold Bálint, was murdered on a forced march from Mauthausen to the town of Gunskirchern on May 5, 1945, in the waning days of World War II. She attributed her public service to growing up in a family impacted by the Holocaust.

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Calling him a “serial liar,” Goldman said Santos used in “the most shameless fashion” the true tragedies of the Jewish community by “claiming falsely that he is Jewish in a district that is more than 20% Jewish and claiming that his ancestors escaped the Holocaust.”

Reps. Eric Sorensen from Illinois, Ritchie Torres from New York, Ted Lieu from California and David Cicilline from Rhode Island were also signed on as co-sponsors of the single-page resolution. 

Goldman and Torres, who are leading the fight against Santos, joined a number of Santos’ constituents earlier this week in calling for House Republicans to oust Santos. 

The group said they will reach out to Republicans to support the resolution to restore the full faith and trust of the government. “We as Democrats would never accept this within our own party, and it’s time for the Republican party to do the right thing,” Goldman said. 

Santos has shown no sign that he is willing to resign in the wake of an ethics probe into his actions. The resolution would require a two-thirds majority to pass. At least three Republican freshmen from New York — Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito and Marc Molinaro – said they would vote in favor of his expulsion.

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