U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) became emotional as he talked about the situation in Israel during a break in a House Republican caucus meeting. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

By PJ Grisar October 13, 2023

In a bizarre and dramatic scene on Capitol Hill, Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) called a man a terrorist sympathizer for asking what he was doing about the situation in Gaza.

In clips posted to social media, Santos can be seen identifying a man to a Capitol Police officer as someone who had accosted him “while I had a two-month-old baby in my hand.” Santos then approached the gentleman and addressed him, saying “you came in my personal space yelling, threatening the decorum.”

The man asked Santos, currently facing mounting legal troubles including charges of conspiracy and wire fraud, what he was doing about the Israeli army’s bombing campaign in Gaza. Santos then pointed his finger at the gentleman and insisted it was “abhorrent that you are in this building stepping up for terrorists.” Santos called the man a “terrorist sympathizer” while storming off.

The man was identified by NBC reporter Sahil Kapur as a Jewish American named Shabd Singh. Though the audio is difficult to make out, Singh appears to say that he is the descendant of survivors of the Holocaust. Santos, who the Forward found to have lied about having Holocaust survivor grandparents, fired back “I don’t care — you are human scum.”

Singh could be heard calling Santos a “coward.” Santos walked down the corridor screaming, saying “the next time he accosts me with a child in my hand, I want him out of here.”

“Nobody defending Hamas has any business in this building, whether you’re elected, whether you’re a civilian,” Santos said. “It is a disgrace that we allow people to parade that kind of thought in here.”

Singh, who did not appear to defend Hamas in the video, appears to have encountered Santos earlier, when pictures show the congressman was holding an infant.

New York Sun correspondent Matt Rice snapped a picture of Santos with the infant leaving Rep. Tim Burchett’s office. Asked if the baby was his, Santos said “not yet.”

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