Out Rep. George Santos (R-NY) lied to a New York Times reporter about his five-year-old niece being kidnapped, according to the NYPD.

On Sunday, Times reporter Grace Ashford published a story based on several telephone conversations she’d had with the out congressman since early September. Ashford, along with fellow Times reporter Michael Gold, first began investigating Santos last November after he was elected. While their reporting, first published in December of last year, brought the then-incoming congressman’s history of lies and misdeeds to national attention, Long Island paper The North Shore Leader had been reporting on Santos’s lies on the campaign trail since before the November 2022 election.

  • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I am really impressed with how this guy is able to tell the most outlandish lies, with a straight face, and continues to double down when outed. The details are crazy too. Why is it two Chinese guys, specifically? It’s just really wild shit with no discernable purpose other than to lie for the sake of it.

    • canthidium@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve found that some people are just serial liars. That, coupled with people’s inability to admit fault or that they are wrong, and you get GS. I don’t even think he realizes he’s lying half the time. He’s conditioned himself to believe his own lies.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I knew a guy in college that would tell random, easily disprovable lies - he claimed he spent a summer with another guy in our dorm on the beach volleyball circuit, for example. (Other guy: “I haven’t seen him since the spring.”) He claimed he had enough AP credits to graduate after one semester but still spent 4 years getting his degree “for the college experience”. Just random, insane shit like that.

        He didn’t look anything like George Santos, so I’m pretty sure it’s not him.

          • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I wonder if they are just perfecting their ability. Counting lies they are able to get away with. Calculating odds based what they’ve tried. Trying a big lie vs a small lie. Someone obsessed with lying might try to make a living out of it.

        • Dultas@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Had a guy like that in college too. One that stood out the most is he played varsity basketball as a freshman in highschool standing right next to someone he went to highschool with. Guy gave him a weird look look and afterwards told us, I don’t know what he’s talking about he never played basketball in highschool at all. He was constantly telling pointless easy to prove false shit.

        • dhork@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So George Santos was a shape-shifting alien from Alpha Centauri all along. Got it!

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not just that they were Chinese guys. George Santos has the ability to know that they’re Chinese just by looking at them! Superpower!

    • cyd@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Why is it two Chinese guys, specifically?

      Because of the conjunction fallacy, “being kidnapped by two Chinese guys” seems more believable than “being kidnapped”.

  • DrugsMcChrist@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    if George Santos breathes, it’s a lie. what I want to know is how he is still in Congress, voting

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I love this part:

    Santos also alleged that Ashford and Gold’s reporting on him had contained “factual and timeline errors,” and he claimed that “his team had requested numerous corrections.” According to Ashford, the Times’ standards team found no requests for corrections from Santos or his representatives.

    His lies don’t stand up to a half-second of scrutiny.

    • dynamojoe@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d love it if he voted for Jeffries just to get the attention. He seems to thrive on attention.

  • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    George Santos lied? I’m shocked. SHOCKED! Who would have ever guessed that Santos was anything but 100% honest?!!!

    In an unrelated note. Please be careful where you step. Someone apparently dripped sarcasm all over the comments section.

    • rifugee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes, I think it’s pretty clear at this point that his lying is a mental illness and not just normal politician things.

  • MisterSteve@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s not an utter fabrication. There are nieces. There are Chinese nieces. There are Chinese nieces who are kids. There are Chinese nieces who are kids and take naps. Ergo, there are Chinese niece kid nappings. There is a George Santos. See? All better. (Santos’s ‘Spinner-in-Chief,’ probably.)

    • Meltrax@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In this guy’s particular case, we can be confident he’s lying because he’s very clearly a criminal level compulsive liar. He ran for the party that’s ok with that, but basically I don’t think he’s personally liberal or conservative at all. I think he’s severely mentally challenged and probably is incapable of committing to any set of ideas, because as soon as something has more potential for personal gain he will lie to chase that down.

      • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        “criminal level compulsive liar” yeah, commenter above already said he’s a conservative! But yeah I get you, he’d probably say pretty much anything if he thought it would get him some advantage.