For the last month, freshman representative George Santos has been more famous than Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert combined. What did he do to earn such an honor? By lying his teeth off. He’s been busted embellishing his résumé, lying about his education and his heritage. The guy even claimed his mom died on 9/11. (She didn’t.) He was sworn in the House anyway and refuses to resign despite widespread calls for his removal. But if you thought he’d be punished by his superiors for bluffing his way into a government job, guess again.
As per The Hill, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy — who was elected after four chaotic days — revealed he won’t be teaching Santos a lesson in why not be dishonest. Quite the contrary. Instead he announced Santos will be seated on committees, where he’ll have sway over the lives of millions of Americans.
Earlier McCarthy claimed Santos wouldn’t be getting any top committees. But he didn’t say anything about seating him on lower committees. Indeed, McCarthy voted to put him on both the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the Small Business Committee, as per NBC News.
SANTOS also will have a seat on Science, Space and Technology, per GOP sources
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 17, 2023
The move inspired conflicted feelings in Santos’ colleagues. “I don’t agree with what [Santos] said, did and all. I don’t agree with any of that, OK? It’s wrong,” Small Business Chairman Roger Williams told NBC News. “But at the same time, he’s on the committee, we’re gonna have rules to follow. He does represent about a million people in New York and a lot of main street issues.”
It wasn’t that long ago that then-president Donald Trump was borrowing a phrase from fellow disgraced POTUS Richard Nixon and calling the GOP the party of “law and order.” (Trump later helped foment an attempted insurrection that left multiple people dead.) But if there’s anything Santos can take away from misleading voters, it’s that lying pays off.