George Santos makes claims of an assassination attempt

As the new year continue, more sensational stories and news from U.S. Rep. George Santos continue to emerge. Like claims someone tried to assassinate the politician while he was still running for office.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow aired footage Jan. 23 from an interview Santos participated in with Brazilian podcast Rádio Novelo Apresenta. In the interview from before his election, Santos claimed someone had tried to kill him, although he provided no further details.

Maddow said her team couldn’t find any police record to corroborate the congressman’s claims, and Santos did not return a request to her for comment.

Instead, the only public comment he’s made — outside of a statement released after news broke he was stepping down from his congressional committee temporarily — was a Twitter post on Jan. 26. “From interviewing clowns, to creating fake ‘posts,’ the media continues to (downward) spiral as their attempt to smear me fails. I am getting the job I signed up for done, while you all spiral out of control.”

In the same podcast interview, Santos described several other instances where he claimed he and his husband were threatened or attacked — reiterating contentions made during his campaign that his home in Florida was vandalized after attending a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, home of former president Donald Trump.

Santos did not elaborate on what form the vandalism took, and his assertion that he and his husband needed police protection also has not been corroborated.

The final major claim on the podcast interview was that he was robbed at gunpoint by two muggers on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, taking — among other things — his shoes. Santos asserts the robbers were white, but provided no evidence of the crime, and Maddow’s team could not locate a police report detailing such an incident.

Santos also took some heat this past week for a speech he delivered on the House floor marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Following the election, Santos was forced to downplay his claims of Jewish heritage, as well as assertions he was descended from Holocaust survivors from Ukraine.

The online news outlet Patch says it obtained old social media posts believed to be created by Santos referencing Hitler, and seemingly encouraging the murder of African Americans and Jews.

Santos’s finances have also been under particular scrutiny after his campaign changed the listed source of several of his campaign donations on finance reports. An amended filing with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 24 no longer claims Santos loaned his campaign more than $600,000.

Santos has not addressed or explained the source of his finances, and there are currently at least four ongoing investigations into campaign donations and his personal finances.
His long-time treasurer, Nancy Marks resigned this past week as probes from the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, among others, continue to mount.