The Daily Santos: Vol. 4
George made it to the weekend.
Incredibly, George Santos hasn’t even been an official member of Congress for a full week. And yet, it’s hard to remember our lives before he consumed our every thought. Just me? Ok.
While we anxiously wait to see which MLK quotation George tweets on Monday as a veiled reference to his persecution complex, let’s finish out the week strong with a look at the headlines disturbing his peace.
Will the real Mr. Oliveira please stand up?
When the world learned Wednesday that in his vetting interview with the Nassau GOP, Santos claimed he was a star volleyball player at Baruch College, the specificity of the lie made it that much weirder. But it turns out he probably didn’t use his very wild imagination for this one: he was likely just cribbing the credentials of his former boss.
A tipster who played volleyball in NYC a decade ago messaged me late Wednesday to say their group chat was abuzz when they recalled playing against a man named Pablo Oliveira, a Brazilian native and Baruch college alumni who had, in fact, helped bring the men’s volleyball team to victory. He also founded LinkBridge Investors, the company where Santos claims to have once worked.
The college confirmed to me, “Baruch College records indicate that a Mr. Pablo Oliveira graduated from the College on May 30, 2012. Mr. Oliveira was a member of Baruch’s men’s volleyball team from 2009-2011.” And Florida LLC records indicate that LinkBridge is registered under his name.
Inside Edition and People magazine both reported this as well. Bump, set, spike to the face.
Thatsa spicy restaurant tab!
Any self-respecting New Yorker loves some good Italian food, but Santos’ devotion to one particular Queens establishment takes it to a new level. Campaign finance records show the Santos campaign and related orgs have spent nearly $50,000 at Il Bacco restaurant in Little Neck, NY, and the owners and their relatives were active in the Santos campaign. This all led intrepid Slate reporter Alex Sammon to wonder: How good could this food really be?
Sammon ventured to the white table cloth eatery to test out the grub and endeavor to spend the $199.99 Santos and associates so often spent to avoid having to officially file a receipt for the expense. This part really got me:
The host escorted us to a table with two white tablecloths. En route, we passed a bar full of men watching the Brooklyn Nets play on two large screens. A sketch of Pope John Paul II hung next to a retouched portrait of a man that did not look like Frank Sinatra but was superimposed with the word “Sinatra” all the same. There were sepia-toned photos of churches, and cylindrical chandeliers adorned with sepia-colored shingles. The restaurant was mostly full. We sat.
All in all, the food wasn’t terribly impressive. And when you live in NYC, there’s just no excuse for eating mediocre Italian food.
Save the animals
The original blockbuster story about George’s lies points to a claim in his campaign bio that he “saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats” through an animal rescue nonprofit he founded. There’s no evidence Friends of Pets United existed as an actual nonprofit, but a few GoFundMe pages found on one of his Facebook accounts shows his efforts to raise money for the group.
He writes on one of them (emphasis my own):
Good evening everyone, on Monday we all met Zizi here on FOPU and thanks to one of our volunteers she is now being vetted and given love! For the most of you that know me you know how serious I am with my work and the transparency it has. It is actually not common for me to raise money as usually I take most expenses upon me and the Admin panel of the group, How ever due to our overload recently I am reaching out for help!
I just can’t.
Your moment of zen
Have a Santos-related tip? Email MKwrites4000@proton.me