And our politics lead.
At least seven House Republicans
have called
for the resignation of embattled
Congressman George
Santos
in the wake of the avalanche of lies
he told about himself.
And today,
there are growing questions
about how he was able
to loan his campaign
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
CNN's Melanie's
you know now is live on Capitol Hill.
Melanie,
we have new information
about how Republican concerns over
Santos's back story became louder
leading into the fall campaign.
One source told me
when it became clear
the district was winnable.
That's when people started talking more.
Tell us more about that.
Yeah. Pam, you've been doing some great
reporting on this as well,
because as more and more
damaging revelations have come out,
the big question has become
what did GOP leaders know
and when did they know it?
CNN has learned that
there were concerns inside GOP circles
about Santo's resume
and whether his backstory really added up
as far back as last summer.
So prior to the election,
including among donors and consultants
and even lawmakers, in fact, Dan
Constantine, who leads a super PAC
aligned with Kevin McCarthy,
the speaker,
was so concerned about Santos
that he actually expressed those concerns
and reached out to lawmakers ahead
of the November election.
So I asked
Kevin McCarthy just moments ago
What did you know?
When did you learn that
something might be a mess
with Jorge Santos?
Take a listen to that exchange.
When were you first made aware
about some of these allegations
about Santos?
Was it
before it came out publicly,
or were you
given any indication
that there might be something
amiss there,
or which part or any of it was me?
I mean, all the things I never know about
is wrestling or not.
I always had a few questions.
What about when you did the campaign
president
pretending to be your chief of staff
and this was taken?
No, I didn't know about that.
It happened, and I know
they correct it, but
I was not notified about that later date.
Did you speak to him about it at all?
Yeah,
I didn't know that
until the letter dated before.
So as you heard
right there, Kevin McCarthy is acknowledging
publicly
for the first time
that he had any sort of apprehension
about George Santos.
And yet
despite these concerns, Kevin McCarthy
and the GOP stood by Santos
before the election
and continue to support him,
and they are continuing
to stand by him now.
Pam, they are GOP leaders.
They, as you point out,
they are saying by him.
What overall, though,
what are Republicans saying?
We've heard from McCarthy,
we've heard others
who say they want him to resign,
but only a small
handful of Republicans
considering all that are in the House.
You're right.
It has been a small handful of House
Republicans who have called on Santos
to resign,
including several members
of the New York delegation
and from the freshman class.
So that is notable to see those members
standing up to Santos.
But I would say
for the most part, Republicans say
it should be up to the voters
to decide Santos political fate
However, that doesn't mean
they're defending his behavior.
In fact,
I would say a lot of Republicans
are going out of their way
to try to distance themselves
from Santos. Take a listen.
He's a bad guy.
This is something that,
you know, it's really bad.
He's not the first politician,
unfortunately,
to make it to Congress to lie.
I haven't even introduced myself to him
because you know, it's pretty despicable,
the lies that he tell it.
But at the end of the day,
it's not up to me
or any other member of Congress
to determine
whether he can be kicked out for lying.
And now, if he broke campaign finance laws,
then he will be removed from Congress.
So this has just become
a huge distraction for House Republicans.
And there are no signs of this
letting up anytime soon.
No, there are not.
Melanie is a known on Capitol Hill.
Thank you so much.
So let's discuss with our panel
where to even start here.
Michael, I'm going to go with you
because I've been speaking
with these GOP sources.
We heard Melanie lay out
some of the reporting that CNN has.
And I've learned from many Republicans
that they knew Santos was lying
at least in the summer, last summer,
leading into the fall,
when it became clear that, well,
this could be a winnable district for us.
That's when there was this chatter.
Right.
And we've learned from the times
that even behind the scenes,
there were aides pressuring Santos
to resign, saying
there could be a big story coming out.
Why do you think Republicans were more
vocal publicly about this?
Is it because this was a swing district?
You know, what do you think?
Well,
it was a district
that President Biden won,
I think, by about ten points.
I think George Santos ended up
winning by ten points.
But you could even see in the spending
that they were slowing
their spending down
over the course of the summer
and into the fall
and spending in other districts
that were not as competitive
as opposed to as opposed to his district.
So they must have known
something was going on.
It's a huge problem for McCarthy.
It reminds me a lot of 2001
when Gary Condit
was this walking distraction
for Democrats.
This is just,
you know, noose
around their head forever
for months,
for about five months,
until Gephardt, the leader finally got
got sick of it and,
you know,
basically pressured the guy out.
Yeah. And as Melanie laid out,
only a few Republicans
are asking for him to resign.
They keeps
the others are saying
this should be up to the voters.
But the voters voted on
someone who was not the person
he presented himself to be. Right.
It's going to be hard
for them to outrun
this I've been spending a lot of time
actually speaking to constituents
in the district,
and I don't think
that their organizing strength
should be underestimated.
They're holding regular meetings
They really want to see him gone.
They're talking
about coming to Washington
in large numbers
to speak to any House Republican
that will give them a meeting Right.
So so that is something
that I think
is going to become increasingly distracting
for House Republicans.
And then, of course, Santos
can't even operate
as a regular member right.
A lot of the members
are home in their district right
now, holding town hall meetings,
meeting with constituents.
That's something, of course,
that he cannot do with this.
No, I mean, exactly. Go ahead.
You said that you said that
it's a relatively small number
of Republicans who were in Congress.
They were calling for it.
There are the Republicans from New York
who would like to hang on to their jobs
when they're up for reelection.
In two years, which is basically now.
Yeah, it was when it starts.
And so they immediately
want to distance themselves from him.
I think it's clear to me
if George Santos was a Democrat,
the Republicans GOP leadership
would be calling for his head.
And if this was a clear
Republican majority district
where it didn't matter,
you know, who the Democrat was
or you were running against,
it was just between the
in the nominating battle.
This would be done.
They would be leaning on him hard.
The problem is for the political
problem is it's such a small majority
for the Republicans.
And I think that drives all of this
and the challenges.
They really don't know
what the bottom is.
Every time you think, you know
the extent of the lies,
there is an alleged long list
where he got the $700,000.
And by the way, reporters will figure
that out.
Every reporter in the country right now
is trying to figure that out,
among other things.
So, I mean, this will likely continue.
Each day
they need his vote
and they need his seat.
I'm a broken record and I pay him.
I don't
I think they believe
and I think we all believe I'd be stunned
if he runs again.
So I think it's the Republican
wish that this does kind of quiet down
and he doesn't make much of a flesh
for two years
and they'll probably lose that seat.
And two of the problem
is if they if he resigns
and they call a special election,
special elections
are special for a reason.
They're very unpredictable in a district
like that is likely to flip to the end.
It's like and.
Talk about the drip, drip, drip, drip.
Two more surfacing
about the lies that he is told.
I want to listen to this interview
that he did.
A whopper of a lie from George Santos.
Let's listen
You know, it's funny.
I actually went to school on
on a volleyball scholarship. I did.
I know what I did. Yeah.
When I was in Peru,
we were the number one volleyball.
You graduate from Peru?
Did you graduate from there?
Yeah. So did I did. I did. So did I.
Very cool.
A great school, great institution.
Very good, but very good.
I look, I sacrifice both my knees
and got very nice. Knee replacement.
Knee replacement from outside
playing volleyball.
That's how serious I took the game.
Okay, so that was an interview
he did with ABC from 20, 20.
I cannot keep a straight face
because everything
he said there was a lie.
He did not graduate from Baruch College.
He was not part of the volleyball team
and he certainly didn't
have a double knee replacement
from playing volleyball
if he wasn't even on the team.
Who wants to jump in on this one?
I don't even want to address that.
I think as long as this is lying
he's fine,
especially in this Republican Party.
And I keep saying this,
the leader
of the Republican Party
right now is Donald Trump.
And we've never on
the public stage had a lie or like him.
So it's a really tough thing
for Republicans
to come down on Santos for lying.
If we're talking about ethics charges
and some financial crimes down the road,
that's a bigger deal.
It's the commitment, though,
to this particular lie for me. Right.
He told variations of this Brooke
volleyball story over and over again,
which just seems really curious.
It raises all kinds of questions.