George Santos took $3K from dying dog's GoFundMe says disabled veteran (2023)

Introduction

Chris Hayes: “Congressman George Santos is a liar. That seems pretty well established now. But before he was ever a candidate for office, a whole bunch of new stories suggest he was a compulsive, serial, small-time grifter.”
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Content

Well, you know what we say here at all end, if it's a day ending in why it's a day with yet another story on how something Republican, freshman George Santos, said about his life, never actually happened.

Now today, it's his claim, which itself grew out of a whole bunch of other apparent lies he had defend.

But his claim was that his mother was quote in her office in the south tower on 9 11.

She survived the tragic events, but passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.

Okay, that was his claim.

His mother passed away actually 15 years later in 2016, at least according to a Twitter feed but uh.

The claim was his mother survived the attack on the south tower uh and then died from the inhalation.

Now newly uncovered records show that not only was his mother not working in the World Trade Center on 11.

She wasn't even in the United States.

According to immigration, records shared with NBC News, she left New York for Brazil in 1999 and wasn't readmitted to the U.S until 2003.

NBC News reached out to the office of George Santos for comment on the apparent fabrication of his mother being in 911., we haven't heard back.

It's claimed that his mother was in the World Trade Center on September 11th is still on his campaign website.

Now, Congressman George Santos is a liar that seems pretty well established now, but before he was ever candidate for office, a whole bunch of news stories suggest he was just a kind of compulsive serial.

Small Time grifter, with a trail of alleged scam, so lengthy get this 10.

Former friends, co-workers and acquaintances of Santos have formed a group chat to compare notes.

That's according to patch.com.

Now one person in the group chat is a Brazilian woman.

Her name is Adriana Correa she's pictured here with Santos in 2014.

Now she told patch that Santos lived with her in Brazil and her family for a time and then in New York first quote: kariah noticed cash.

She had in the apartment beginning to disappear.

Then Santos told her quote: the neighborhood was very dangerous and he should hold her jewelry for her kariah says that she never saw the jewelry again she's, not the only one who says she was scammed by Santos.

Rich ostoff is a disabled, Navy veteran who suffers from PTSD and bipolar disorder back in 2016.

He was homeless, living in a tent in New Jersey.

He needed help paying for cancer surgery for his beloved service dog pictured here, Sapphire austos is a veterinarian.

Technician referred him to a pet charity, run by Anthony devolder, a name that George Santos has gone by.

That charity set up a GoFundMe for the cancer-stricken dog of the homeless, wounded vet Sapphire, which raised three thousand dollars but also says when it came time to pay for the surgery he never got the money he just started coming up with all these excuses.

I had to do things his way and he started laying a guilt trip on me like if this was taken so long, and it was my fault I knew he was ripping me off and I knew that he was mining.

My dog and my friends and Family's hearts for their money.

He said that was offensive.

He'd, never been so offended by anything in his life and after that it was just.

He was just totally unable to be talked to at that point, and then he just quit answering calls took down.

He unfriended me on Facebook or whatever, or he deleted his Facebook page.

The GoFundMe went away completely.

He took that right down off the internet and he was gone.

He was conniving and I.

Could he was almost too nice I knew there was something up with him.

You could.

You could see the devil behind his eyes.

She might even still be with me today.

She would be 16 now that that's right about when a dog's life span is up.

So it's his fault that she passed as early as she did.

I do think that she could have been taken care of.

There could have been more Veterinary Care something to prolong her life, even if they couldn't remove that thing they could.

She could have been more comfortable, could have get over drugs or something like that.

But he's responsible for the dog being in pain, he's responsible for her suffering and uh.

He almost was responsible for me committing suicide.

That was how hard it hit me.

Acosta says he doesn't want the money he just wants.

Justice George Santos didn't respond to NBC news, but he told SEMA for that.

The story isn't true.

I'm joined now my Marissa kabus and MSNBC columnist, long island native, who have been covering this Saga in her newsletter feature the daily Santos um every day.

There's a lot.

That story is really something uh in the hierarchy of like political Optics.

This really feels like it's up at the very top.

I really believe that a person could do the most horrible things to another human being, but the second a pet is involved.

It just crosses into an entirely different territory and people get so emotional about it and so finding out that, on top of everything, he's claimed so far that he helped kind of contribute to someone's pet dying I mean that is just like a bridge too far from most people, I mean a homeless vet with PTSD who's, cancer-stricken dog.

He was depending on this man to raise money for who, according to him, just absconded with it and the other thing you were here last time talking about the the sort of one of the lies that he's told, which is that his you know his family was Jewish and they fled Hitler's Europe right, and that appears to be completely unfounded and true- and you made the point that, like that's, not something you like mess around with in the district that he represents.

The place you come from same goes for 9, 11., yeah, but I think it really plays into him trying to create this Avatar of what the perfect candidate from New York City is going to be right so like, for example, in my town, There's a street named after someone who died in 9 11., it's very present in the district, and so many people were lost that day.

So it sounds like to me.

He was kind of sitting there Googling, you know Wikipedia and what happened in this District, what happened nearby and like how can I bring that into my life story? That is such a great Point.

Like yes, it's it's and you have this reporting, which is really interesting, where you suggest that it's possible we've had you here on the Baroque volleyball story, which is my favorite thing ever right that that he told people that he had been a star at Baruch College and that he was a volleyball shirt LED in the league, title um that he didn't go to Baruch, because it was entirely fabricated.

But there was like another Brazilian guy who who he knew, who that was so that maybe he was just like appropriating that guy's life story yeah.

It's really interesting, he's melding parts of other people's lives and then kind of adding his own little secret sauce to it.

But yeah.

This man was his boss at a job that he supposedly had at one point, and this man has gone underground.

Since this story broke.

He doesn't seem to want to talk about it but yeah.

He was a Berg volleyball star unclear if he had to get too knee Replacements like Santos claimed, but um yeah, it's his life I missed the two new Replacements um.

You also have a reporting today about some of his past.

In Brazil, you talked to uh someone that was a friend associate of his yeah I spoke with uh, this woman named Eula, Bouchard and I'm sorry, brochard and she's based in Brazil, and she claims that she knows George from when he lived in Brazil as a teen and that um they did, they did drag together.

Eula is a drag queen herself she's well known in the area uh sitting near Rio, and she says that that George and as she knew him at the time Anthony she said she never heard the name.

George Anthony, one of his many aliases um, was very fond of dressing up in Drag and it just sort of creates this crazy contrast with the people that he aligns himself with and there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing.

Drag it's wonderful, but it's really hard to square that with him running as this hard right candidate, yes, I mean the drag has become one of the main political targets of the people that he has politically aligned himself with in the sort of modern American Maga right.

I I am the when I heard when I heard about the group chat from patch I mean it does seem, like you know, from the allegation back when he was a teenager, that the the woman, the man that his mom as a nurse was caring for his checkbook went missing and he took those checks and the Brazilian government might reopened the case to Mr ostoff.

The veteran there does seem in the record a pattern of allegations of just like outright theft, criminality, petty larceny and scamming.

Absolutely and- and it's probably not hard to imagine that there's other things that could come out about him and as far as spreading the law and even just looking at his campaign, Finance I mean it's hard to know how much he knew about his own campaign finances, but I think we're going to find out in the coming days that things were not on the up and up well, it certainly looks that way: Marissa kavis, whose sub stack has been diving deep on The Daily Santos great.

To have you here again thanks.

Thank you.