George Santos, a Republican representative, has announced his intention to leave the House of Representatives. Since being elected to New York last year, there have been mounting calls for the 34-year-old to step down after admitting fabricating parts of his resume and biography.
Despite the controversy, he was placed on two committees. CBS, the American partner of the BBChe says he informed his colleagues about his decision during a closed meeting on Tuesday.
Mr. Santos said-
he would temporarily step aside until his name was cleared and apologize to fellow Republicans for being a “distraction”.
“The business of the 118th Congress should proceed without media fanfare,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
“It is important that I focus primarily on serving the voters of New York’s 3rd congressional district and providing representation at the federal level without distraction.”
As a result, Mr. Santos will no longer sit on the Small Business Committee or the Science, Space and Technology Panel. The latter is responsible for scientific research and development issues not related to defense.
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He had previously billed himself as “the full embodiment of the American dream”. He was the openly gay son of Brazilian immigrants who worked his way to the top of Wall Street before entering politics.
But after being elected in November’s midterm elections, Mr. Santos’ life story began to fall apart when some US news outlets uncovered a number of lies.
He eventually admitted that many of the things he said about himself in his biography were not true. He is also under scrutiny by more than one group for how he spent and reported money for his campaign.
Several of Mr. Santos’ fellow Republicans agreed with his choice to resign from the assignments.
“Without the ethics review completed, I think it’s the right decision,” New York Republican Michael Lawler told the Washington Post. Mr. Lawler had previously called for Mr. Santos to resign.
It comes a day after Mr. Santos and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met on Capitol Hill, where Mr. McCarthy says Mr. Santos asked if he could leave the committees.
Mr. McCarthy told reporters that
“he [Santos] could clarify everything.”
Earlier, the top House Republican had decided not to do anything about Mr. Santos. In an interview with CBS that aired on TV Sunday, he said Mr. Santos had the right to sit on committees.
Gregory Meeks and Joe Morelle, two Democratic representatives from New York, wrote a letter last week to Mr. McCarthy saying the “serious concerns” raised by the allegations meant that Mr. Santos shouldn’t see classified information.
They wrote-
“The many disturbing allegations about his behavior over several decades cast doubt on his character and suggest that he cannot be trusted.”
