After a New York Times investigation last week called out inconsistencies in his résumé, Santos (R-N.Y.) on Monday told the New York Post that he had indeed fabricated elements of his background in the lead-up to November’s midterm elections. Santos admitted he hadn’t “directly” worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and had not graduated from Baruch College, nor “from any institution of higher learning.”
Santos also conceded he’d embellished his family’s Jewish history, having previously claimed his mother was Jewish and his maternal grandparents escaped the Holocaust during World War II. The congressman-elect conversely told the New York Post that he is “clearly Catholic” and that his grandmother had told stories about being Jewish and later converting to Catholicism.
The 34-year-old Long Island Republican has in public comments referred to himself as “half Jewish” and a “Latino Jew.” Santos during his campaign wrote in a position paper obtained by Forward — a nonprofit Jewish news website — that he was “a proud American Jew.”
He told the Post on Monday he had “never claimed to be Jewish” but had rather asserted he was “Jew-ish.”
Santos’ explanation as to why he is a “proud American Jew” brings to mind Liz Warren’s explanation as to why she is an American Indian.