Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., told Newsmax on Tuesday that the numerous lies he told before coming to Congress were his fault.
President Donald Trump said last week he had commuted the sentence of the former congressman, who was slated to serve more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.
Santos was charged in 2023 with stealing from donors and his campaign, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits, and lying to Congress about his wealth.
Within months, he was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives — with 105 Republicans joining with Democrats to make Santos just the sixth member in the chamber’s history to be ousted by colleagues.
Santos pleaded guilty as he was set to stand trial.
He told “Finnerty” that many of his Republican colleagues are not as MAGA as they claim to be.
“I would fight and argue with plenty of them over my defense of President Trump,” Santos said.
“And … we were called a band of crazies because we sat in the middle of the aisle because we truly fought for Trump and we fought for an ‘America First’ agenda.”
Santos said it was not his place to expose those colleagues, and he said he was shocked 105 Republicans voted to expel him from Congress.
He said when he returned to Washington for a Christmas party, many of the people who voted him out treated him warmly.
“Some of these guys came along and said, ‘We miss you,'” Santos said.
“I’m like, ‘You voted to kick me out. What do you mean you miss me?’
“Right? And they were really caught off guard,” he said.
But Santos admitted he caused a lot of fatigue for the Republican caucus.
“I’m terribly apologetic to that,” he said.
“I was in a death spiral of absolute chaos and my own worst enemy.”
Santos was also apologetic about his past history of lies, which included falsely saying he played volleyball at Baruch College.
“I had a chairman in Nassau County I was trying to impress,” Santos said.
“He’s a big sports buff, but I don’t know football. I don’t know lacrosse, but I know volleyball.
“So I said I played volleyball in college and, you know, the rest is history,” he said.
“And it’s stupid,” Santos said, adding that the lies are “all my fault.”
Santos said he has no current plans to go back into politics.
“Not in the foreseeable future,” he said. “My husband will kick me out.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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