By a 311-114 vote on Friday, Dec. 1, the United States House of Representatives expelled New York state’s Rep. George Santos from Congress. The Republican congressman was not an active member for even a year before being ousted for his fraudulent campaign, resume and lifestyle.
Elected as the first openly gay nonincumbent Republican, he was supposed to be a win for the GOP. But his short time in office did not live up to being anything close to a win for anybody.
An odd character in American politics, Santos was known for his brazen remarks to reporters, high fashion, expensive taste and his lies. This recent star of the congressional limelight shares a few similarities with other affluent American personalities: the Kardashian-Jenners.
To learn a little more about the former representative and his recent expulsion, let's play the game: “Was it a Kardashian or Former Congressman Santos?
Who passed the baby bar exam in 2021?
Kim Kardashian!
The baby bar, more formally known as the First-Year Law Students’ Examination, is specific to the state of California and designed to “assess an examinee’s legal education from unaccredited or alternative sources.” After four attempts, the reality-TV star passed the exam and announced in April of 2023 she plans to take the bar exam in February 2025.
Despite being an elected member of Congress, Santos did not pass the baby bar, the bar exam or receive any law education at all. In fact, George Santos “didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning.” None of which would be an issue impacting his qualifications to be in Congress – if the former representative hadn’t lied about his education to begin with.
Santos claimed he attended Baruch College, where he played on the school’s volleyball team and graduated with a bachelor’s in economics and finance in 2010. Not only that, but Santos’s resume also boasted that he graduated in the top 1% of his undergraduate class and received an M.B.A. from New York University.
None of those claims, though, were true — which Santos admitted in an interview with The New York Post.
Who made a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermès?
Well, at some point probably both. But Santos used campaign financing for his high-end expenditures.
The 56-page House Ethics Committee report alleges the New York Republican “blatantly stole from his campaign” to make purchases of his own personal benefit with no real legitimacy to his campaign. A lot of these expenses were for travel, cosmetic services and luxury shopping to support his projected lifestyle.
One $50,000 transfer from the campaign committee to Santos was used to make that $4,127.80 purchase at Hermès, spent at Sephora and used to purchase an OnlyFans subscription, among other things.
Hermès is a luxury French designer known for its high-quality and very expensive merchandise. A men’s tie retails at $240. Hermès is particularly known for their “Birkin” bag. The most luxurious purses sell for about the same price as a house. Any “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” fan would remember the iconic season two fight where Kim Kardashian swings her Birkin at sister Khloe Kardashian after a fight at the Bentley dealership.
Who is selling videos on the platform Cameo?
George Santos!
Cameo is a platform which allows for fans to purchase personalized videos from celebrities; anyone from the cast members of “Real Housewives” to Dean Norris of “Breaking Bad” and now, former congressman George Santos!
With a price tag of just $20 to send a message and $500 for a personal video, Santos’s profile biography boasts himself as, “Former congressional ‘Icon’! ?? ” and “The Expelled member of Congress from New York City.”
Since the fraudulent representative’s expulsion from Congress, his Cameo videos have reached virality on TikTok. The videos shared online by Santos’s paying customers feature him discussing his favorite Taylor Swift song, giving advice about speaking on politics and even advocating viewers to “Spend some money on yourselves... like a trip to Hermès, makeup from Sephora or a subscription to OnlyFans.”
Lastly, who said, “Botox keeps you young, filler keeps you plump?”
George Santos!
The Kardashian-Jenner family is well-known for their controversial relationship with cosmetic procedures. Kim Kardashian has even admitted to using Botox to maintain her appearance, after quite a bit of speculation from fans. But this quote comes from one of the counterfeit NYU graduate’s most popular Cameo videos.
Similar to Santos’s Hermès, Sephora and OnlyFans spending, his Botox was financed by campaign funds, too. The House Ethics Committee Report found a $1,500 purchase at Mirza Aesthetics in 2020 and a $1,400 charge at Virtual Skin Spa both noted as “Botox” and charged on the campaign debit card. The report also found a PayPal payment of $1,029.30 to an esthetician in Rhinebeck, New York which had gone unreported.
Who is the real winner?
While the situation of expelled Congressman George Santos surely is comedic, it is also really concerning. The distribution of campaign finances and his education are only part of Santos’s long list of lies. Santos crafted complex, absurd lies for just about everything, and still he was an elected member of Congress. He was voted for by the third district of New York, winning by 7.6%.
Now, even after his expulsion, he is still living this deceitful life he created for himself. His expulsion has given him an even larger platform online where he can continue to reap money from others. George Santos said in a interview with CBS correspondent Marcia Kramer, that by the end of one week, he will have made more money from Cameo than he would in an entire year in Congress. At least Cameo is a little more transparent.
Yes, this game was for laughs. But it does make you question – Is someone like a member of the Kardashian-Jenner family equally-fit for politics as who America is working with now?
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