Dozens of NY-03 constituents staged a “Drive Out Santos” caravan Saturday morning throughout different North Shore locations to highlight the parts of Congressman George Santos’ resume that have come under scrutiny in recent months.
Chants of “New York 3, Santos-free” and “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Santos has got to go” were two of the many heard by residents, who lined their cars with streamers, posters and writin 3gs to voice their ongoing displeasure.
“George Santos told real and significant lies that impacted all of us,” said resident Casey Sabella. “It’s unacceptable that he is still in Congress actively legislating against us, and he needs to be expelled.”
The groups responsible for organizing Saturday’s event include Concerned Citizens of NY-03, Courage For America and MoveOn. The organization previously held another rally weeks ago in Roslyn before constituents loaded up buses headed to Washington, D.C., to speak to Santos at his office in the Capitol.
Garden City Animal Hospital was the first stop for the caravan, highlighting the charity Santos said he founded, Friends of Pets United. Santos’ time with the charity has come under intense criticism in recent weeks.
Santos has been accused of scamming a disabled veteran out of thousands of dollars that would have been used to care for the man’s service dog.
Richard Osthoff said that he met Santos, who introduced himself as Anthony Devolder, in 2016 while living in a tent on the side of a New Jersey highway.
Osthoff’s service dog, Sapphire, was suffering from a life-threatening stomach tumor, treatment for which would cost $3,000, the veteran told Patch.
A veterinary technician told Osthoff to use Friends of Pets United. Osthoff said he never saw any of the funds after a GoFundMe was set up and subsequently deleted once it got close to hitting the $3,000 goal.
Sapphire died in January 2017, he said.
Next on the tour was the Lake Success Jewish Center. Prior to being elected, Santos’ campaign website said the Republican’s grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium and again fled persecution during WWII.”
A review of genealogy reports done by The Forward, an independent Jewish publication, showed that his grandparents, Paulo Horta Devolder and Rosalina Caruso Horta Devolder, were both born in Brazil prior to 1930 when the Nazi Party secured more than 100 seats in Germany’s parliament.
The report claims Santos’ mother, Fatima Aziza Caruso Horta Devolder, was born to Paulo and Rosalina in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. His mother’s Facebook page does not contain references to Judaism but several pages she “liked” were for various Catholic groups.
Other posts she has shared on her Facebook page, which include pictures of her and the congressman-elect, include depictions of Jesus and quotes from the Bible. His mother died in 2016, according to an online obituary.
Santos, in a 2020 interview, said his family converted to Christianity while living in Brazil. Santos told the New York Post that he “never claimed to be Jewish” but that his “maternal family had a Jewish background,” which he meant as being “Jew-ish.”
The caravan then went to the Citibank branch on Union Turnpike in New Hyde Park, highlighting the false claims about his employment history.
In January The New York Times released the resume Santos submitted to the Nassau County Republican Committee in 2020. The two-page resume said Santos graduated in the top 1 percent with a 3.89 GPA at Baruch College, doubled revenue growth as a project manager at Goldman Sachs in an eight-month period and tripled sales growth within the first six months as a vice president at LinkBridge Investors.
Santos did not attend Baruch and never was an employee of Goldman Sachs.
“There is no question in my mind that Mr. Santos is not fit to represent the people of Congressional District 3,” Said resident Charlie Robbins. “We have no idea what he stands for except himself and his power and greed.”
The final stop before the caravan drove to his district office was Little Neck’s Il Bacco, the restaurant where Santos held his victory party on Election Night and his campaign spent over $14,000 through Nov. 28 during the 2022 election cycle.
Rallies calling for Santos to resign and be expelled from Congress have been held since he was sworn-in earlier this year.
Nassau County Legislator Joshua Lafazan (D-Woodbury) tweeted to Santos on Feb. 23 that he held a protest outside his office before delivering a letter telling him to stop wasting police resources. Santos originally tweeted that Lafazan stopped by his office to discuss issues in the district.
“I want to personally thank @JoshLafazan for stopping by my Douglaston office today. It was great to sit down & discuss the concerns that were addressed in the letter he brought in. #NY03,” Santos tweeted on Feb. 23.
