Tulsi Gabbard confronts George Santos' egregious deceptions, exposing his fabricated Beirut College degree, nonexistent Citigroup and Goldman Sachs employment, and misstated religious identity. While Santos defends his resume embellishments as harmless exaggeration akin to ads, the host argues these lies regarding education and faith constitute actual fraud that erodes public trust in Washington. Ultimately, this relentless scrutiny highlights a broader crisis of integrity where politicians face no consequences for blatant falsehoods, regardless of party affiliation. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Washington's Culture of Deception00:01:35
A permanent Washington has created a culture where it's acceptable to lie to further your own interests.
Just try not to get caught.
I should know I served in Congress for eight years.
But even when these politicians do get caught, people just shrug their shoulders and move on.
No big deal, no consequences.
A few examples.
Dick Blumenthal lied about his military service.
And of course, Elizabeth Warren lied about having Native American heritage.
So no one should be surprised.
The American people don't trust these politicians.
They've got no faith that those in Washington are actually working for the people when they're so clearly working for themselves.
George Santos, who was just elected to represent New York in Congress in this past election, has actually been lying extensively about his own past.
Now, he admits to some of these deceptions.
For example, Santos acknowledges that he, quote, embellished his resume by saying that he graduated from Beirut College, but he didn't.
Santos has also admitted he never actually worked for Citigroup in Goldman Sachs, even though his website suggested that he did.
Additionally, Santos once called himself a proud Jew.
But in an interview with the New York Post, Santos now says, quote, I am Catholic.
Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background.
I said I was Jew-ish.
Congressman Alec Santos, thank you for joining us today.
The first question I really want to ask you now that all this has been revealed is, what does the word integrity mean to you?
Santos Admits to Embellishments00:01:34
Answer it.
Answer it.
Well, Tulsi, thank you for having me.
You know, to answer your question, integrity is very important.
And like I said to the New York Post, embellishing the message.
What does it mean, though?
What does it mean?
Because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice.
Of course.
It means to carry yourself in an honorable way.
And I made a mistake.
And I think humans are flawed.
And we all make mistakes, Tulsi.
I think we can all look at ourselves in the mirror and admit that once in our life we made a mistake.
I'm having to admit this in national television for the whole country to see.
And I have the courage to do so because I believe that in order to move past this and move forward and be an effective member of Congress, I have to face my mistakes and I'm facing them.
I'm only human.
You get embellished.
Those are lies.
Like, look, this is what embellishing looks like.
Okay, I put up an ad on e-hommee.
I'm six foot three, but I'm really five foot eight.
Yeah.
That's embellishing.
I have six inches.
No, I'm going to embellish.
I got 12 inches.
Right?
I get down with one and I got a trope between my legs.
That's embellishing.
You just took it just, that's embellishing.
You just lied.
You went to a school, didn't go there, said you was Jewish, but you said, you meant to say you was Jewish.
That's not embellishing.
That is just, you're just lying.
Well, you know what?
He's a Republican.
We picked up a Republican seat with him.
I was like, yeah, but see, we're doing it the right way.