Dirty Delete is a weekly column that goes deep into the social media history of politicians that runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is a serial liar who may best even Madison Cawthorn’s propensity for falsehood.
The freshman congressman has lied about his education, work experience, and that he descends from Jews who fled the Holocaust. He also invented employees who perished in the Pulse nightclub shooting.
These are just the big lies.
Even where he lives and whether he’s married may be fictitious.
The Daily Beast recently revealed that openly gay Santos, who says he’s been out for a decade, divorced a woman in September 2019 after seven years of marriage—one month after the man who he says became his husband was seen smiling by his side in this photo Santos posted on Facebook in August 2019. He also tweeted about being gay from his old Twitter account, @devolder.
It’s not clear that Santos actually is married. In 2021, Santos claimed he was engaged. By 2022, he was describing the man from the photo as his husband.
Yet nobody can find records of their marriage. Now the man seems to have vanished from Santos’ real and online lives.
It’s possible they were just searching for the wrong name. Santos likes to chop it up when he introduces himself. He’s previously gone as Anthony Devolder, Anthony Zabrovsky,Anthony Dee, and George Devolder—the name he campaigned under last time he ran for Congress.
Anthony and Devolder are his middle names. Zabrovsky was supposedly his maternal grandparents’ last name before they fake-fled the very real Holocaust. You’ll be surprised to learn that this name change appears to be yet another lie.
His Facebook has beenflagged for sharing misinformation about COVID-19, which is pretty ironic given that he claims to have been one of the first to contract it in the United States. Or did he? Dan Diamond of the Washington Post reviewed Santos’ tales of COVID woes and found some pretty large holes (also a brain tumor!).
Online, you can find Santos lying about on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Gab, Gettr, Parler, and Truth Social.
Why it matters
The walls are arguably closing in on George Santos. Even Republicans are turning their backs on him and demanding that he resign. He’s also got some sticky matters to deal with in Brazil, where he holds dual citizenship (allegedly).
But Santos is determined to soldier on. After being confronted with a fresh round of “dude gtfo” on Wednesday, Santos told reporters that he has no plans to resign.
That seems to be the one thing that he isn’t lying about.