The Big Flop - George Santos: Snatch Me If You Can with Jon Lovett and Monét X Change | 37

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

US Congressman George Santos was an inspiring embodiment of the American dream. A son of immigrants who worked his way through the finest universities, rose through the ranks of Wall Street and started his own successful business before winning an election. Only catch? Almost none of it was true. Santos lied, schemed and embezzled his way into Congress until the world caught on and his career vanished in a haze of Hermès garments and Only Fans subscriptions.Monét X Change (RuPaul's Drag Race) and Jon Lovett (Pod Save America, Lovett or Leave It) join Misha to gab about the talented Mr. Santos.Follow The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the 2023 State of the Union address. Joe Biden is about to deliver his second State of the Union speech, and as usual, there will be plenty of quips to warm up the audience of senators and representatives. But the real joke tonight is freshman congressperson George Santos, duly elected by New York's third district. George, who's been caught lying about everything from his family's background to his own financial situation, and even his collegiate volleyball career is currently ignoring calls for resignation.

He's been labeled by some as a con artist, a fake, a fabulist, but this hasn't kept him away from tonight's event. As Biden makes his way to the podium, shaking hands with supporters, George stands creepily close to the president. This way, everyone on TV will see how important George is, the ultimate publicity stunt.

But then, Republican tsk-tsker Mitt Romney decides to pipe up. Romney tells George, You shouldn't be here. And later calls him a sick puppy. Bam! That'll shame him. George dashes off a tweet. Hey, at Mitt Romney,

Just a reminder that you will never be president. Maybe so, but soon George will be one of the only representatives to ever get expelled from the United States Congress. My name is George Santos. Only in this country can the little boy born in a basement apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City become a United States Congressman at 34. The committee led by a fellow Republican says there is clear evidence that Santos blatantly stole from his campaign and deceived donors and referred its findings to federal prosecutors.

The things Santos spent donors' cash on include designer goods, lavish Atlantic City trips, and smaller purchases at OnlyFans. Under Clause 5D of Rule 20, the chair announces to the House that in light of the expulsion of the gentleman from New York, Mr. Santos, the whole number of the house is now 434. We are on a sinking ship From Wondery and At Will Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time. I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and running for class clown at Don't

Cross a Gay Man. And today we're talking about the rapid downfall of disgraced congressman George Santos. Look out, Canadian listeners, this one's for you. Coho is a MasterCard with an easy-to-use app that makes managing your finances easier. Coho lets you earn cash back, borrow, build your credit history, and so much more. Join over 1 million Canadians and sign up for your free trial today. Download Coho on Google or App Store today or k-o-h-o.ca for more details. Plus, for any basketball fans out there,

get a $75 e-gift card for nbastore.ca when you sign up with the promo code COHO75. That's code K-O-H-O-75. Hey, I'm Trey Wingo. And I'm Kevin Frazier, and we're teaming up on a new weekly sports podcast called Alternate Routes. Each week on Alternate Routes, we leap into the sports multiverse where we pry open the sliding doors of a different what-if moment in sports. For example, what if the NBA never vetoed the crisp ball trade to the Lakers?

Listen to Alternate Routes on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. the Lakers. Listen to alternate routes on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. On our show today, we have one of the co-founders of Crooked Media, the co-host of Pod Save America and host of Love It or Leave It and co-author of Democracy or Else, How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps, out June 25th. It's John Lovett. Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited. You know, I have feeling you're going to know a lot about today's Flop, so can you try and act surprised? Sure. Yeah, I can do that. And joining him, we have drag race all-star Monet Exchange, co-host of the podcast Sibling Rivalry and Ebony and Ivory. Welcome to the show, bestie.

Hi, thank you for having me. I'm very excited. Same. Are you into politics? What's your take? I've been in politicians before, but am I in politics? We shall see. TBD. Well, children, we begin back in 2020. We're in New York's third congressional district, a safely democratic district that includes parts of New York City and Long Island. John, what do you know about the third district? First of all, my childhood district.

Oh, really? You're from there? I'm from this district. I was from a Jewish suburb. Just to give you a sense of how Jewish, for a long time our congressman's name was Steve Israel. And we were exit 44, I believe, on the LIE. That gives you a sense of how far out you have to drive. Wow. Yeah, it's the fourth richest district

in the entire country. Oh, we're learning a lot about Mr. Levitt tonight. Okay. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I don't know that that's, that may be now. That may be now. That may be now. Ha ha ha ha.

Compared to the presidential election, this congressional race is a snoozer. Tom Swazee, an incumbent congressman, is running for reelection. It's such a low stakes election that no one is actively running against Wazzy. So the Nassau County Republican Committee scrambles to find a suitable candidate to oppose him. And they weren't available, so they called George Santos.

Exactly. Got it. Yeah, they don't just find someone suitable. They find someone in their eyes, perfect. And that person is an investment advisor named George Santos. The Nassau GOP picks up George's resume and boy, does this sound incredible. Here are a few details from George's self-reported bio. Okay. Born in 1988, George is a Queens, New York native.

A lower class kid born to immigrants, he graduated summa cum laude from the public college Baruch, where he also played on a championship winning volleyball team. Volleyball? How tall is this man? I don't know. I have not met a volleyball player shorter than 7'5". So George Santos, there is no way. Well he has an MBA from NYU, a competitive private university, and he's worked for prestigious companies like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, bringing in almost $3 million in revenue. George is also openly gay.

That would play well with the younger voters and centrists. This guy sounds like he's gonna kick some Democratic butt. And on behalf of the queer community, we rescind our invitation. Give us our stuff back. We want your card back. We want everything back. We don't claim you, girl.

So at this point, the committee, it should probably do some due diligence. A background check maybe, LinkedIn stalking, just a cursory Google search would probably have been better than what they did. Well seemingly without doing any background check, like you might pretty much do for any minimum wage job, the Nassau GOP backs George in the matchup against Swazi. Even with his impressive resume, George loses to the much better known politician by 12 points and won't be heading to Congress.

Oh well, it still seems like the young and accomplished George has a bright future ahead of him. And what year was this? 2020. 2020, right, okay. Yeah, we just blocked it all out, collectively. But losing is in vogue for Republicans this year. It's a new winning for them, honestly.

Honestly. Losing is a new winning. Yeah, as you might remember, 2020 is also the year that Trump loses. Spoiler. And George, who's smart, he sees an opportunity to align himself with powerful people. So he attends the Stop the Steal rally on January 6th and gives a speech claiming his own election was stolen as well. So here's George speaking with Laura Trump about President Trump's impeachment following January 6th. The president came from an outsider perspective, took the world by storm. I went to business school because of Donald Trump.

I ran for Congress because I thought Donald Trump, if he made it, it was the time for everybody to have an opportunity. The Democrats can't take that away. The impeachment did not hurt Trump. It made him stronger. It made MAGA stronger. Okay, first of all, what kind of person do you have to be

to make Lara Trump uncomfortable? Even she's sitting there like, oh my God. He's so shameless. You know, it's like one thing we've learned over the last couple of years, just like being shameless is so powerful. If you don't care what people say, if you don't care how ridiculous you look, if you don't care how embarrassing your lie is, if you don't care, if you really have no shame, that is a superpower.

And George Santos, it may not have lasted, you know, but in that video, you see why he had that superpower. Sure. Yeah, George Santos belonged on OJ Simpson's defense committee, okay? He's really good. He's really good at what he does. He should have been helping Robert Kardashian

dispose of that Louis Vuitton bag. That's where he belongs. One thousand percent. I agree. Well, positioning himself this way works, and George's Republican star is on the rise. Now it's June 10th of 2021, and George announces he's running for Congress again. Under the bio tab on his website, it says that George's maternal grandparents were Belgians who fled, quote, the devastation of World War II Europe.

In 2022, as the war in Ukraine unfolds and the midterm election approaches, the bio slowly becomes more dramatic, updated to say his grandparents, quote, fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and then again fled persecution during World War II. We found out about all these changes now that we dug in, right? I guess when all the things were going down, when shit was happening in real time, no one was like, oh, let me go check the bio

and see what changed this week. Yeah. You know, everyone's sort of like, yeah, it's weird. My local paper shut down and oh, hey, you know what happens when there's no local news anymore? Nobody checks the website. Yeah. Nobody goes and says, wait a second,

I don't think this guy is, the grandparents are Holocaust escaping Belgian Jews. That doesn't check out to me. See, that's a really good point. I was over here just thinking, like, everyone was still stuck envisioning him spiking a ball on a volleyball court. Yeah. That's what mine was. I'm still sucking a volleyball too.

So, his financial disclosure suggests he makes up to $6 million and has assets totaling up to $11 million, including a condo in Rio. George's rags to riches story is all very impressive and inspirational, but he's still unknown. He's going to get crushed by Tom Swazzy again. Yeah. Clearly. Well, George must have had his lucky rabbit's foot with him in 2022 Tom Swazzy again. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Clearly. Well, George must have had his lucky rabbit's foot with him in 2022 because Swazzy decides to run for governor. A lesser-known Democrat named Robert Zimmerman jumps into the race and loses to George.

With his congressional seat locked in, George takes some victory laps and does a few interviews. He comes across as generally convincing and very charismatic. So let's play a clip of George speaking with New York public radio legend Brian Lair, who's invited George onto his morning show to congratulate him on his win. Your various identities as a gay son of Latino and Jewish migrants and a CUNY grad would often land people in the Democratic Party. Why did you wind up as a Republican and what defines your conservative or Republican values? Just because you're gay does not mean you have to be a Democrat and it's also good

to show to people that other than popular belief in what the mainstream media like out there that there's no place for gay people in the Republican Party, that's not true. I've never suffered any kind of discrimination or negative rhetoric from my party. A queer people saying they've never suffered any negativity under the Republican Party. It makes my brain want to curl up inside of itself and explode and swell. Like, I just don't see how you square that circle. But this man has a lie for every minute of the day.

So he has no shame. He's just saying whatever. Mm-hmm. Yeah, like, I believe him that, like, no Republican has, like, called him a fag and tried to push him down the stairs. You're right. I was a Democrat at that time when I did that. Yeah. I mean, Democrat at that time when I did that. LAUGHS I mean, Brian has a similar thought, asking George whether he agrees

that Republicans are fanning anti-gay sentiments and brings up a recent shooting at Club Q, a gay club in Colorado Springs, to get George's take. It just so happens George can relate. Here's why. I condemn what happened in Colorado, just much like Pulse at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, which I happened to at the time have people that worked for me in the club. My company at the time, we lost four employees that were at Pulse nightclub. So

this is a deja vu moment for me, not something that is really good even going over because it just brings back such tragic memories. His company lost four people at Pulse. Yeah, that's what he said. That sure is what he said. There were so many different stories that you forget even these lies inside of lies. Like inside of an interview where he's lying about his life,

there's this moment where a terrible tragedy is brought up and his brokenness can't help. He's like, I need to find a way to use this, to talk about this in a way that makes it about me. Oh, I know. I had four employees who died at this mass shooting. Incredible, incredible. The inception of lies. Iane, the inception of lies.

I mean, the interviews put more eyes on George, and in December of 2022, two journalists from the New York Times are assigned a basic political profile covering George's win. All these journos have to do is just explain who this guy is, where he came from, what he's up to, and then make it to the New York Times happy hour early. But their assignment becomes a fact-checking

nightmare. Everything about George appears to be made up. So now that we're here, did either of you hear about George before what happens next? Well, I listen to The View every day and I remember when Whoopi Goldberg, the episode goes, well, you know, there's this politician in Long Island, a politician, George Santos, and George Bayer is like, who's George? But I was not in tune. I think no one was really in tune to the psychosis that we're about to experience. Yeah. Well, before getting into the lies. Before.

It is easier to say what they found was probably true. Well, before getting into the lies... Before! LAUGHS It is easier to say what they found was probably true. So, George is indeed from Queens. He got his GED in 2006. He worked a few jobs in tech hospitality and financial services. Instead of fancy mansions, he spent most of his life in apartments with family and roommates, probably taking a local train. But that doesn't really line up with what George has been telling everyone.

So the Times gets to digging. They want to chat with George's former colleagues at places he's listed, like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Again, basic profile stuff. But Goldman Sachs and Citigroup say they've never heard of the guy. Wow. So The Times easily figures out George doesn't hold a degree from Baruch or NYU. Not a huge surprise at this point. And as far as his heritage, George's maternal grandparents were born in Brazil, so they probably didn't flee Europe during the Holocaust.

And to corroborate the Pulse nightclub story, the reporters go through every single obituary of every person killed to see if they had ever worked with George in any way. They hadn't. No. How can people make claims like this without being challenged? People expect politicians to exaggerate and even to lie. You'd say, oh, like, oh, they claimed to have ran a marathon.

It was actually a turkey trot. But like, when someone says, oh, that's, it's so nice to meet you. Oh, you're, you're Belgian. My family actually was from Belgium. You don't say, I'm'm gonna need to see fucking proof. I'm gonna need to see proof of that. You gotta prove to me.

I don't believe anyone's from Belgium until they prove it to me. For most of you try to take things at face value it was only when they started, it takes a lot of investigative work to get to the bottom of all these different lies. Yeah, like as a queer person, you're like someone tells you that they knew someone opposed.

You know what? I'm gonna believe you. That was a horrific, terrible tragedy. Like, you know what? I got it. Like, to John's point, like, little lies for politicians, we get it. Like, if you're a politician, you're like, oh, yeah, I got a 1,600 on my SATs. We're guessing you probably got a 14, but that's fine.

Not that you didn't graduate elementary. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's crazy. I think what's interesting is that Not that you didn't graduate elementary, you know what I mean? Like it's just, it's crazy. I think what's interesting is that George Santos had a little fantasy in his mind of the person he wanted to seem like, right? He clearly like had, you know, struggles in his life, but he wanted to tell a story

that not only had he struggled, but he like overcame them and became a grand American success. The idea that we demand beautiful, amazing narratives from people who ultimately are not going to Congress to be TV writers or create, they're there to pass legislation and serve their constituents,

that I think that's a bad thing. And I think you see that with presidents too, right? Like we expect our presidents to not just go and pass bills and fix problems, but they also have to be America's poet and they have to speak and they have to be our, be kind of these grand figures, these big, big, larger than life figures.

And I think when we invest in these jobs more than what they deserve, you set yourself up for people like George Santos. Well, John, you just hit the nail on the head. John for president. No, the lies I'd tell. The things I'd have to make up, you wouldn't believe. You're like, I did not shoot my dog.

Yeah. Oh. So, The Times finds former friends, lovers, and pissed off roommates who can speak to his real personality and the picture becomes a little clearer. George likes the finer things in life, but he can't afford them. So he borrows money that he never pays back. And one of his friends even sues George, but never recovers their $5,000 loan, and George has never admitted to taking this money

and not paying it back. Without naming any names, have you ever had a roommate like that? Ooh, oh my God. Okay, so in college, I finally get an apartment off campus with my friends, and one of the guys leaves school a semester early, so we go on the good old Craigslist, and we find a roommate, and this person moves in. They're a little weird, but like, you know what?

Like everyone's kooky, whatever. Come to find out this person, one night, I hear my door come open. I'm like in sleep and I come to, he is in my dresser, ruffling through my things. And I get up, I'm like, hey, what are you doing? He's like, oh, sorry, I didn't know you were home. The next day he leaves, he had stolen my driver's license, through my things and I get up, I'm like, hey, what are you doing? Because I'm like, oh, sorry, I didn't know you were home.

The next day he leaves, he had stolen my driver's license, my passport and my social security number and I've never recovered them. I have no idea what those three things from that time are. He stole those three things from my top dresser, which means he had been there before because he knew exactly where to go to get them. And that roommate's name was George Santos. Well, the Exhausted Times reporters cancel their dinner plans and decide to get to George's finances to understand where all his cash is coming from.

George has paid himself a salary of $750,000 plus dividends through his company, the Devolder organization. The story behind that name, in Brazil, George Santos was known as Anthony Devolder. But the Times reporters can't figure out what the Devolder company does or who its clients are. So the Times reporters do come across one interesting income source.

Back in 2008, George stole a checkbook in Brazil and then disappeared before he could be charged. Shut up. So, the Times finds a ton of shocking deceptions, but it's only fair to credit them with breaking George's story nationally. Locally, a paper called The North Shore Leader in Long Island discovered George was lying about his finances before he was even elected.

But the story was missed by voters and bigger press outlets. The New York Times Exposé is published on December 19th of 2022 and all hell breaks loose. New York's attorney general announces plans to investigate George's lies. And in late December, he goes on a publicity tour to explain his actions, assuage the voters, and get the AG off his back. So to find out if he does a good job, let's play a game. Here are the rules to this game. George finally has to answer for his little pesky lies, and he needs your help. Please help him come up with an excuse, and then we'll take a listen to his actual excuse

and see how close you got, okay? All right, John. Yes. George was a Dish Network telemarketer for a few months, but lies on his resume says he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup instead. What was his excuse? In a way, we all work for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup instead. What was his excuse? In a way, we all work for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Whether we make money or lose money, they make money. Whether we win or lose, they win. They're the house. The casino's gonna make some money. They don't build those beautiful towers on Wall Street because they lose money. Great. Well, here's George Santos, master deflector's excuse.

The moment I put that on a resume and I put it out there, elitists like the New York Times like to call blue collar jobs like that odd jobs because it just doesn't fit their bourgeoisie style lifestyles. That's awesome. I love that. The way he lies so fluidly. Honestly, it's masterful. Like, he is, he is master of the art of deception. It just flows out of him. Like, I feel like the way Hamlet flowed out of Shakespeare. Mm-hmm. He's only the Shakespeare of having pretended to work at Goldman Sachs.

All right, Monet, it's your turn. George doesn't own any property, but says he owns mansions. Explain that. Well, you know, in the Great Recession, he goes like, what I had said was I used to own property, but then, you know, when the market fell down

and Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall and broke his crown, I'd lost them. So I used to, but I don't anymore is what happened. All right, let's see what George said. Me personally, I've never claimed to own property myself. But your family property, I think it won't be- My family has property and I'm able to use of their property and I helped them out with, you know, keeping the books

and stuff like that, but that's a family affair. And stuff like that. Keeping the books, stuff like that. John. Yes. George says he founded an animal rescue charity called Friends of Pets United, where thousands of cats and dogs are supposedly rescued.

But the IRS has no idea what they're referring to. What? Here's the thing. When you're trying to save dogs, all right, you don't want the government up in your business, all right, trying to tax you or, you know, we're in the dogs. I don't want to deal with Uncle Sam. Let's hear its excuse. So I wasn't a sole owner.

Like I was part of a group of people who founded it. And there was many individuals with various responsibilities. My responsibility was really doing the grunt work. I ended up with picking up poop cleaning. And again, I wasn't alone on this. I never flew solo. I never claimed to fly solos. Never claimed to fly solos. It sounds ha! Never claimed to fly solos.

It sounds like you took a hit of a blunt in the middle of there. That sounds to me like somebody walked a dog. Yeah, he walked a dog one time. Alright, Monet, last one. George lies a lot. Like, all the time. Like, never stops. Can you explain why? Well, the truth is, Misha, it's not lying

if you don't remember telling the lie. So what I'm going through is I'm gonna have early onset dementia and amnesia and also athroplasia. So I don't know that I'm lying. I literally just can't remember, but in my mind, I'm telling the truth. Let's listen to the real excuse. I can say the same thing about the Democrats and the party.

Look at Joe Biden. Joe Biden's been lying to the American people for 40 years. He's the president of the United States. Democrats resoundly support him. There we go, Joe Biden. Joe Biden, girl. Joe Biden. The Republican playing book.

Also, to say out of your mouth, Joe Biden has been lying for 40 years is just an insane thing to say out of your mouth. Like what? Yeah, he lied a couple of times, but not the whole time. The whole time. Not the whole 40 years. So, about that supposed animal rescue charity. According to the Washington Post, back in 2017, someone named George A. Santos tried

to buy puppies with a bad check from an Amish farmer. Oh, that's right. George drove off with four golden retrievers and the farmer told the cops. It took two years to find George, but the criminal charge was dismissed after the farmer supposedly got paid. I completely forgot that one of George Santos' side quests

was he stole golden retrievers from the Amish. That's such a funny crime. You know how hard you have to try to come up with that crime? Like this is not a guy robbing banks. A crime as cinematically small and evil as stealing puppies from the Amish. Like you gotta be clever. That's creative.

That's funny. Also, writing checks was a time. I cannot believe people used to go to the grocery store. My mom used to do this. She would write a check. We'd go to the grocery store, we'd check out, we'd give them a check. I'm like, what if we had no money? Checks are a crazy thing. Now I'm thinking about it. Checks are wild. It's a piece of paper and the way you prove that it's you is you sign it, which is a squiggly line that is uncheckable. It's an absolute bananas technology. Speaking of checks, George allegedly wrote checks

for at least $15,000 worth of puppies to multiple breeders in Pennsylvania in November of 2017 when he was holding puppy adoption events on Staten Island. At least three breeders claimed they didn't get paid, but also didn't file police reports. According to the Times article, he'd used dogs to make money in various underhanded ways, usually raising money through GoFundMe. At an adoption event where raffles and merch were sold, he asked for a check to be made out to himself instead of the charity he was supposedly working with. The pet store owner

refused that. Later, George blotted out the fictitious Friends of Pets United on the check and wrote in Anthony Devolder before depositing it. So naturally, George denies breaking any laws, but declines to be more specific. So... I just gagged at the amount, all the different avenues that this man went through to try to swindle people out of money, as opposed to just getting a fucking job.

Thinking the exact same thing. This is a lot of work to not have a job. So much work. Get a fucking job. You're driving a Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You're speeding away from the Amish. You got dogs in the backseat, lying in a charity, starting GoFundMe's. Get a nine to five. It's not so bad.

Also in my mind, it's like a scene from like a really fucked up Cruella de Vil. It's just George Santos with like an old buggy kind of car. The dog's head's out the windows. The Amish are coming on horse and buggy, after him. To steal four golden retrievers, then you're making up a whole fake chariot. Like, it's just so much work. It's crazy. Well, despite the treasure trove of controversies and creepy anecdotes, George is still a sitting member representing just under 800,000 constituents in New York's third district. But the more and more details are being revealed,

or at least the true story of his fake story, nobody wants to be seen near or associated with George. While the House picks a speaker, George has to sit alone. You can't sit with us! That's hilarious. He spends his time texting until his name is called and is jeered by Democrats. George's election has made a mockery of Congress, not that it needed any help.

And as lurid details continue to seep out into the swamp, even some Republicans start to call for his resignation. The thing is, he's too important. John, do you want to explain why? Well, Republicans have a razor thin majority in the House. They underperformed, they did much worse than anyone expected. At the time, Kevin McCarthy, who was running for speaker, needed every single vote. And I was going to say the exact same thing, but me, she didn't give me the chance.

Don't worry. Your time is coming very, very soon, Monet. So the far right is making it very difficult for Republicans to elect a speaker. And Kevin McCarthy is only a handful of votes from clinching the position. So George throws his support behind McCarthy. This savvy move gets George assigned to two congressional committees as a thank you. And

it also means McCarthy will protect George for as long as he stays in power. It seems like George can finally breathe easy. Except another hot news scandal drops. So let's take a look at this hot new scandal drops. So let's take a look at this hot new scandal. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. LAUGHS LAUGHS So, what do we think about George's drag?

Well, as I said, calling it a new scandal, this looks like an old, raggedy, decrepit, rotten scandal, if I have to think about it. You know what? I don't know how many times George has done drag at this point, but I will say the blending is shit. The lipstick is terrible. And the wig is that this, y'all, this is a hard front wig.

OK, if you don't know, there is lace fronts and hard fronts. Hard fronts are for the people who don't love themselves, basically. And this is a horrendous, quote-unquote, first time in drag, one time, allegedly. Uh-huh. Well, Brazilian drag queen, Ayola Richard, tattled on George for performing in drag. Ayola spoke through a translator to journalist Marissa Cabas, provided pics from 2008, and said that in those days, George went

by Anthony or as Katara Ravash. Well, George denies the allegations of Katara at first, calling it categorically false, and then goes back on that and clarifies, quote, I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life. And I mean, you can't argue with that. But the issue isn't whether someone had fun at a festival. So, Monet, here's where I want your political input. Why do you think this was such a big deal? Well, one thing you're with, you're literally aligning yourself with the party that is literally, they're canceling drag across America, girl. They are literally, they're like,

drag, no, they're horrible, they're terrible, they're dangerous. I'm like, the only drag that is dangerous is Bob the Drag Queens, okay? First of all. I was waiting for a drive-by on Bob. So you're aligning yourself with a party who hates drag and they don't want it a part of anything.

So like the irony of it is insane. Yeah, it's so funny. There's like, there's a guy, stole puppies, created fake charities, lied about every major disaster, but the bridge that was too far was he put on a dress in Brazil. And that was the one where he was like, oh no, now they're gonna come for me.

The one time he's like, it was just one time and I'm so sorry. So back in Congress, it's March of 2023. The House Ethics Committee launches an investigation and an old crime comes back to haunt George. And it's not that flat ass wig he was wearing. Authorities in Brazil reopened the checkbook fraud case because they now know where he is.

Sadly, he confesses to the crime and strikes a deal to drop the charges. In October of 2023, George's luck finally runs out. His primary lifeline, Kevin McCarthy, is ousted by his own party for passing a budget or whatever. I love the word ousted. The word ousted is so dramatic. I love it. Ousted. It was ousted. That same month, George is federally indicted on 23 counts, everything from wire fraud to

aggravated identity theft. He pleads not guilty. And then in November, a report is released by the House Ethics Committee that's both shocking and completely unsurprising. And naturally, George claims it's a biased smear campaign. George has allegedly spent donor money on fine garments from Hermes, products from makeup company Sephora, spa days, Botox injections, and most notably OnlyFans. Now I wanted to know who's OnlyFans. I was like, I wanna know what George is looking at. What's he into?

It was funny because he, George did have a glow up during this time. He put these campaign dollars to good use. One thing we found out during this moment is we got answers to our questions about what was happening before. How can he loan his campaign all of this money, but also have all these debts?

The answer was he was lying. He just was making it up. Beautiful mind. He has a beautiful mind, our George. A beautiful mind, John. Can you see him in front of, like, a glass? Like, you know, in, like, the movies, whenever a math person does math,

they don't do it on a blackboard, they always do it on glass. Or it's like, there's such geniuses, they have to do the math wherever they are right then, they must do math. Can you see George? He sees the numbers, he sees the matrix. I think it's a beautiful thing. Well, in response to the allegations, George says he's being unfairly maligned, like in

one of those, what do you call it? Let's have George weigh in. The reality is, is it's a witch hunt. Because it makes no sense that in four months, four months, five months, I'm indicted. I'm going to fight my battle. I'm going to deliver. I'm going to fight the witch hunt. I'm going to take care of I'm gonna deliver. I'm gonna fight the witch hunt. I'm gonna take care of clearing my name

and I look forward to doing that. What is our national obsession with witch hunts? It was the one time we did what needed to be done. This PC nonsense has gotten in the way of a good witch hunt and we miss it. I mean, given he's hypnotized so many people, maybe George is an actual witch. Maybe.

Well, on December 1st of 2023, the House votes 311 to 114 to expel George Santos from Congress. Ousted. Ousted. Ousted. He becomes the sixth member of Congress expelled ever. His entire congressional career, not counting elections, spans just one year, and the locks on his office door are changed immediately. Can anyone guess or remember what he says on his way out?

What did he say? Uh, I forget. While leaving the Capitol, he's heard saying, to hell with this place. Oh, yeah, that was awesome. That was perfect. That was beautiful. Icon. So at least George has some legitimate experience

to add to his resume now. Remember Congress. That's good for him. That's real. Yeah. He forever, the rest of his life, he's Congressman George Santos. Can't take that away.

That goes on the wedding invites. Mm-hmm. And then he got married. So it's Congressman and Mr. George Santos. That's forever. Yeah. So let's do a little, where are they now? George's empty seat in Congress was filled by his old rival, Tom Swazee, after a special

election. But George hasn't disappeared. While he's been federally indicted, he's still pleading not guilty and has not yet faced trial. Since his expulsion from the House of Representatives, he's done everything he can to capitalize on his notoriety. One promising new venture? Selling short personalized videos on Cameo, which we have one of those.

Shut up. Hey, psycho b******, how are you? It is I, George Santos. I mean, look, let's start here. Why are you so insane? Why are you mean to everybody? Your feet are not that pretty, girl. So when your feet are not that pretty, you can't just be a b****.

I'm kidding. I am screaming. Hate. Hate. Yuck. Hate it. Hate the whole thing. Hate, hate. Hate, hate. Yuck, hate it. Hate the whole thing.

Fuck this. For a while, he was charging $500 per video. I mean, at one point, he was making up to like 70K a day. 70K a day? He was number one on the leaderboard for the month of December at 500 a pop. That's wild. George has unfortunately lowered his price and as of recording this podcast,

he makes a measly $300 per video. To tell you guys something, okay, I have bought a cameo from George Santos. Oh my God, for who? And I didn't want to admit it, and I was going to take it to my grave. Shortly after he was expelled, we got't want to admit it. And I was gonna take it to my grave. Shortly after he was expelled, we got one and we played it

at an all hands meeting at Crooked, where we do our podcasts, congratulating everybody on something. I can't remember how we got it done, but I will say we were part of the problem. And I know that. And I know that. Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing because it feels right in the moment. You know?

Sure, sure. Well, George also appeared on Z-Way where he did a great job proving he's not a master criminal. At least he's not sticking to politics. Right? Right? Wrong. Oh. Uh-oh. I'll be back. You'll be back?

I'm 35. They're all in their 50s. I'll outlive them. Each and last one of them. This is so menacing. Ah. Ay, ay, ay. He's good at the drama. He is good TV.

He is great TV. Yeah. He belonged on A Real Housewives. He did not belong in Congress. Sure. Well, George attended Biden's State of the Union speech this year. Afterward, he made a big announcement that he is running again. This time as an independent, George claims he can no longer

be a part of the Republican party because it continues to quote, lie and swindle its voter base. I assume this is tongue in cheek. One thing that's funny about this, just as another example of his shamelessness, why was George Santos able to go to the House of Representatives and watch the State of the Union? Well, because once your House of Representatives,

one of the privileges you have is you can always go back and visit the House of Representatives. You can always go to the floor. Yeah, of course. It didn't occur to anybody that someone who was expelled for being a fraud would be so shameless that he'd come wandering back again. So there's just no rule.

There's no rule specific. They need a specific rule for George Santos. They didn't have a precedent. They didn't occur to them that someone wouldn't be too embarrassed to show their face. So now they need a rule that says if you're ever ousted, you don't get privileges. Wow. That's nuts.

Wow. Well, here on The Big Flop, we like to try to be positive people and end on a high. So are there any silver linings that you can think of that came about because of our gal, George Santos? I think to piggyback off of what John just said, in our bylaws and laws, we need to set a precedent for people who could potentially fraud the American people the way George Santos is. So I am hopeful there will be an amendment to an amendment to something that will have some legal ramifications

for people to lie and cheat and steal the way that George Santos has. Yeah. It was pretty embarrassing that Kevin McCarthy, to gain power, decided to look the other way on George Santos. And what did that get Kevin McCarthy? A brief and pathetic run at Speaker of the House that ultimately got him embarrassingly kicked out anyway. And while a bunch of Republicans refused to remove George Santos,

even after all the evidence was laid bare, it was Republicans from New York and Democrats with a bunch of Republicans that actually managed to remove him. I do think the bar for doing the right thing is a little low at George Santos, but hey, we cleared it. We cleared it. We did.

We did. We got to walk before we can run. That's true. You know, I was thinking that at least it has, in some small way, reignited the conversation of paying attention and supporting local journalism. Like, shout out to the North Shore leader who were the first to catch on to this massive story. It just went unnoticed.

So maybe we could have avoided all of this if we had just listened and paid attention to local media outlets. Now that you both know about George Anthony Devolder Katara Ravash Santos, would you consider this a baby flop, a big flop, or a mega flop? So it's confusing, right? Because on the one hand, one of the great flops,

I mean, come on, this is a flop we'll be talking about for the rest of our lives. We'll always remember the George Santos flop. It's gonna be a Jeopardy answer. It's gonna be a trivia thing we hear about forever. There was this guy made his whole life story up. But can you really call it a mega flop if where you land post flop

is still higher than where you started? I'll say this, if he goes to jail for federal crimes related to the crimes he committed in running for office, if he's actually faced his consequences, I'll call that 100% sure a mega flop. But until then, maybe just a big flop. I'd agree. BOTH LAUGH

Perfect. Well, thank you so much to our very real guests, Monet Exchange and John Lovett, for joining us here on The Big Flop. Don't forget to check out Democracy or Else, How to Save America and 10 Easy Steps out on June 25th. And thanks to all of you for listening. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review.

We'll be back next week with the crappiest flop of them all. Elestra, the fat substitute that caused people to poop themselves. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. -♪ -♪ If you like the Big Flop, you can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+.

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