‘Do you have no shame?’: Tulsi Gabbard grills congressman-elect George Santos

Republican congressman-elect George Santos is under fire on multiple fronts – including in a blistering interview with Tulsi Gabbard and an investigation by Long Island prosecutors – after admitting to lying about his heritage, education and professional pedigree.

Late Wednesday, Santos also faced questions on social media over contradictory tweets on the timing of his mother’s death. One post on his account suggested she died in the September 11 attacks in New York, another said she died in 2016. The tweets appear to have been sent from his official Twitter account.

Santos faced tough questioning in a Fox News interview on Tuesday with Gabbard, the former congresswoman and presidential candidate. In the interview, Santos claimed he is not a “fraud” when asked about the recent revelations that his claims about his career and identity are riddled with lies and fabricated records.

The interview came the same day as fresh allegations that he falsely claimed a Jewish identity. And on Wednesday, prosecutors on Long Island said they were looking into the situation, calling the fabrications and inconsistencies “nothing short of stunning”.

“The residents of Nassau county and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress,” said Nassau county district attorney Anne T Donnelly, a Republican. “If a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

Even though Santos told the New York Post that he never claimed to be Jewish, there is documentation proving otherwise. Santos had been loud about his identity as a “proud American Jew”, and enjoyed coverage in Jewish media where he was celebrated as the “only Jewish Republican member of New York’s House delegation”.

He regularly attended events with rabbis and campaigned in Jewish neighborhoods, according to the New York Times.

When asked about this, Santos told Gabbard that he has Jewish heritage but was raised Catholic. He said he has joked that he is “Jew-ish”.

Santos, who has also admitted to lying about graduating from Baruch College and working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, said he was not “a fake” and that “everybody wants to nitpick” at him now.

But Gabbard put Santos on the spot by asking him how he defines “integrity”.

Santos initially talked about the role of integrity for politicians, but Gabbard pushed back: “What does it mean though? … Because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice.”

In Tuesday’s interview, he claimed he was courageous to be admitting this on national television, but fell short of an apology.

He insisted that somehow this “courage” in his admission would make him fit to serve his district, to which Gabbard asked: “Do you have no shame?”

“Do you have no shame [inaudible] the people who are now you’re asking to trust you to go and be their voice for them, their families and their kids in Washington?” she asked, after clarifying that what he keeps referring to as “embellishments” on his resume are much bigger, “blatant lies”.

Santos responded, once again deflecting the answer, this time to Democrats and Joe Biden, who he claimed has been “lying to the American people for 40 years”.

When Gabbard confronted him further about his lies regarding his work at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and how he can expect his constituents to trust him, Santos said the lies on his resume are “debatable” and “not false at all”.

He added that he could easily explain how things such as private equity work.

“We can have this discussion that can go way above the American people’s head”, he said, “but that’s not what I campaigned on”.

“Wow,” Gabbard responded. “You just kind of highlighted, I think my concerns and the concerns people at home have – you’re saying that this discussion will go way above the heads of the American people, basically insulting their intelligence.”

As of Wednesday morning, Santos’s website no longer had information about his relations with Baruch College, Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.

Despite intensifying doubt about his fitness to hold federal office, Santos has shown no signs of stepping aside. He is scheduled to be sworn in next Tuesday, when the US House reconvenes. If he assumes office, he could face investigations by the House committee on ethics and the US justice department.

Fellow Long Island Republican Nick Lalota said he was troubled by the revelations.

“I believe a full investigation by the House ethics committee and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required,” Lalota said Tuesday.

The New York attorney general’s office has already said it’s looking into issues that have come to light.

A spokesperson for the Nassau county DA’s office, Brendan Brosh, said on Wednesday: “We are looking into the matter.” The scope of the investigation was not immediately clear.