Everything George Santos Has Done Since Getting Kicked Out of Congress
He’s raking it in on Cameo, ridiculing his former co-workers — and preparing for trial.
Did you think George Santos would go away? In the weeks since he was expelled from Congress for a laundry list of alleged crimes and proven fabrications, the spotlight-loving former congressman has kept himself busy. Aware that he may not be able to monetize his life for that much longer (he may be heading to prison soon), Santos has stayed in the public light and is attempting to wring as much attention and money from it as he can. Here is a list of everything the congressional con man has been up to since he was forced to switch careers.
He’s making a killing on Cameo
Three days after his expulsion from Congress, Santos joined the video platform Cameo, offering recorded messages to strangers and fans for $75 a pop. His page originally said he would only record 150 messages, but as requests poured in, Santos realized he was sitting on a gold mine. He nixed the limit and raised the price to $150. Then $200. Then $300. As of publication, he’s charging up to $599 for each recording. State-level Democratic officials have bought Cameos from him, as has Senator John Fetterman, who used his to troll New Jersey senator Robert Menendez. Then there’s the weirder stuff:
I absolutely cannot believe the reality I am living in pic.twitter.com/Iq4g2tWe2Z
— Ben Yahr (@benyahr) December 8, 2023
Santos has claimed that he made more on Cameo in one week than his congressional salary of $174,000.
He’s been trash-talking his former colleagues
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: George Santos is making fun of his his co-workers. After his removal from Congress, Santos has continued to go after his erstwhile New York Republican colleagues, who have loudly criticized him over the last year. Santos came for Representative Brandon Williams, posting on X that he is a “terrible pompous drunk and a bully to your staff!” Without any evidence at all, he claimed that Staten Island representative Nicole Malliotakis was involved in insider trading, trying out the subpar nickname of “Nicole MallioStockTips.” He also suggested that Malliotakis was gay. (A representative for Malliotakis told the New York Post, “We don’t respond to expelled George Santos because he is a scorned and known serial liar.”)
He’s hitting the talk circuit
Given the political leaning of most late-night talk shows, it’s unlikely that Santos will be chatting with with Stephen Colbert or either of the Jimmys anytime soon. But on December 10, he spoke with CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer for a congressional postmortem. He said that his last week in office “felt like a movie” and that he was proud of the “legacy I leave behind” over his three months in Congress. He continued that his “road to redemption” would be to expose political corruption, and that Long Island is a “corruption cesspool.”
“I saw how the sausage is made and I have receipts and I’m willing to show the American people,” he went on. “You don’t need to believe me; you need to believe the proof and the evidence.” He also claimed that that there are emails showing that a staffer fabricated his campaign bio, not Santos himself. But, in the “essence of justice,” he would have to wait a few months before publishing those emails. (He did not mention the many other lies he could not pin on staffers.)
There’s more to come. On December 11, Santos said he was recording later in the day with Ziwe Fumudoh, the eponymic host of the former Showtime series who seeks out controversial guests.
you’d be an iconic guest @MrSantosNY pic.twitter.com/qimNpQ1XcT
— ziwe (@ziwe) December 11, 2023
It’s Santos party time
After the New York Young Republican Club’s holiday bash on December 9, Santos went out with representatives Lauren Boebert and Byron Donalds to the Beach Cafe, a GOP hot spot on the Upper East Side. According to “Page Six,” Santos used his Cameo earnings to pick up the tab for his friends and bragged about how much money he was making, telling pals that he recorded 140 orders the day before at $599 a pop. That would be an impressive $83,860 in one day, though Santos has been known to self-mythologize just a bit.
He’s reportedly got an agent
Television and other media offers have likely already started coming in —Santos screams “reality TV” — though none have been publicized yet. Deadline reported earlier this month that HBO Films has optioned reporter Mark Chiusano’s book on the congressman, which will be executive produced by Veep producer and New York writer-at-large Frank Rich. And Santos has reportedly hired an agent. But Santos doesn’t sound totally convinced that he’ll be a television fixture. “There’s this big disconnect that the entertainment industry is trying to cross me over to become a reality star, but they are forgetting one thing — I am the most conservative member of the New York delegation,” he told Semafor.
He’s (presumably) preparing for trial
It may not be as fun as recording bizarre videos or making fun of your former co-workers, but sooner or later, Santos is going to have to sit down with his lawyer and prepare for his trial, which begins on September 9, 2024. Santos is facing a hefty 23 federal charges, including seven counts of wire fraud and three for money laundering. (As of his last court filing in October, Santos was represented by an attorney named Joseph Murray, who was part of the Capitol riot.) Speaking with CBS News New York, he said that “a plea is not off the table at this point, but we just don’t know that yet.”
Related