Rep. George Santos, the freshman Republican from New York who is under investigation over a web of lies about his background, appeared to double down in a new TV interview on Monday about his false claim that he had Jewish grandparents, and openly denied calling himself a member of the Jewish faith.
“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said in a tense exchange with British television host Piers Morgan for the Piers Morgan Uncensored program, which airs in the United Kingdom and on the Fox Nation streaming service. Santos said it was a “party favor joke” he used in public appearances to claim he was ‘Jew-ish’ since “my grandparents are Jewish on my mother’s side.”
"I never claimed to be Jewish... my grandparents are Jewish, so I'm Jew-ish."
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) February 20, 2023
George Santos doubles down on his comments about his faith.@piersmorgan | @Santos4Congress | @TalkTV | #PMU pic.twitter.com/Zov1EtnBnK
Santos publicly raised his Jewish ancestry and called himself a “Latino Jew” and “halachically Jewish” during last year’s campaign. He claimed his grandparents fled anti-Jewish persecution in Ukraine and then Belgium during World War II. In a two-page document that the Santos campaign shared last year with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Jewish groups, Santos described himself as a “proud American Jew.” In a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference after his election in November, Santos said he was proud...
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