George Santos, Duped by NAMBLA Prank, Exits Race for Congress
George Santos has abandoned his race for Congress after failing to raise money, and being duped into making a Cameo praising NAMBLA.
George Santos has ended his long-shot bid to return to Congress, which he mounted shortly after being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives last year.
Santos, an independent, pro-Trump candidate in New York’s 1st Congressional District, announced his withdrawal in a post on the social media platform X.
The announcement came after his campaign committee reported no fundraising or expenditures in March, indicating his candidacy was not gaining traction.
As first reported by The Advocate, Santos’s withdrawal also coincides with a Cameo he made congratulating NAMBLA — the North American Man/Boy Love Association — a much-reviled organization due to its advocacy for pedophilia.
Santos has been using Cameo — a platform where people pay for specially tailored video messages from celebrities — to earn money following his expulsion from Congress. He was charging as much as $250 per video.
After people on social media began mocking Santos for the NAMBLA video, he responded to one of his detractors with a copy of a request showing he had been pranked into making the video for a person who allegedly wanted him to send a message of support to their friend named “Nambla.”
“You mean this order from Cameo that was presented like it was for a person named Nambla not NAMBLA?” the former congressman wrote on X, responding to another user who had shared the video. “The request was a ‘prank’ or as I call it yet another FRAUD just like Jimmy Kimmel… I guess I’ll see the owner of this garbage in court too.”
You mean this order from cameo that was presented like it was for a person named Nambla not NAMBLA?
Try again @JoJoFromJerz you’re cunty ways and BS doesn’t scare me.
Bring it on you dumb ratchet bitch!
The request was a “prank” or as I call it yet another FRAUD just like… pic.twitter.com/FVrUCZKbxD
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) April 23, 2024
Santos is suing Kimmel, claiming the late-night host tricked him into making videos used to ridicule Santos as part of a running segment on Kimmel’s show, violating copyright laws.
Some have wondered if the fallout from the NAMBLA prank contributed to Santos’s decision to drop his bid for office. But Santos’s decision appears to be linked to his campaign’s lack of viability.
The former congressman sought to portray his decision as altruistic, arguing that staying in the race against Republican U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota — one of the Republicans who called for Santos’s resignation and voted to expel him from the House — would only deliver a victory to Democrats.
“Although Nick and I don’t have the same voting record and I remain critical of his abysmal record, I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems,” Santos wrote on X. “Staying in this race all but guarantees a victory for the Dems in the race.”
He added, “I have meet [sic] with leaders and with constituents and I have made the decision to hang it up here and stop perusing [sic] this race, THIS YEAR! The future holds countless possibilities and I am ready willing and able to step up to the plate and go fight for my country at anytime.
“I will continue to participate in the public policy discussion and will do my part… I will always strive to stand on the right side of history. It’s only goodbye for now, I’ll be back.”
🚨Announcement!
I have decided to withdraw from my independent run for #NY1…
I don’t want my run to be portrayed as reprisal against Nick Lalota… Although Nick and I don’t have the same voting record and I remain critical of his abysmal record, I don’t want to split the…
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) April 23, 2024
From the start, Santos’s campaign against LaLota — in a district he had never represented — appeared to be a combination of an exercise in vanity and a form of retaliation against LaLota for speaking out against him for admitted biographical fabrications and alleged financial misdeeds.
He initially planned to challenge LaLota in a Republican primary, but later announced he was leaving the Republican Party and would run as an independent.
Santos faces 23 federal charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, making materially false statements to the U.S. House of Representatives and the Federal Election Commission, aggravated identity theft, and access device fraud.
Prosecutors have alleged that Santos used funds earmarked for campaign expenses on designer clothes and other personal expenses and that he had improperly obtained unemployment benefits intended for Americans who lost work due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
Santos has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
Santos was ultimately expelled from Congress after the House Ethics Committee released a damning report finding there was “overwhelming evidence” that the former congressman had broken the law, deceiving donors into contributing to his campaign and using that money to pay for purchases at high-end retailers, personal care and beauty products, Botox, luxury vacations, meals, and OnlyFans subscriptions.
He is only the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from the House of Representatives.
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