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George Santos Blast GOP for Losing His Former Seat

George Santos, the gay former GOP Congressman from New York, took glee ripping Republicans for losing a special election for his old seat.

By on February 26, 2024

George Santos on “Good Day New York.” – Photo: Fox 5 New York

George Santos, who was expelled from Congress last year over alleged ethical and financial wrongdoing, blasted the Republican Party for its loss in the special election to replace him.

As results trickled in for the Queens and Nassau County-based seat on Long Island, delivering about an eight-point victory to former Congressman Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, Santos blasted his former congressional colleagues for surrendering the seat by voting for his expulsion.

According to The Daily Beast, Santos reportedly sent a text message to the New York Republican Party reading, “I hope you guys are happy with this dismal performance and the 10 million dollars your futile Bull Shit cost the party.”

“I look very much forward to seeing most of you lose due to your absolute hate filled campaign to remove me from Congress arbitrarily,” he added. “Now go tell the Republicans Base what you fucking idiots did and good luck raising money next quarter.”

Santos particularly focused his ire on fellow Republicans from the Long Island area, accusing the party establishment of pushing the candidacy of Nassau County Legislator Mazi Pilip, who, in Santos’s eyes, was insufficiently dedicated to the “MAGA” cause and aligned with the populist Right within the Republican party.

“To my former colleagues in the house GOP please make these idiots pay you guys $10 million back,” Santos wrote on X, tagging several former New York lawmakers who supported his expulsion. “These RINO’s are the most effective democrats operatives in the nation!”

He particularly called for Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Cairo, Jr. — who backed Pilip and reportedly served as her chief strategist — to resign. 

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Santos also bragged that he had won the district without any “Establishment money,” whereas the party was forced to spend $10 million on a race it eventually lost.

“I FLIPPED a 23 year Blue seat with the help of grassroots activists and by activating the base with retail politics,” he wrote. “Hey @NassauNYGOP money does not buy votes, it’s respecting the wishes of the base that wins votes. #NY3 is #MAGA country and since MAGA was disrespected, MAGA stayed home!”

“Hey Americans!” Santos tweeted, attaching a picture of two Long Island Republican Congressmen, Anthony D’Esposito and Nick LaLota, who spoke out publicly against Santos and criticized him for a series of admitted biographical fabrications, long before criminal charges were filed against Santos. “Please thank these two gems for losing a seat in the house today!”

In response to a tweet from Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) — in which Lieu criticized Pilip for giving her concession speech from a town in the 4th Congressional District and vowed to “flip” the 4th, which is D’Esposito’s district, in 2024 — Santos replied: “Hey Ted now here is something I 100% look forward to you doing.”

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Yet another tweet mocked U.S. Rep. Daniel Lawler (R-N.Y.), another Santos foe, for an interview he gave defending Pilip and predicting that Republicans would be successful in retaining the seat in the special election, saying: “This also aged like milk!”

 

Santos continued his criticism, bashing anti-LGBTQ New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) and the Nassau County GOP for being “useless” in helping hold onto his old seat.

“So today at the Whitestone Republican club @VickieforNYC was blaming the @NassauNYGOP for not giving her what she wanted or answering her calls,” he said, referring to Paladino. “On the flip side Joe Cairos called the Queens GOP a failure and useless and Vickie a big let down. The reality is they are all useless and now the finger pointing ting begins…”

With Suozzi’s win, the Republicans’ edge in the U.S. House of Representatives shrinks to a 219-213 seat edge, leaving the party just one seat over the necessary 218 needed to retain control of the lower chamber.

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This has led some Republicans to openly question whether voting to expel Santos was a smart idea at a time when the Republican majority is so slim.

“So who still thinks Republicans helping Democrats kick out Santos was a good idea?” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) wrote in a post on X, which Santos eagerly retweeted.

In total, 105 House Republicans and 206 Democrats voted to expel Santos in response to a damning report from the House Ethics Committee that alleged the former congressman had spent donors’ cash on personal luxuries, including Botox treatments and OnlyFans subscriptions, and had engaged in schemes designed to flout campaign contribution limits and knowingly file false financial disclosure statements, among other charges. 

Regardless, Santos, who now moonlights as a pop culture commentator and does for-pay video messages through the Cameo platform, indicated that he is not inclined to shrink from the spotlight, even alluding to a future run for Congress.

Responding to preliminary drafts of a redrawn New York congressional map, Santos, seeing that the current boundaries of the 3rd Congressional District have largely not been changed, wrote: “If this map stick, I’ll definitely be back!”

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