Why George Santos' Science Committee assignment 'makes perfect sense' to Kevin McCarthy: journalist

Despite all the controversy that has surrounded him, GOP Rep. George Santos of New York has maintained that he has no plans to resign from Congress and intends to serve out all of his two-year term. And Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California is in no hurry to see him go, as he has given Santos a position on the House Science Committee.

Santos’ critics have been arguing that with the Queens/Long Island congressman having lied about so many things, the last thing McCarthy should do is reward him with committee assignments. In addition to lying about his employment and education history, Santos falsely claimed that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and that his mother was inside the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Records obtained by NBC News show that Santos’ mother was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 11, 2001.

But journalist Andy Levy, co-hosting a late January episode of the Daily Beast’s podcast “The New Abnormal,” argued that as appalling as McCarthy’s decision to put Santos on the Science Committee is, it makes sense from a GOP standpoint. Republicans, Levy told co-host Danielle Moodie, “don’t believe in” science — and McCarthy thought he was putting Santos on a lesser committee.

READ MORE:George Santos is living the GOP's values

Levy told Moodie that "this is Kevin McCarthy showing exactly what he thinks of science and what he thinks of this Science Committee. It's like: Well yeah, throw George Santos on there. We don’t really need that Committee anyway. There are definitely no scientific problems threatening the entire planet. It all checks out if you look at it from that perspective. It makes perfect sense.”

Moodie, meanwhile, described her reaction upon learning that Santos will be on the Science Committee.

The co-host told Levy, “I laughed so very hard. And then, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this man is going to be on the Science Committee.’ Like, do we not realize how critical science is to where we are currently? We’ve had a global health pandemic, we have a climate change crisis, we have all of these things that are happening in the world that, you know, come back to this really important field.”

READ MORE: Kevin McCarthy standing by George Santos as scandals worsen