Outgoing congressman warns Congress will be 'diminished' when 'con man' George Santos takes over his seat

On Tuesday, January 3, Republican Rep.-Elect George Santos is set to take over the U.S. House of Representatives seat that has been held by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi since January 2017. Santos has been under fire from Democrats for blatantly lying about his history, including a false claim that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Regardless, Republicans who are willing to openly condemn Santos have been the exception rather than the rule, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has vigorously defended him.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on the morning of January 3, Suozzi laments the fact that Santos is on track to be seated in the House despite all his lies and argues that seating him will “diminish” the House. Suozzi has been representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes areas of Queens and Long Island.

“Today is my last day as a member of Congress, and George Santos is about to be sworn in to take the seat I held for six years,” Suozzi writes. “He will take an oath to ‘bear true faith’ to the Constitution and take this obligation without any ‘purpose of evasion.’ I’ve lost track of how many evasions and lies Mr. Santos has told about himself, his finances and his history and relationship with our stretch of Long Island and northeastern Queens. When he is seated, it will diminish our Congress, our country and my constituents — soon his constituents. It saddens me that after 30 years of public service rooted in hard work and service to the people of this area, I’m being succeeded by a con man.”

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Suozzi didn’t run against Santos in 2022. After being elected to three two-year terms in the House, Suozzi decided not to seek a four term.

Instead, he resigned from Congress, ran for governor of New York State and took on incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary. Hochul defeated Suozzi in that primary and went on to defeat Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in the general election. This was the first time Hochul was elected to a full term as New York governor; the former lieutenant governor took over as governor after Andrew Cuomo, inundated with sexual harassment allegations, resigned in disgrace in 2021.

After Suozzi announced that he was leaving Congress, Democrats nominated Robert Zimmerman for that seat in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. And Santos defeated Zimmerman in the general election.

Santos has admitted that he “embellished” his history, and his critics have responded that his lies during his 2022 campaign went way beyond mere embellishment.

“I…. know the voters of the 3rd District pretty well; they believe in the rule of law, in playing by the rules,” Suozzi argues. “They like authenticity in their leaders and pride themselves on having a good BS detector. The fact is that Mr. Santos’ behavior went beyond BS: He fabricated the basics of his biography to an extent that most voters wouldn’t have thought possible. The shame would be too great, right? I am certain that if the 3rd District’s voters have an opportunity to weigh in on his political future again, he will be gone.”

Suozzi continues, “But for now, there is no getting around the fact that Mr. Santos’ con game is a manifestation of a growing political phenomenon of saying or doing anything, with no automatic consequences. Whether it be far-right election deniers, personal attacks that call for violence against opponents, claims of false-flag mass shootings, extremists spouting the first thing that comes to mind and even one politician saying he could ‘shoot somebody’ on 5th Avenue and still not lose supporters. If we are going to subdue the tyranny of unchecked liars and their lies, then Mr. Santos must be held accountable: He must be removed by Congress or by prosecutors, because there is no indication that he will be moved by conscience to voluntarily resign.”

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