Serial liar and freshman House Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) has been captured on video apparently even being shady about his name.
The 2019 clip shows Santos in an audience addressing a panel at a New York City event encouraging members of the LGBTQ community to quit the Democratic Party.
“My name is Anthony Devolder,” he introduces himself in the video posted on Twitter. “I’m a New York City resident. I’ve recently founded a group called United for Trump, so if you guys want to follow, that would be awesome,” he adds. The introduction came just months before he first ran for Congress (and lost) using the name George Santos, The New York Times reports.
In another clip, a Queens Republican introducing Santos during his 2020 campaign wonders aloud to the audience why Santos has changed his name from Anthony Devolder. When Santos steps up to the podium, he introduces himself to the audience as “George Anthony Devolder Santos — commonly known as Anthony.”
Insider reports that Santos has listed his full name as George Anthony Devolder Santos, though his legal name cannot be confirmed because his birth certificate has not been made public.
CNN has also discovered social media posts from 2020 in which Santos goes by the name George Devolder.
Fatima Devolder was Santos’ mother’s name. He also named a company he started in 2021 the Devolder Organization. Funding for the mysterious company — which had no website and was dissolved not long after it was started — is murky. But Santos claimed it rocketed his salary to $750,000 (with up to $10 million in dividends) after he reported earning a $55,000 salary the previous year.
Congress’s first Gen Z member, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), wondered in a tweet which of the names the lawmaker has used — including “George Santos” — is fake.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) raised the muddle on Twitter with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“‘George Santos’ has also introduced himself as ‘George Devolder’ and ‘Anthony Devolder,’” he wrote to McCarthy. “Why are you still supporting the Republican Congressman purportedly known as George Santos?”
Santos has lied about his Jewish heritage, his work experience, his income, his graduation from college (which didn’t happen), and even made up a summa cum laude grade point average.
He’s under investigation by prosecutors in Long Island, where Republican leaders have called on him to resign.
Yet House Republicans don’t know what to do with him.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) said on CNN Saturday that Santos will have to go through the House ethics process over his fantasy resume. But he said Santos should not be “subject to shunning.”
Clarification: This piece has been updated to reflect that the congressman has listed his full name as George Anthony Devolder Santos.