More than three million people have already seen the YouTube video featuring the adorable pair of young siblings. The camera captures their faces smudged with what looks like a dark green substance. We only see the arm of the woman identified as their grandmother holding out a bottle of green stuff repeatedly asking if either of them ate what was in the bottle. The green stuff is something called pickle powder, described by manufacturers as both a candy and an ingredient for cooking.
As the video goes on, both kids continue their bold denials, clueless that their green-stained lips give them away. Their sweet little faces and the earnestness with which they lie is endearing, and I couldn’t help but laugh. But then I sobered up, wondering if this is why so many of us don’t take lying seriously? And is that why there is so little outrage about George Santos?
George Santos made up his entire biography and then boldly amplified his lies while campaigning to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional district covering parts of Long Island and Queens. And he’s lied so much nobody knows who he really is. Now, Santos — if that is his real name — is a member of the new Congress. For the record, he didn’t graduate from Baruch College, has no MBA and has never worked on Wall Street. His grandmother was not a Holocaust victim, and he’s Catholic, not Jewish. And he didn’t have any employees who died in the Pulse nightclub murders in Florida.
In December the then-congressman elect described his untruths as “embellishments,” telling WABC radio, “If I disappointed anyone with my resume embellishment, I’m sorry.” Democrats called for his resignation right away, and some voters expressed anger. But initially there was silence from Republican leadership. Some of Santos' fellow newly-elected Republicans, and most recently a group of New York Republican lawmakers and leaders, have also called for him to resign. Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace that Santos is “a complete sociopath.”
To all, Santos insists he won’t step down and that he hasn’t broken any laws. He took his seat two weeks ago after Republican Kevin McCarthy was finally elected Speaker of the House. Politically Santos is safe — his vote helps maintain the Republicans’ thin majority in the House. What’s more, there is no law against lying, even in the extreme, to win an election.
Santos is settling into his new role having just been appointed to two committees. Please note that there are 118 Republicans in the new House of Representatives who are also liars, loudly, persistently claiming Trump, not Biden, won the presidential election. Election deniers who continue to shout the Big Lie have fostered an environment where true believers feel justified resorting to violence. It’s not just the storming the capital. After losing in a landslide for a state house seat in New Mexico, Solomon Peña asserted the election was rigged and according to police, paid four men to help him shoot into the homes of local Democrats.
I worry that dangerous lying has become so normalized that Americans are not hearing the ear-piercing alarm warning of the very real threat to "small-d" democratic governance. Santos is facing several federal and local investigations and a Congressional ethics probe even as more of his lies are revealed. Still, he says he’ll only step down if the 142,000 in his district tell him to go. I want to know, what are they waiting for?
