Have I mentioned that the GOP is shameless?
House Republicans passed a symbolic bill Thursday that would clamp down on unemployment insurance fraud.
And one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), demonstrated the need for the legislation by getting indicted for unemployment insurance fraud this week.
You cannot make this stuff up.
Job satisfaction hit a 36-year high in 2022, reflecting two effects of the tight pandemic labor market: The quality of jobs improved as wages and work flexibility increased, and workers moved into positions that were a better fit.
Last year, 62.3% of U.S. workers said they were satisfied with their jobs, according to new data from the Conference Board, up from 60.2% in 2021 and 56.8% in 2020. The business-research organization polled workers on 26 aspects of work, and found that people were most content with their commutes, their co-workers, the physical environment of their workplace and job security.
Among the happiest workers: people who voluntarily switched jobs during the pandemic and individuals working in hybrid roles with a mix of in-person and remote work. Men’s satisfaction was higher than women’s in every component, especially in areas such as leave policies, bonus plans, promotions, communication and organizational culture.
And yet people say the economy has gone to hell in a handbasket and half the country believes, erroneously, that Donald Trump presided over the greatest economy in the history of the world (as he claimed last night.) And why is this happening? Because the media reflexively reports every economic number as bad news. Just yesterday, it was reported that inflation has dipped below 5% and it was reported on CNN as very bad news because day care costs are too high and social security recipients have less buying power than they did in 1980. They can cherry pick bad news all day long and they do.
Maybe this will change before long but time is wasting.
Construction workers say many employees have not showed up to work because they fear deportation.
Critics say Florida Senate Bill 1718 is to blame.
If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, businesses could face a $10,000 fine for every undocumented employee and the state could revoke their business license.
Because of this, many construction workers who spoke to CBS News Miami say they are fearful of the future.
“Many workers are leaving, thinking they’re going to be deported, so they’re going to other states,” says Jose, an employee. “Everyone is really uneasy…we just want to work to help our families.”
I don’t think people realize how much the construction industry depends upon immigrant labor. It looks like Florida is about to find out. So is Kentucky:
And then there’s this:
DeSantis is doing everything he can to destroy Florida’s economy. Too bad about all the people who didn’t vote for him who will suffer for it.
In case you were wondering if the other GOP candidates were gong to take on Trump, this is a very good indication that they are not:
The group of Republican candidates and potential candidates for president in 2024 joined together to forcefully condemn and renounce former President Donald Trump after he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation on Tuesday.
Just kidding.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), assumed to be Trump’s biggest competition when he announces, sidestepped the opportunity when it was served up to him at a Wednesday event.
“I’ve been pretty busy — I know there’s different stuff in the news,” he said.
“I may have something to say about the overall landscape for ’24, but stay tuned on that,” he added.
Former Governor and Ambassador Nikki Haley also took what would normally be a massive cudgel to take to her primary opponent and politely set it on the ground.
“I’m not gonna get into that,” she told Hugh Hewitt, a right-wing radio talk show host. “That’s something for Trump to respond to. You know, I mean the focus has to be not to be distracted. That’s why we’ve got to leave the baggage and the negativity behind.”
Other, more minor candidates took an even more pro-Trump stance.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy mused that the case was another attempt by the “establishment” to expel Donald Trump.
“Believe me, it would be a lot easier for me if Trump weren’t in this race,” he said in a statement. “But in America we don’t weaponize the law with decades-old allegations to undercut our political opponents.”
Right-wing radio talk show host Larry Elder responded by tweeting the names of women who have accused former President Bill Clinton and President Joe Biden of sexual misconduct.
Standing alone on an island is former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R), who said on MSNBC that it was a “reflection of continued indefensible conduct by former President Donald Trump.”
“Here’s an example of where the jury system worked,” he said, adding: “I believe that I’m the leader that this country needs and that the Republican Party needs to have a different nominee than Donald Trump. It’s as simple as that.”
In a normal election cycle, it would be hard to imagine a candidate’s direct competition for the Republican nomination mostly ducking away from commenting on him being found liable for assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll, a former magazine columnist.
But the Republican candidates and would-be candidates, with the exception of Hutchinson, are performing a difficult dance. They’re trying not to alienate Trump’s supporters, who they need to win the nomination, but also to make a case as to why those voters should choose them and not Trump.
A DeSantis Super Pac did tweet a criticism of the town hall last night but not a peep so far from the man himself. And I wouldn’t expect him to ever say anything about the fact that a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault to the tune of 5 million dollars. Not after a GOP audience reacted like this:
The tsunami of lies in the town hall last night makes it hard to isolate all the atrocities. But you can be sure that prosecutors in all of his pending legal cases were taking meticulous notes of everything he said. Igor Derysh at Salon lays out the reactions of some of the TV lawyers to what Trump said last night.
Former President Donald Trump may have provided additional evidence in multiple investigations during his CNN town hall event on Wednesday, legal experts say.
Trump repeatedly lied during the town hall that the election was “rigged,” that Georgia “owed” him votes, that he had the right to take classified documents to Mar-a-Lago and that he does not know E. Jean Carroll — the writer who was awarded $5 million a day earlier after it found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
“All three ongoing criminal cases got new evidence tonight against Trump,” tweeted national security attorney Bradley Moss. “He is confessing on live television.”
During one point, moderator Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump on whether he showed the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago to anyone else.
“Not really,” Trump replied.
Collins questioned what Trump meant by that but he continued to steamroll through his answer.
Former FBI agent Pete Strzok called the comment a “tacit admission of unauthorized disclosure of classified information.”
“There were prosecutors and agents taking notes tonight,” tweeted former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.
Trump said he believed it was a “rigged election” and said he told Raffensperger “you owe me votes because the election was rigged.”
“File this clip under new evidence for Fani Willis,” tweeted Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor. “This sure sounds like an admission of corrupt intent to me.”
During a discussion of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Collins pressed Trump on how his supporters that stormed the Capitol that day “listen to you like no one else.”
“I agree with that,” Trump replied.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst, called it the “most important clip of the night.”
“If you’re thinking about prosecuting Donald Trump in relation to the effort to steal the election, you’re gonna need to show that connection, that Donald Trump knew and understood that his words would be acted on. Knew and understood that people were listening to him and would actually do things because he said so, and stop doing things because he said so,” he said, according to Mediaite. “I’ve never heard him so clearly admit that. Everything Donald Trump says is out there. It’s fair game. It can be used, and I think if I’m a prosecutor watching last night, I’m circling that clip and I’m saying ‘Here we go. We just filled that gap.'”
Trump during the town hall also doubled down on his claim that he did not know Carroll and mocked her sexual abuse allegation just one day after a jury awarded her $3 million over Trump’s defamatory statements.
“This is a fake story. Made-up story,” Trump said, later adding, “I have no idea who the hell she is. She’s a whack job.”
Trump recounted his version of Carroll’s allegation to laughter from the Republican-leaning audience.
“What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you’re playing hanky panky in a dressing room,” he said.
Legal experts say Carroll could sue Trump for defamation again — though that does not justify CNN allowing him to use their airwaves to smear the writer.
“I hate that @CNN allowed E. Jean Carroll’s name to be dragged through the mud again by this terrible man,” tweeted Sherrilyn Ifill, the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “Sure she could sue him for defamation again. That doesn’t change the hurt & humiliation at the laughter, and at the knowledge that CNN was willing to expose her to this.”
“I would be salivating if I were the attorney for E. Jean Carroll,” former federal prosecutor Laura Coates said on CNN.
Carroll has another defamation case pending which I think most people figured she’d probably withdraw. After that, perhaps not. he can’t stop defaming her and the reaction of the audience proves that her reputation is seriously damaged. Basically calling her a whore was one of the worst moments of the night.
It was horrible. I keep up with him, as you know. I read his silly feed on his silly social media platform and I watch his videos. And I’ve watched his interviews and rallies. But I have not seen him at a normal campaign event since 2020 and even though I know he will never change, it’s still a shock to see him lie so relentlessly — and worse, watch the audience cheer and applaud as if he’s said something hilarious or profound. I confess that it shook me a bit. If anything he’s worse than he was before.
Oliver Darcy, the media reporter sent this newsletter last night:
It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening. Kaitlan Collins is as tough and knowledgable of an interviewer as they come. She fact-checked Trump throughout the 70-minute town hall. Over and over and over again, she told him that the election was not stolen. That it was not rigged. That there was no evidence for the lies he was disseminating on stage. “The election was not rigged, Mr. President,” Collins told Trump at one point during the event. “You cannot keep saying that all night long.”
Yet, he did. Trump frequently ignored or spoke over Collins throughout the evening as he unleashed a firehose of disinformation upon the country, which a sizable swath of the GOP continues to believe. A professional lie machine, Trump fired off falsehoods at a rapid clip while using his bluster to overwhelm Collins, stealing command of the stage at some points of the town hall. Trump lied about the 2020 election. He took no responsibility for the January 6 insurrection that those very lies incited. And he mocked E. Jean Carroll’s allegations of sexual assault, which a jury found him liable for on Tuesday.
And CNN aired it all. On and on it went. It felt like 2016 all over again. It was Trump’s unhinged social media feed brought to life on stage.
And Collins was put in an uncomfortable position, given the town hall was conducted in front of a Republican audience that applauded Trump, giving a sense of unintended endorsement to his shameful antics.
Yes, some news was made. The town hall spotlighted his insistence on continuing to peddle 2020 election lies. Additionally, he said the US should default on its debt if the White House does not agree to Republican spending cuts, refused to say whether he wants Ukraine or Russia to win the war, and declined to give a straight answer on abortion. But for most of the night, the nation’s eyes were transfixed on Trump’s abuse of the platform that he was given.
At one point, he even insulted Collins, calling her a “nasty person,” to which the crowd of New Hampshire Republican primary voters broke out in cheers.
“We don’t have enough time to fact-check every lie he told,” anchor Jake Tapper candidly said after the event wrapped up. Trump’s team was, naturally, delighted with the result, according to reports.
“Advisers to Trump are thrilled at how this is going so far for him,” The NYT’s Jonathan Swan reported. “They can’t believe he is getting an hour on CNN with an audience that cheers his every line and laughs at his every joke.” Neither could anyone else. While Collins is largely receiving praise for her relentless fact-checking of the former president, she was facing an impossible task. CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event.
How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial. Will they defend what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret?
For now, CNN is defending itself. “Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked tough, fair and revealing questions,” a network spokesperson said. “And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner.” “That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”
“The predictably disastrous [CNN] town hall was indeed disastrous,” television news vet Mark Lukasiewicz tweeted. “Proving again: Live lying works. A friendly MAGA crowd consistently laughs, claps at Trump’s punch lines – including re sex assault and Jan 6 – and the moderator cannot begin to keep up with the AR-15 pace of lies.” (Twitter)
“This thing was madness, total madness,” Bill Carter said. “Like giving a microphone to Drunk Uncle and saying: go for it!” (Twitter)
“This is CNN’s lowest moment as an organization,” James Fallows argued. (Twitter)
“THIS is the 2024 Republican presidential primary,” Brian Stelter wrote. “Look away if you choose, but this is what it’s going to be like. Should news outlets sanitize it or stare it in the face?” (Twitter)
To that point: “I have complaints, but I don’t really blame CNN for having a townhall with the GOP front runner,” Sarah Longwell argued. “It’s good to know what we’re facing. We can’t hide from the fight in front of us. Trump is probably going to be the nominee and we need to be clear-eyed about what we’re dealing with.” (Twitter)
“This was a preview of what American journalism can expect from a 2024 campaign featuring Mr. Trump, who despite his ubiquity in political life has rarely appeared on mainstream TV outside of Fox News since leaving office,” Michael Grynbaum wrote. (NYT)
Justin Baragona said CNN was walking away from the town hall “with a lot of egg” on its face. “At the same time, I feel like Kaitlan Collins is doing as good as she can in this situation,” he added. (Twitter)
“Chris Licht said he wouldn’t allow anyone on his network that said it’s raining when it’s not,” Alex Sherman pointed out. “But he’s let someone on now who says it’s raining when it’s not, and he added hundreds of people to applaud when he does it.” (Twitter)
“Trump seemed to have a significant home field advantage over Collins,” Jeremy Barr wrote. (WaPo)
“Props to [Collins] who was in an impossible position but did a heroic job of fact-checking Trump throughout the town hall,” Peter Baker tweeted. “No easy task given how many factually untrue things he said in such a short time.” (Twitter)
“Even in a world where [Collins] was correcting every Trump lie as they spewed forth — and we are pretty far from that world — the braying crowd would make Trump look like the victor,” contended Jonathan Chait. (Twitter)
“This was not Kaitlin Collins’ fault,” Charlie Sykes said. “The format was impossible and CNN’s bosses should have known that.” (Twitter)
“This format programmed her — and the country — for failure,” echoed Tom Nichols. (Twitter)
“This isn’t [Collins’] fault (she is doing the best one can), but this is a gushing geyser of disinformation that is cannot be fact-checked in real time,” added Dan Pfeiffer. (Twitter)
Democratic politicians were livid: “CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. (Twitter)
Seung Min Kim reported that the televisions on Air Force One, which “are always” tuned to CNN, were changed to show MSNBC during the town hall. (Twitter)
It was a shock to the system, a reminder of what we’re dealing with. I hope it has that effect on the audience. CNN should be ashamed of themselves, nonetheless. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t think it was Kaitlin Collins’ fault. She did as good a job as fact checking in the moment as anyone could when dealing with a demented sociopath spewing a torrent of lies. It’s brave of Oliver Darcy to offer up such a tough critique of his employer. One hopes he doesn’t get the boot like his predecessor, Brian Stelter.
This event illustrated the problem with Trump and all MAGAs. They spew something dishonest or defamatory and if you challenge it they just roll right over you repeating the lie and adding another one and another one without even acknowledging your comments all the while hurling insults. It’s as if they didn’t hear what you said and there’s no such thing as the truth. It’s intensely frustrating. We saw all that on display with Trump last night.
He said many disgusting and dangerous things. But I think two comments stand out for being especially reckless. He encouraged the House Republicans to hold out and default on the debt ceiling. He spews a bunch of gibberish revealing that he is completely clueless about the issue. The other was his promise to “end” the war with Ukraine within 24 hours of winning the election. He obviously plans to stop all support and give the country to Vladimir Putin. Of course he does. This means that the war will almost certainly continue at least until November of 2024 and it’s horrifying especially with him fatuously blabbing about how he wants to “stop the dying.” He just sentenced many more thousands of Ukrainians to death.
He is a monster. But you knew that. I don’t care if they have to wheel out Joe Biden in a coma, he is a much better president than Donald Trump could ever dream of being and there should be no problem voting for him.
They love him they really love him:
The GOP’s “throw it against the wall and see what” shtick just is not working anymore. Not even with the oft-complicit The New York Times. The RW distraction machine is sputtering.
Rep. Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee released an interim report on the Hunter Biden faux financial scandal on Wednesday. The report and the press conference announcing the release landed with a loud plop.
After four months of investigation, House Republicans who promised to use their new majority to unearth evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden acknowledged on Wednesday that they had yet to uncover incriminating material about him, despite their frequent insinuations that he and his family have been involved in criminal conduct and corruption.
No evidence is no impediment to the ongoing smear campaign. But not even Fox & Friends is buying what House Republicans are selling.
Heather Cox Richardson calls the report “a bizarre effort.” Of course. It’s who MAGA Republicans are:
A press conference the House Oversight Committee also held this morning got more attention than Jordan’s report, but it, too, was a fizzle. The committee announced the conference on Monday, May 8, when committee chair Representative James Comer (R-KY) promised supporters to unleash “judgment day” on the Biden White House. Republican members of the committee have made much of what they call “the Biden family’s influence peddling enterprise,” but today’s conference revealed nothing new: Biden’s son and brother and their associates worked with private companies that received about $10 million in investment from China and Romania. There is no evidence that those payments were illegal.
The “Biden family” is the term the right-wing Republicans are using to make it sound as if the president was part of the business dealings of his son Hunter and brother James, but they have turned up no evidence that President Joe Biden was part of their businesses or received any money in relation to them. Further, without evidence that the payments were illegal—and the Republicans have not charged that they were—they are relying on innuendo to smear the president.
Marcy Wheeler dismantled the report on Twitter:
Jordan’s an idiot. But then, you knew that.
“Anyway, I get it,” tweets Wheeler. “Jim Jordan has to do something to distract from the fact that Trump was found liable for sexual assault.”
The politics of innuendo has a long tradition among Republicans. Decades of unsubstantiated reports of widespread voter fraud. The 2000 whispering campaign that Sen. John McCain “had fathered an illegitimate black child.” The Obama birth certificate bullshit that in time brought Donald Trump to the White House. All smoke bombs and no fire.
If they had any shame, these characters would not be able to sleep at night knowing they ran for public office not to serve their country or constituents, but to spend their time (and taxpayer dollars) staging tabloid smears that would get them on TV. If they had any shame.
Hats off to Digby. She will be along presently with a recap of last night’s CNN-sponsored, Donald Trump freak show. The excerpts were bad enough. The intertubes are full of it this morning, literally and figuratively. The extremist right is gleefully declaring that liberals are “melting down” over Trump’s demented display of sociopathy. Yup, that’s our guy, they cheer.
Over at The Atlantic, Arthur C. Brooks examines the psychological impacts of working to make the world a saner, safer place. Fighting back can come at a cost. Activism can make you miserable. If you expect to sustain it, choose a variety that doesn’t. And work that doesn’t turn you into what you loathe and to us vs. them-ism.
The reflex my generation had for taking to the streets (pointlessly, for the most part) continues among the latest generational cohort of activists. The mental health impacts are a mixed bag:
Although nearly a third of the students believed that their advocacy work improved their well-being, 60 percent reported harm to their mental health. “There’s been times that at the end of the day, I’ll come to bed and I’ll just cry,” one interviewee said, “because I really don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.”
Brooks argues:
A compromise might be available through minimizing activism’s most psychologically harmful elements: hatred and defeat. A shift in perspective—from winning to helping—can address both problems. This could mean a switch from protesting homelessness to providing services for people experiencing homelessness—for instance, by volunteering at a shelter or soup kitchen—or from marching against the president to giving people a ride to the polling station. Focus on what you can do to ameliorate a situation rather than simply demonstrating your opposition to it.
An enormous body of evidence shows that the right sort of volunteering leads unambiguously to greater happiness. A 2022 paper in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that older adults who volunteered reported greater life satisfaction—but with an important qualification that would certainly have a bearing on younger people’s mental health. These adults found that their morale improved after they performed more frequent nonpolitical volunteer work (such as helping with social services), but that it was lower after more frequent political activity (such as party work).
I don’t know. Most of what I do is behind the scenes, work few people know about. Unsexy mechanics and logistics stuff that make a difference in election outcomes but don’t get headlines. For many nonactivists, politics is something that happens to them. A participant has a different perspective. It’s empowering to be on the field instead of watching from the sidelines. Maybe it’s like that old Irish joke: Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
The upside of staying in the fight is you stop feeling like roadkill. You still get run over sometimes, but you don’t feel so much like a victim.
Brooks, host of the How to Build a Happy Life podcast, suggests, “we need to balance fighting with loving, including loving more indiscriminately.” I’m not there exactly, but working out my frustrations here every morning helps keep me sane. For that, I’m grateful to Digby and to you.
This is just depressing. Let’s just abandon all knowledge while we’re at it:
At the entrance to the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University there’s a plaque with a famous quote from its founder, Alfred C. Kinsey: “We are the recorders and reporters of facts — not the judges of the behaviors we describe.”
That ethos is at the heart of all the institute’s research.
For generations, the Kinsey Institute has shone a light on diverse aspects of sex and sexuality, in pursuit of answers that bring us closer to understanding fundamental questions of human existence. In a time of divisive politics and disinformation, it is more imperative than ever to preserve and defend the right of such academic institutions to illuminate the unfolding frontiers of science — even, and especially, research that might challenge us as it advances our understanding of ourselves.
Thus it is tremendously disappointing that Indiana lawmakers voted late last month to approve a budget that specifically blocks Indiana University from using state funding to support the Kinsey Institute, and that last week Gov. Eric Holcomb signed it into state law. This is an unprecedented action that takes aim at the very foundation of academic freedom.
[…]
As Kinsey wrote in 1956: “It is incomprehensible that we should know so little about such an important subject as sex, unless you realize the multiplicity of forces which have operated to dissuade the scientist, to intimidate the scientist, and to force him to cease research in these areas.”
Yet Kinsey and his researchers persisted. And three-quarters of a century after the institute’s founding, the contribution of sex research to our understanding of sexuality, relationships and well-being is clear.
We know that one of the biggest predictors of relationship satisfaction is sexual satisfaction and that one’s sex life affects the trajectory of relationships and marriages. That comprehensive sex education, including understanding consent and identifying interpersonal abuse, is associated with positive psychological and health outcomes — from prevention of unintended pregnancy to protecting against sexually transmitted infections.
We also know many questions still need to be answered. The complex associations between sexual activity and fertility outcomes. The long-term effects of covid-19 on people’s relationships and sexual lives. How the loneliness epidemic is affecting mental health across demographics. How new social technologies are changing the concept of intimacy and redefining sexual behavior. Why 1 in 4 women in the United States still experience attempted or completed rape.
Given these major unknowns, why do attacks on our research continue? The state representative who first proposed this recent legislation parroted false allegations of sexual predation in the institute’s historical research and ongoing work, which the institute, the university and outside experts have repeatedly refuted. Indiana state Rep. Matt Pierce described these conspiracy theories as “warmed-over internet memes that keep coming back.” The legislature still acted on this disturbing, easily debunked misinformation.
Indiana is not alone. Across the country, legislation is being passed that affects millions of lives, restricting reproductive health care, discussions of gender identity and basic sex education. The people passing this legislation are fundamentally failing to leverage scientific evidence as a guide through these complex issues.
I am optimistic that this latest culture war will pass. And the Kinsey Institute will carry on. While this recently passed legislation stings, the majority of the institute’s funding comes from outside the university, from research grants and contracts, as well as philanthropic donations. But I worry about what the future will look like, for our institute and others — and for the students and researchers who rely on us — should state legislatures continue to act on misinformation around sexuality.
Some years ago, an Indiana University alumus shared with me why the Kinsey Institute was so important to him. He was a gay man in his late 60s, and he recalled how as a student in the 1970s he was struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. At times, he felt so confused and isolated, he wasn’t sure he would ever find his way through that dark time. He was too afraid, he told me, to set foot inside the Kinsey Institute back then, but “just knowing it existed, that someone was out there searching for answers, saved my life.”
His words took on new resonance last week. I think about this story often, and I’m reminded what’s at stake when we limit the right to even ask questions.
All that’s exactly why these people have decided to de-fund the institute. It’s been under attack for years by the right wing because its research has led our society to allow many people to live free and happy lives. We can’t have that.
These people are leaving no stone unturned and I don’t think it’s a good idea not to take them seriously.
I think this from Nicholas Goldberg in the LA Times is important to keep in mind:
In Shakespeare’s plays or, say, the Victorian novels of Dickens, Trollope and Austen, there are often at least two plots moving forward at any moment: a serious dramatic story involving the work’s main heroes and villains and a comic subplot peopled by absurd characters.
In the real world, we have comic subplots as well. Take Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who — while American democracy has spun out of control, the U.S. Capitol was overrun and Donald Trump became a serious contender for reelection — wanders on and off the national stage like a ditzy clown keeping the audience amused.
Santos has been a recurring joke in the midst of our otherwise terrifying and riveting political drama — a somewhat doughy, somewhat hapless Mr. Magoo-turned-con man in a blazer, sweater and chinos. He is a fraudster who told lie after ridiculous lie, ad absurdum, about his family background, education and job experience and, though caught in the act, steadfastly refused to be held accountable.
His free ride, though, could be coming to an end. Federal prosecutors in New York announced Wednesday that the 34-year-old freshman congressman has been charged with a wide range of not-so-funny crimes, including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress. In short, they allege, he deceived and defrauded campaign donors and the U.S. government.
Santos turned himself in to federal authorities on Long Island on Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
As my mom used to say, it’s all fun and games until it’s not. Santos has been a national punchline in one of the weirdest scandals in U.S. congressional history (and we’re talking about a governmental body that was once home to Anthony Wiener!). But now he may be written out of the story altogether. The U.S. attorney’s office says he could face up to 20 years in prison on the top counts.
The absurdity of the Santos situation first became clear to me when I watched a video of him trying to find his way through the House office buildings, lost but perpetually moving because he was being trailed and hounded at every step by a scrum of bloodthirsty reporters. He tried to pretend they weren’t there; they had a great time at his expense.
He was barraged with questions like, “Hey George, what’s your name today?” He tried to look dignified, talking oh-so-seriously into his phone as he walked, though I highly doubt anyone was on the other end.
Santos quickly became the butt of the late-night shows.
“I don’t consider the things I’ve said to be lies,” said a straight-faced Jon Lovitz, impersonating Santos on Jimmy Fallon’s show. “They’re what my great-grandfather, Winston Churchill, would call ‘embellishments.’ ”
At the heart of the joke was the fact that his lies were so brazen and so egregious — and yet so mundane at the same time. So checkable and disprovable — yet so insignificant. Like when he said he had been a “star” on the volleyball team at Baruch College. I mean, who would lie about that?
It turns out he wasn’t on the volleyball team. And didn’t graduate from Baruch College at all. Nor did he attend the Horace Mann School, as he claimed. Nor did he work at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.
He is not Jewish, as he repeatedly claimed to be. Or of Jewish descent. Or “Jew-ish,” as he later said he’d said.
His grandparents did not flee Hitler.
His mother was not in the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. She wasn’t in the country at all.
Santos’ behavior was laughable, for sure, but also it was wrong, not to mention creepy. It was Jon Stewart, in the end, who pointed out the obvious: “We cannot mistake absurdity for lack of danger,” he said. “Absurdity always makes you think something is more benign than it is.”
And it’s true: The endless fabrications are obviously not funny to Santos’ constituents on Long Island, who now, six months after the 2022 election, are still represented in Congress by a serial liar. Or to those who gave him money for his campaign.
But Stewart meant more than just that. He was referring to how so many people — himself included — had failed to take Donald Trump seriously at first, seeing him as a harmless clown like Santos.
Anyone who doesn’t remember how improbable it all seemed should watch the clip (which I saw recently courtesy of journalist Peter Beinart‘s newsletter) of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) on ABC News with George Stephanopoulos and a panel of so-called political experts in July 2015.
In it, Ellison says that people who oppose Trump ought to get active, get involved and vote.
“This man has got some momentum and we’d better be ready for the fact that he might be leading the Republican ticket,” says Ellison.
At that point everyone on the show bursts into laughter. Peals of laughter, really. Stephanopoulos, grinning, says — and I don’t really blame him for this error of enormous historical magnitude, because I probably would have felt the same way — “I know you don’t believe that.”
Ellison doesn’t join in the laughter. He says: “Stranger things have happened.”
President Santos anyone?