Former Congressman George Santos spoke to Piers Morgan earlier in the week and he had one message: Don’t count him out.
In January, Santos became the first openly gay member of the GOP elected to the House of Representatives. Less than a year later, he made history by becoming the first Republican ever to be expelled from the lower chamber.
His removal wasn’t a surprise. Almost immediately after his election, news outlets began reporting bizarre stories about the congressman and writing that the fact-checking of the stories he shared on the campaign trail had been woven out of whole cloth.
Almost everything Santos said during the race for New York’s 3rd Congressional District had been untrue, including his education, work experience, property ownership, ethnicity, and religion.
The Hill described the incredible interview.
In an extensive interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, published Wednesday, Santos acknowledged many of his lies and apologized for “mistakes” that he made.
“Don’t count me out,” Santos, who was removed from office late last year, said at the end of the 75-minute interview. “I’ve given many people a second chance and I’m asking everybody to please give me a second chance. And I will, you know, come forward and prove to be worth your second chance.”
“And I just want people to look at that and say, so many people make mistakes. We all make mistakes, if you really take a look deep inside, and I am sorry,” he added, when asked what his final message would be to viewers. “And I look forward to continuing to be a voice for those who seek leadership in me.”
Throughout the interview, Morgan repeatedly sought to press Santos for an answer on why he lied in the first place. The New York Republican denied a suggestion that it could be related to a mental disorder, after Morgan inquired about a theory circulating, and he also denied that an answer could be found when looking at his childhood.
The full interview can be seen below:
During the interview, Morgan said that Santos could have been a star. Now, he’s resorted to selling video messages on the internet.
Following his removal from office, Santos has sought to become an online “influencer.” In the words of The New York Times, the former congressman became a “kind of clown-for-hire on Cameo, an app and website where he offered his services recording personalized videos for fans. First he priced the messages at $75 each, but soon he was charging $200, then $400, then $500 a pop. But last week, the market contracted. The videos dropped to $350 apiece.”
