WASHINGTON (AP) — Besieged Republican Rep. George Santos arrives on the House floor most days to deliver short speeches — celebrating women-owned small businesses, a special high school in his district or raising concern about various countries in crises.
At other times he can be seen dashing through the halls of the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers do, from one meeting to the next. He once passed out doughnuts to the press corps staking out his office.
Far from being chastened by the widespread criticism, mockery and rejection that Santos has received after having admitted to fabricating many aspects of his life story, the newly elected congressman is breezily carrying on in Congress. He is refusing calls for his resignation all while rewriting the narrative in real time.
For Santos, it’s an unusual up-is-down approach that would have been almost unthinkable in an earlier generation but one that signals the new norms taking hold amid the deepening of a post-truth era in Congress.
“I was elected by the people to come here to represent them, and I do that every day,” Santos told The Associated Press in a brief interview off the House floor.
“It’s a hard job. If I said it was easy, I’d be lying to you — and I don’t think that’s what we want, right?”
Pressed about the idea of a post-truth era, Santos said, “I think truth still matters very much.”
Perhaps not since Donald Trump launched his presidency with exaggerated claims of the crowd size at his inauguration has an elected official arrived in Washington and sought so brazenly and defiantly to convince the public of reality different than the one before their very eyes.
