New York Republican leaders call for George Santos' resignation over campaign lies

By Betul Yuruk

NEW YORK (AA) - Newly sworn-in New York lawmaker George Santos faced calls for his ''immediate resignation'' from Republican leaders Wednesday for lying about his background to be elected to the US Congress.

Dozens of Republican leaders called on Santos to step down.

Nassau County Republican Party Chairman Joe Cairo told a press conference that Santos’ campaign was a ''campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication.''

''He is not welcome here at Republican headquarters, for meetings or at any of our events,'' he said. ''He has disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople."

Santos responded in a tweet, saying: ''I was elected to serve the people of #NY03 not the party & politicians, I remain committed to doing that and regret to hear that local officials refuse to work with my office to deliver results to keep our community safe and lower the cost of living. I will NOT resign!''

The newly-elected Republican congressman, 34, admitted that he had lied about parts of his resume.

Although his campaign biography said he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the companies denied any record of him working there.

Santos’ resume said he graduated from Baruch College in 2010, but officials there were not able to confirm a record of him attending the school.

He admitted in an interview with the New York Post that he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup while confessing he never graduated from any college.