WASHINGTON (KERO) — House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy spoke out on Monday about embattled Republican congressman George Santos of New York.
McCarthy said he had no idea Santos had embellished his resume when he ran for office. At the same time, the Bakersfield congressman told reporters that he did have some reservations about Santos' background.
"I didn't know all about his resume or not, but I did have a few questions about it," said McCarthy.
He was then asked by reporters if he had known that Santos had a staff member lie about being McCarthy's own chief of staff. "You know, I didn't know about that. It happened and they corrected it. But I was not notified about that until a later date." When asked if he spoke to Santos about lying, McCarthy responded "yeah. I didn't know about it until a later date though, unfortunately."
McCarthy also said he was unaware that a Santos staffer pretended to be his chief of staff to court money from donors for Santos' campaign.
McCarthy said he is sticking by the freshman congressman for now and will not ask him to resign. The Speaker also said that Santos has a long way to go to earn people's trust.
