The mother of George Santos (R-NY) wasn’t in the country in 2001, according to a new report, further disputing the embattled congressman’s claims that she was in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The Forward reported that his mother, Fatima Devolder, said on a 2003 visa application to enter the country that she had not been in the United States since 1999. Santos’s campaign website claims, “George’s mother was in her office in the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.”
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The outlet says it has reviewed “90 pages of Santos’ mother’s immigration paperwork, from 1988 to 2012,” obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.
The freshman lawmaker, who has previously acknowledged that his mother died in 2016, is accused of fabricating his work, education, and family history and has faced growing calls to resign. His apparent falsehoods include that his grandparents escaped the Holocaust and fled to Brazil when genealogical records show they were both born there and were by all indications Catholic, not Jewish.
In a Dec. 17, 2021, radio interview on The Voice of Reason with Andy Hooser, Santos said his mother died of cancer caused by the ash of the demolished World Trade Center.
“She was in the south tower, and she made it out. She got caught up in the ash cloud. My mom fought cancer till her death,” Santos said, adding, “She never applied for relief because her motto was, ‘I can afford it. We’re fortunate. We can take care of all our medical bills. If I take it, I’m taking it away from these men and women who need it and who put their lives on the line.'”
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Santos has also claimed to have finance degrees from Baruch College and New York University and to have worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. He later admitted that this was not true.
In addition to Nassau County GOP officials, every freshman House Republican from New York has called on him to resign. GOP leadership has declined to push for his ouster as it navigates a slim majority in the House. Santos was seated on the Small Business Committee and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on Tuesday.
