George Santos Shows Early Signs of Leaning to the Hard Right

On his first day in Congress, Representative George Santos of New York spent most of his time alone, away from his new friends. But by the end of the week, he found his place: alongside Republicans like Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, as well as members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus.

As a growing number of his fellow Republicans called for his resignation, Mr. Santos took the plunge, appearing last week on “Bannon’s War Room,” a podcast of Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald J. Trump. in order to disrupt the 2020 election.

For seven minutes, Mr. Santos chatted with Mr. Gaetz, who was filling in for Bannon. He spoke little about his political views. Instead, with Mr. Gaetz’s help, he addressed concerns about disinformation, campaign spending and questions about potential violations and lawsuits.

What Santos has done on the floor of the House so far this year, his willingness to appear on Bannon’s podcast and the few appointments he has made to his congressional staff all indicate that his views in Congress, if he remains bi-annual, will continue. to the right than the one he adopted during the campaign.

His appearance on Bannon’s podcast, which is often a platform for pro-choice activists and right-wing conspiracy theorists, has also raised questions about where the congressman sits on the conspiracy spectrum.

During last year’s elections, Democrats tried to paint Mr. Santos as a right-wing acolyte of Trump, pointing to Mr. Santos’ seeming rejection of the results of the 2020 presidential election and his loss that same year. He had also given a speech where he compared abortion to slavery and called it “absurd.”

He was in Washington on January 5, 2021, the day before the riots at the Capitol, when he falsely claimed that his election had been “stolen” and asked the crowd, “Who here is ready to overturn the election of Donald Trump?”

Mr. Santos, who in 2021 called himself “the representative of MAGA,” argued last year that his opponents were exaggerating his positions. Indeed, between his failed first race for Congress in 2020 and his successful effort in 2022, he appeared to be disparaging his past, and said he would take a more traditional Republican path.

In his first meeting, Mr. Santos ran as a strongly opposed to abortion. But he told Newsday during his recent campaign that he opposes a nationwide abortion ban and agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, returning abortion questions to states.

During his 2022 campaign, Mr. Santos focused on inflation and crime, blaming Democrats on both.

Questions about Mr. Santos’ ties to far-right groups had already been raised after he attended a gala in Manhattan last month where white nationalists and far-right conspirators were also guests. Mr. Santos did not respond to questions about his attendance at the event, which was hosted by the New York Young Republican Club, a conservative group.

But Santos has hired the group’s general secretary, Viswanag Burra, as an executive, according to LegiStorm, an online database that tracks congressional staff.

Mr. Burra declined to comment on his role in Mr. Santos’ office, referring questions to the congressman’s new communications director, Naysa Woomer, who did not respond when asked to confirm Mr. Burra’s job.

Mr. Burra, who was seen leading Mr. Santos through the halls of the Capitol complex, he has several relationships with influential right-wing figures. He previously worked as a producer on the podcast Mr. Bannon and, according to LegiStorm, once worked for Mr. Gaetz.

He also recently became a spokesperson for Carl Paladino, a Buffalo real estate magnate and politician with a history of opposing racism and homophobia. Mr. Paladino, who did not win last year’s Republican primary, in 2021 praised Adolf Hitler as “the kind of leader we need today” and added conspiracy theories about the mass shootings in Buffalo and Texas.

According to LegiStorm, Mr. Santos has also hired Rafaello J. Carone, an activist in his 20s who already has a history of working for lawmakers who are being persecuted, as a legal assistant.

Mr. Carone was the social media manager for former representative Madison J. Cawthorn of North Carolina, who lost the primary last year amid controversy and was recently fined by the House Ethics Committee for promoting cryptocurrency in which he had financial interests. . The committee has been asked to investigate Mr. Santos.

Mr. Carone’s company, Liberty & Justice Consulting Firm, says on its website that it “does extensive research” on clients and does its work with Virginians for America First, a Republican-aligned group that questioned the results of the 2020 election and wrote a poll. guards to remove the alleged fraud.

Mr. Santos’ chief of staff, Charles Lovett, was his campaign manager. She previously worked as a secretary political leader to Josh Mandel, who underperformed in the Ohio Senate primary as a hard-right, Trump-supporter.

Whether Mr. Santos employed other workers is unknown. Ms. Woomer did not respond to an email asking for the names of Mr. Santos’ Washington staff or an email asking about Mr. Santos’ regional office, which local media reported had been closed last week.

The address that Mr. Santos’ website provides for his district office in Queens was used by former Attorney General Tom Suozzi, whose name is. he sat in the wind there on Friday.

A phone number used by Mr. Suozzi’s office in Queens during his time in Congress was answered with a recorded greeting from Mr. Santos’ office in Washington. Calls to staff were sent to voicemail.

But speaking to Mr. Gaetz on Bannon’s podcast, Mr. Santos said his office is fielding calls from people who want help.

Whether Santos will join the invitation-only House Freedom Caucus is unclear. Although Mr. Santos sat with members of the caucus in the House chamber, he did not follow through on Mr. Gaetz’s efforts to consolidate votes against candidate Kevin McCarthy of California for speaker.

A spokesman for Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the caucus chairman, did not respond to an email asking if Santos would be among its members.

Mr. Santos’ views became the subject of speculation after photos of Mr. McCarthy’s vote appeared to show him making a sign that the Southern Poverty Law Center is aligned with the liberal movement.

Mr. Santos’s motive was unclear: The video of his vote on C-SPAN did not show a clear part of his hands, and Ms. Woomer, its communications director, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

But the photo sparked an outcry on social media and criticism from fellow politicians. A fellow Republican congressman, Nick LaLota of Long Island, referred to the symbol — which he called a “symbol of ‘white power'” — in his words asking Santos to resign this week.

On Bannon’s podcast, Mr. Santos spent much of the interview criticizing his critics, at one point vowing to “beat any pundits with talking heads” and calling for his resignation. Meanwhile, the statement included eight Republican representatives, six of them from New York.

Recently, Representative Max Miller of Ohio, referred to Mr. Santos’ claim that he was a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, which has been called into question after the media reported that Mr. Santos’ grandfather was born in Brazil.

Mr. Miller, who is Jewish and who donated thousands of dollars to Mr. Santos’ campaign, said: “It is not good to make up or lie for political gain. This is especially so when this lie wants to profit from the killing of millions of Jews.”

Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett assisted the research.