Residents living in New York’s Congressional District 3 joined Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan outside Congressman George Santos’ Douglaston office on Friday, Jan. 13, in calling for the disgraced representative’s resignation or expulsion from Congress.
The protest was meant to be the start of Lafazan’s “Where’s George” campaign, as Santos has yet to return to the district and open the office a week after being sworn into office.
Lafazan said this was not the only place he and other residents have convened to show their displeasure with Santos and his lies. In addition to the congressional district office, Lafazan and others have also convened outside Santos’ listed address in Whitestone, as well as the federal courthouse in Islip, to call for an investigation and outside campaign headquarters. Additionally, protesters and local leaders gathered outside the congressional district office last Saturday to call for Santos to resign.
“We’ll continue to convene and hold him accountable,” Lafazan said. “It is clear from George Santos’ own words that he will not resign. He’s behaving like a petulant child. He’s showing weakness, not showing up for the voters who elected him, not showing up to do the job he got elected to do but hiding and speaking only to those who give him safe comfort. We are here today to say that if George Santos does not come to the voters then the voters will come to Mr. Santos. Everywhere you go we will be there to hold you accountable. You don’t get to run for Congress and hide from the people who voted for you.”
Lafazan referred to Santos as a liar and fraud who did not have any shame. He called Santos out for being morally depraved enough to lie about his grandparents surviving the Holocaust and having employed people who were killed in the Pulse Nightclub shootings.
According to Jody Kass-Finkel of Concerned Citizens of New York’s Third Congressional District, she believes the only two paths to getting Santos out of Congress are to either force him to resign or get him expelled. The non-partisan group wrote a statement calling for either of these outcomes and are currently asking for elected officials to sign it.
“George Santos is a national story, he’s a national embarrassment … so we are looking to get Congress to expel him,” Finkel said. “If you’re not willing to sign this, you’re paying lip service to the voters of this district.”
People of all ages and backgrounds gathered to take part in this rally, including 17-year-old Marion Karp, of Mamaroneck High School.
“We are standing behind an empty storefront and we are not being represented and our views are not being accounted for in Congress, which is a tragedy and a contradiction to the value of our democracy,” Karp said. “I should be in school but I’m here because of the lies of Santos.”
“This man comes to my community and thinks he’s going to represent me? I’m so disgusted,” Queens resident Vicky Cosgrove added. “I would like to see him running with his pants on fire and out of this country even.”
