Constituents of Congressional District 3 gathered in New Hyde Park on Saturday, Feb. 25, to caravan through Queens and Long Island and call for embattled Congressman George Santos to be removed from office.
Dozens of protesters decorated their cars with anti-Santos slogans using posters and chalk markers, putting their disdain for the newly elected congressman on full display.
“Fire the liar,” and “Santos lies; truth dies,” were some of the phrases used to call out Santos after a variety of his personal claims during the election were found to be false.
The protesters then traveled across the district, making stops in New Hyde Park, Great Neck and Little Neck before arriving at their final destination, Santos’ district office in Douglaston.
“We all know that he’s told many lies to get to Congress,” said Casey Sabella, an organizer of the event and member of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, “and he has broken our trust to the point that he cannot serve as our representative.”
After an investigation by the New York Times, Santos was found to have lied about multiple aspects of his life during his campaign, including his education background, work history and charity efforts. Santos admitted to many of the falsehoods after being publicly scrutinized.
Santos is currently under investigation by multiple legal arms of New York, according to The Hill, but has yet to come under any tangible scrutiny from his Republican peers in the House.
House Democrats filed a resolution to remove Santos from Congress, but it was considered mostly symbolic as it would require a two-thirds majority to pass, meaning nearly 80 Republicans would need to vote ‘yes’ alongside Democrats.
“He needs to be expelled, and he needs to be expelled now and every day that Congress doesn’t do so is an insult to our country,” said Sabella, who campaigned for Robert Zimmerman against Rep. Santos in the 2022 election.
“If anyone else lied about these things, they’d lose their job,” Sabella continued. “But Santos is still in power.”
Santos most recently came under scrutiny for a large sum of unexplained campaign finance expenditures.
“Where did that $365,000 go, George?” Sabella asked the crowd of fellow protesters.
“He may think he’s gotten away with all of his lies by apologizing and asking for forgiveness,” said Maria Marsina, another District 3 resident and protester, “but I’m here to remind George Santos that lying about campaign finances, funding, spending and transactions is a serious violation of federal law.”
“District 3 will not be held hostage by Santos,” continued Marsina, “and these are not things that will be forgiven.”
Nina Gordon, another Santos constituent and protester, said she felt hopeful that if they keep applying pressure, change will happen.
“If you keep the pressure up, eventually, something’s got to give,” said Gordon.
“We need NYC representatives to step up and do something about this now,” said Marsina. “We need members of Congress to vote for the resolution to expel Santos now.”
