SANTOS NEWS FLASH

It was a busy morning for Sir George, so I wanted to drop a quick news bulletin to make sure you’re up on all of it.

Stepping down from committees (for now)

In a closed-door meeting with Republican colleagues Tuesday morning, George told his brothers and sisters on the right that he’d temporarily step down from his assignments on the House Small Business and the House Science, Space and Technology Committees until he’s cleared of wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for Santos told ABC News, “The congressman is reserving his seats on his assigned committees until he has been properly cleared of both campaign and personal financial investigations."

Speaker McCarthy confirmed the commitee seats were the subject of the pair's mystery meeting on Monday, and says it’s possible he’ll fill Santos’ seats on a “temporary basis.”

Voters say GTFO

The results of a new Newsday/Siena poll that dropped Tuesday morning showing a blistering 78% of voters polled in his district want the politician of many names to resign. (This comes after a Siena poll last week showing 59 percent of voters statewide want him to step aside.)

To put it in context, a Siena pollster said Santos’ unfavorability rating “compares to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's after the invasion of Ukraine.” Historic levels of hatred.

And there’s more from the latest poll: “By a nearly 5-1 ratio, constituents say the Republican congressman cannot be an effective representative. Two of every three people who voted for him say they wouldn’t have if they knew then what they know now.”

One Long Island resident who participated told Newsday “I am embarrassed to say I should have concentrated more on the local elections. I just voted across party lines. I say this in an embarrassed way: I don’t really know what he stood for.” This echoes my reporting from last week across the district that Republican voters had little to no idea about who Santos was before casting their ballots. 

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