Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) office said Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) lied about an exchange he claimed to have had with the senator at Tuesday’s State of the Union.
Santos told Newsmax on Thursday that Sinema offered him some words of encouragement after his tense exchange with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) before Biden’s SOTU.
“Kyrsten Sinema as she was walking by, the senator from Arizona, she said something to the effect of ‘hang in there buddy’ or something like that,” Santos said. “I said ‘Thank you, madam senator.’ She was very polite, very kind-hearted as I’ve learned to see her. She’s a good person, unlike Mr. Romney.”
But, Sinema’s office said that never happened.
“This is a blatant lie,” Sinema’s Press Secretary Pablo Sierra-Carmona told Insider. “Kyrsten didn’t say a word to Rep. Santos — and didn’t even know about the exchange with Senator Romney until they got to their seats.”
Before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Romney had a tense exchange with Santos as he passed the embattled congressman who was standing in the aisle of the House chamber greeting dignitaries.
Romney later called Santos a “sick puppy” and said he should have been seated in the back.
“I don’t know the exact words I said. He shouldn’t have been there. Look, he’s a sick puppy. He shouldn’t have been there,” Romney said, according to The Hill. “I don’t think he ought to be in Congress and he certainly shouldn’t be in the aisle trying to shake the hand of the president of the United States and dignitaries coming in. It’s an embarrassment.”
Santos responded to Romney the next day, telling reporters that it “wasn’t very Mormon” of Romney to tell him he didn’t belong in Congress.
Santos is currently being investigated by federal authorities over potential campaign finance violations and Nassau County prosecutors over lies during his campaign. He also faces a House Ethics investigation.
[Image: AP]
