Why Is George Santos Cozying Up to a Fellow Far-Right Liar?
May 10, 2023
3,460
208
41
7.20%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Mother Jones Episodes Around May 10, 2023
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
2:26Now PlayingWhy Is George Santos Cozying Up to a Fellow Far-Right Liar?
YouTube Description
as posted by the channel► For more, visit Mother Jones
Game recognizes game. And the far right scene in New York City is kind of a small world. So it’s weird, but not particularly surprising, that just days before being indicted on federal fraud charges, fabulist Congressman George Santos appeared on a livestream produced by devotees of Guo Wengui—an exiled Chinese mogul who allegedly orchestrated of a massive international fraud and is also a prodigious purveyor of misinformation.
Guo, who also uses the name Miles Guo, is a longtime patron and professional partner of Steve Bannon. And Bannon’s allies in places like the fanatical New York Young Republicans Club are also big Santos backers. These ties likely explain how Santos showed up Friday at a cavernous, sparsely furnished Mahwah, NJ, mansion to tacitly back Guo supporters’ kooky conspiracy theory that their leader has been framed by the FBI at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. The interview was broadcast on a program that Guo followers regularly share on Gettr, a right-leaning social media app over which, as Mother Jones has reported, Guo has exercised control.
Guo made a fortune in Chinese real estate before fleeing that country in 2014 ahead of criminal charges there. In the US, he reinvented himself as a supposed Chinese dissident. Working with Bannon, Guo won followers in the international Chinese diaspora with aggressive attacks on China’s rulers, while also spreading bizarre conspiracy theories about topics like the 2020 election and Covid.
Like Guo, Santos is an alleged fraudster and a definite liar. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed a 13-count indictment for wired fraud, money laundering, campaign finance violations, and false statements.
Santos may well be hoping that by backing Guo’s claims that Guo is being unfairly prosecuted, he’ll encourage Guo’s fanatical supporters to make the same claim about him. And indeed, Guo fans took up Santos’ cause after his indictment.
Santos capped his performance Friday by reminding those constituents that he works for them. This riff seemed to channel Oprah Winfrey’s famed “You get a car” episode, along with Tom Wambsgans’ shareholder address in a recent Succession episode. “You are an ATN citizen,” Tom lamely declares, pointing at crowd members. “And you are an ATN citizen. And I am an ATN citizen.”
“You’re my boss,” Santos said, pointing at Guo fans. “You’re my boss. You’re my boss. That’s how this works.”
For our full report head here
#GeorgeSantos #SantosIndictment #MilesGuo #SteveBannon
--
For more awardwinning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones
Links & Promotions
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.