Truth-challenged Long Island Rep. George Santos has reached new levels of audacity — comparing himself to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks by saying he won’t “sit in the back” as some fellow congressional Republicans want.
The disgraced legislator, who was indicted on fraud charges in May, took special aim at Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who famously told Santos “you don’t belong here” ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address in February.
“If they come at me, I go right back for them because I think for far too long they’ve gotten away with getting along to get along,” Santos (R-NY), 34, ranted to conservative talk show host Mike Crispi on the “Unafraid” podcast.
“I’m gonna call them out,” he added. “You want to call me a liar? I’ll call you a sellout. I mean, Mitt Romney — the man [who] goes to the State of the Union of the United States wearing a Ukraine lapel pin — tells me, a Latino gay man, that I shouldn’t sit in the front, that I should be in the back.
“Well, guess what? Rosa Parks didn’t sit in the back and neither am I gonna sit in the back,” Santos said. “That’s just the reality of how it works. Mitt Romney lives in a very different world and he needs to buckle up because it’s gonna be a bumpy ride for him.”
Parks famously refused to sit in the back of a bus reserved for “colored” passengers in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, launching the 13-month bus boycott and triggering the modern civil rights movement for African Americans.
Santos’ bizarre comparison comes as he is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee while awaiting trial on the criminal fraud charges against him.
Prosecutors have submitted some 80,000 pages of documents alleging that Santos fraudulently collected COVID unemployment benefits, lied on congressional financial disclosure forms and laundered money.
He is free on a $500,000 bond secured by his family, even as he seeks re-election to his seat, which covers parts of Queen and Nassau County.
At the time of his confrontation with Santos, Romney told reporters it was inappropriate for the rookie rep to take a prominent seat on the center aisle of the House given the ongoing probes.
“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,” the senator told reporters after Biden’s speech. “He shouldn’t be in Congress, and they are going to go through the process and hopefully get him out. But he shouldn’t be there, and if he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”
Santos admitted to The Post in December that he fabricated much of his resume, including claims about his education, work history and family background.
He has refused to resign despite calls for his ouster from the public and others on Capitol Hill.