George Santos has been arrested and indicted on 13 charges including unlawful monetary transactions, wire fraud, and theft of public funds.
Other videos mentioned in this video:
About Sam Bankman-Fried’s Indictment:
Video about Organic Fresh Coin:
Fox News Knows They’re Lying:
Rod Blagojevich on Fox News – Normalizing Corruption:
Resources mentioned in this video:
- Indictment
- Redstone Strategies
- Red Strategies USA
- Devolder Organization
- Red Strategies Video
- FTX exec donations
- Case against Harbor City Capital
- Press release about Devolder joining Harbor City
- Press release about McMinn being promoted to Senior Videographer
- Coverage of Santos campaign loans
- Slate article about Santos votes
- H.R. 1163
- Santos saying he is the “head guy“
- 2020 House Financial Disclosure Form
- 2022 House Financial Disclosure Form
Documents:
Indictment:
SEC Complaint against Harbor City Capital:
If you would like to subscribe to my free newsletter then please go here.
If you want the posts from this blog delivered to your inbox:
I also have a Discord server that you can join here.
Transcript:
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:03:26 The United States Congress is full of incredibly prolific liars. 00:00:03:26 - 00:00:07:03 And the worst of them all has now been arrested and indicted. 00:00:07:04 - 00:00:08:09 No, not that one. 00:00:08:09 - 00:00:10:14 Not that one either. No, not that one. 00:00:10:23 - 00:00:12:01 Yes, that's the one. 00:00:12:01 - 00:00:15:10 George Santos is a liar of historical proportions. 00:00:15:15 - 00:00:18:13 The Republican representative for New York's third District 00:00:18:22 - 00:00:22:20 was recently arrested and indicted on 13 charges, 00:00:22:27 - 00:00:26:29 including wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions, 00:00:26:29 - 00:00:28:16 which is a money laundering offense, 00:00:28:16 - 00:00:32:14 false statements on House disclosure reports and theft of public money. 00:00:32:15 - 00:00:33:16 Turns out that the guy 00:00:33:16 - 00:00:35:25 who is willing to lie about where he went to high school 00:00:35:25 - 00:00:39:22 and college, working in Wall Street, founding an animal charity, his mother 00:00:39:22 - 00:00:43:01 dying in 911, his grandmother being a Holocaust victim, and his history 00:00:43:01 - 00:00:46:22 with drag was also willing to lie about some other things. 00:00:46:28 - 00:00:49:15 Now, let's get this out of the way right at the top. 00:00:49:18 - 00:00:51:21 An indictment is allegations. 00:00:51:27 - 00:00:53:22 They are not necessarily true. 00:00:53:22 - 00:00:57:07 Prosecutors share evidence with a grand jury related to the charges 00:00:57:07 - 00:00:58:05 they went to bring. 00:00:58:05 - 00:01:01:06 And then the grand jury decides whether or not that evidence 00:01:01:06 - 00:01:03:05 is sufficient for an indictment. 00:01:03:05 - 00:01:06:23 If it is in, the indictment is brought, but the accused is still innocent 00:01:06:23 - 00:01:08:05 until proven guilty. 00:01:08:05 - 00:01:11:27 And Santos will have an opportunity to defend himself 00:01:11:27 - 00:01:15:22 in front of a jury of his peers, though presumably significantly more 00:01:15:22 - 00:01:18:29 honest peers, unless he ends up pleading guilty. 00:01:19:00 - 00:01:24:23 So far, he has pleaded not guilty and has insisted that he will not resign. 00:01:24:28 - 00:01:28:29 So just remember, as we go through this, that the biggest liar in Congress claims 00:01:28:29 - 00:01:31:26 that these allegations are completely false. 00:01:32:05 - 00:01:36:08 George Santos, who sometimes goes by his middle names Anthony Devolder, 00:01:36:15 - 00:01:37:29 set up a company in Florida 00:01:37:29 - 00:01:41:23 called The Devolder Organization that was entirely owned by him. 00:01:41:24 - 00:01:45:05 This entity was also one of the two authorized managers 00:01:45:13 - 00:01:49:03 for an additional Florida corporation that is referred to as company 00:01:49:03 - 00:01:51:05 number one in the indictment. 00:01:51:08 - 00:01:52:25 Because I cannot help myself. 00:01:52:25 - 00:01:56:06 I spent an hour digging through Florida corporate records to figure out 00:01:56:06 - 00:01:59:11 what company this could be, and I believe I have figured it out. 00:01:59:13 - 00:02:01:24 There's a company registered at the same address 00:02:01:24 - 00:02:04:02 as the Devolder Organization in Merritt Island, 00:02:04:02 - 00:02:07:19 Florida, called Redstone Strategies, which has two managers, 00:02:07:25 - 00:02:12:05 including the Devolder Organization, matching up with the indictment. 00:02:12:05 - 00:02:17:06 This company was formed on November 1st, 2021, which seems to indicate 00:02:17:15 - 00:02:21:28 that we found that company number one is almost certainly Redstone Strategies. 00:02:21:28 - 00:02:24:28 So I'm going to say Redstone Strategies for the rest of this video. 00:02:25:08 - 00:02:28:02 If you think I'm wrong, then substitute whatever you think 00:02:28:02 - 00:02:30:26 company one is when we're talking about that part of the indictment. 00:02:31:05 - 00:02:32:05 Cool. Good. 00:02:32:05 - 00:02:36:00 The other manager for Redstone Strategies is Jayson Benoit & Associates, 00:02:36:08 - 00:02:39:16 who also happens to be a member of Red Strategies USA, 00:02:39:21 - 00:02:43:13 which also has the Devolder Organization as a member. 00:02:43:13 - 00:02:45:19 We're going to get back to Red Strategies USA. 00:02:45:20 - 00:02:50:04 Don't worry both of these organizations the Devolder Organization and Redstone 00:02:50:04 - 00:02:51:16 Strategies were used 00:02:51:16 - 00:02:55:06 in this alleged scheme to misappropriate political contributions. 00:02:55:14 - 00:02:58:07 This campaign donations scheme started in the last 00:02:58:08 - 00:03:01:23 couple of months before the election and involved person number one, 00:03:01:23 - 00:03:04:25 who I have not identified yet, but they do live in Queens, 00:03:04:25 - 00:03:08:19 which is where his sister who headed up his PAC, raised New York lives. 00:03:08:28 - 00:03:10:04 Fun coincidence. 00:03:10:04 - 00:03:13:13 I, of course, am not saying that person number one was his sister. 00:03:13:13 - 00:03:18:04 I'm just saying if I was forced to take a guess, that's who I would go to. 00:03:18:04 - 00:03:21:21 First person number one was directed by Santos to start soliciting 00:03:21:21 - 00:03:25:07 donations and directing them towards Redstone Strategies. 00:03:25:10 - 00:03:28:29 During this process, they said several lies about Redstone 00:03:28:29 - 00:03:33:04 strategies, including that it was a 501(c)(4) not for profit, 00:03:33:12 - 00:03:36:04 that it was a super PAC and that funds 00:03:36:04 - 00:03:39:07 were being used to support George Santos's campaign. 00:03:39:08 - 00:03:43:09 In reality, funds were actually being misdirected to pay credit card debts 00:03:43:14 - 00:03:47:28 by designer clothing and otherwise used for personal benefit of the candidate. 00:03:48:04 - 00:03:50:28 The funny thing I realized while writing this script is 00:03:50:28 - 00:03:53:27 that George Santos is frauds are almost fun to talk about 00:03:54:04 - 00:03:56:05 because they're like the textbook examples. 00:03:56:09 - 00:04:00:08 For example, if you ask someone to describe what a textbook example 00:04:00:08 - 00:04:03:04 of what misappropriating donor funds might look like, 00:04:03:10 - 00:04:05:07 this would be a perfect example. 00:04:05:07 - 00:04:08:12 Now, this isn't super relevant, but crypto is my day job, 00:04:08:12 - 00:04:09:25 so y'all need to hear this. 00:04:09:25 - 00:04:14:05 FTX The cryptocurrency exchange, which recently failed in spectacular fashion, 00:04:14:13 - 00:04:18:10 had several executives who gave generously to George Santos' campaign. 00:04:18:14 - 00:04:21:19 Three different executives all gave the maximum amount 00:04:21:19 - 00:04:24:28 to his campaign, including Ryan Salame the FTX US co-CEO. 00:04:25:01 - 00:04:28:21 Clare Watanabe, who was head of brand and people 00:04:28:29 - 00:04:32:10 for FTX and Ramnik Arora, who used to lead product. 00:04:33:08 - 00:04:37:02 I want to make sure that we're all very clear also that the indictment 00:04:37:02 - 00:04:40:19 of Sam Bankman-fried alleges that Ryan Salame specifically 00:04:40:24 - 00:04:45:15 was acting, at least for some donations, as a straw man for SPF. 00:04:45:15 - 00:04:48:15 So at least some of the support for George Santos 00:04:48:22 - 00:04:52:14 came from one of the worst cryptocurrency exchanges to ever exist. 00:04:52:18 - 00:04:56:17 It feels appropriate that the biggest lawyer in Congress who used to work for 00:04:56:18 - 00:05:02:13 a Ponzi allegedly ended up funded by a Ponzi allegedly pretend you hear allegedly. 00:05:02:17 - 00:05:04:27 Every time I say Ponzi for the rest of this video, 00:05:05:04 - 00:05:06:27 because otherwise I would have to say it a lot. 00:05:06:27 - 00:05:10:08 Now, about that alleged Ponzi that George Santos worked for. 00:05:10:15 - 00:05:14:13 The indictment also identifies investment firm number one, which, again, 00:05:14:13 - 00:05:15:23 they don't disclose. 00:05:15:23 - 00:05:19:00 But we can use other broadly reported details about Santos 00:05:19:00 - 00:05:22:25 and the timeline to identify it as Harbor City Capital, 00:05:23:04 - 00:05:27:19 which is most notable for the SEC, accusing it of being a Ponzi scheme. 00:05:27:28 - 00:05:31:20 I'm going to discuss Harbor City Capital for the rest of this, 00:05:31:20 - 00:05:35:16 and I will occasionally refer to it in places where investment firm number 00:05:35:16 - 00:05:37:02 one was in the indictment. 00:05:37:02 - 00:05:40:11 If you think I am wrong, then substitute whatever investment firm 00:05:40:18 - 00:05:42:29 you think George Santos was working for. 00:05:43:06 - 00:05:47:12 Santos has maintained that he had no idea that Harbor City Capital was an alleged 00:05:47:12 - 00:05:48:13 Ponzi scheme. 00:05:48:13 - 00:05:49:07 But you know what? 00:05:49:07 - 00:05:52:25 Let's talk about what the Ponzi was before we talk about why I don't believe him. 00:05:53:03 - 00:05:57:27 Harbor City Capital sold super high yield bonds currently a ten year U.S. 00:05:57:27 - 00:06:01:15 Treasury yields about 3.3% per year. 00:06:01:18 - 00:06:05:26 Harbor City bonds would yield 1-5% per month. 00:06:05:29 - 00:06:09:19 These rates result in you having absolutely unbelievable 00:06:09:20 - 00:06:13:03 amounts of money if they were true and were just not sustainable. 00:06:13:09 - 00:06:18:17 Starting in 2018, Harbor City started advertising these bonds as low risk 00:06:18:22 - 00:06:22:23 because they were secured and even sometimes arguing that it was 00:06:22:23 - 00:06:27:22 the same as going to a bank and buying a certificate of deposit, it was not. 00:06:27:25 - 00:06:31:28 Now, if you're unaware a secured debt is one where you have collateral 00:06:32:03 - 00:06:34:15 that helps cover the value for the debt. 00:06:34:16 - 00:06:36:23 A mortgage is a type of secured debt. 00:06:36:23 - 00:06:41:00 The money extended to you is secured by the value of the home itself. 00:06:41:01 - 00:06:42:25 If you were to find yourself 00:06:42:25 - 00:06:46:14 unable to pay your mortgage, your bank is able to take your house 00:06:46:20 - 00:06:50:24 and they are less likely to lose money on the loan because of that. 00:06:50:28 - 00:06:54:10 2008 proved that if the House ends up worth way 00:06:54:10 - 00:06:58:06 less than the bank thinks, then there can still end up being problems. 00:06:58:16 - 00:07:03:18 But a mortgage is a far safer debt than an unsecured debt, like a credit card. 00:07:03:26 - 00:07:08:05 These debts were supposedly secured by and this nonsense is a quote, 00:07:08:10 - 00:07:09:29 so you cannot blame me for it. 00:07:09:29 - 00:07:13:26 Bonds are 100% secured by a cash asset backed instrument 00:07:14:04 - 00:07:17:27 issued by a major top tier bank which ensures return of principal. 00:07:18:06 - 00:07:21:15 This was just a flat out lie meant to confuse investors. 00:07:21:24 - 00:07:24:19 The supposed business model of Harbor City Capital 00:07:24:19 - 00:07:27:18 was investors give Harbor City Capital money. 00:07:27:28 - 00:07:30:28 Harbor City gives this money to their other companies 00:07:31:04 - 00:07:34:03 who use it to identify marketing leads. 00:07:34:09 - 00:07:38:07 These leads are then sold to a bunch of businesses for a profit. 00:07:38:08 - 00:07:42:01 Harbor City then uses that profit to pay their investors back 00:07:42:08 - 00:07:45:22 their initial principal, plus these crazy high rates of interest. 00:07:45:28 - 00:07:49:25 This gets us into what we're Harbor City's other businesses. 00:07:50:02 - 00:07:52:15 One example would be quality control. 00:07:52:22 - 00:07:56:12 Quality Control was a Harbor City company that claimed 00:07:56:12 - 00:07:59:28 they could track all the profit for affiliate marketers and multilevel 00:07:59:28 - 00:08:03:09 marketers and show their clip through rates and different ad campaigns 00:08:03:13 - 00:08:05:29 and allow them to sell their traffic to other sites 00:08:06:09 - 00:08:09:17 and a bunch of other really questionable advertising practices. 00:08:09:29 - 00:08:14:25 And perhaps most notably here, their target mark appears to be MLMs. 00:08:15:00 - 00:08:18:06 Multilevel marketing schemes, which you may know is those things 00:08:18:06 - 00:08:20:07 that form a pyramid structure. 00:08:20:07 - 00:08:24:22 When you describe their business banner, but that technically include products 00:08:24:22 - 00:08:28:17 so they avoid getting in trouble for running a pyramid scheme. 00:08:28:18 - 00:08:29:25 You've probably heard of them. 00:08:29:25 - 00:08:32:27 Amway, Herbalife, you know the classics. 00:08:33:05 - 00:08:38:00 The MLM link here gives me some idea about who was willing to pay for the leads 00:08:38:00 - 00:08:39:01 they were generating. 00:08:39:01 - 00:08:43:16 Another example of a Jayson Benoit company which seems related 00:08:43:23 - 00:08:48:25 is one called Unsubscribe instantly that claims if you enter your email 00:08:49:03 - 00:08:51:21 they will help you unsubscribe from newsletters. 00:08:51:26 - 00:08:53:16 Now, I do not know for sure, 00:08:53:16 - 00:08:57:20 but I am also absolutely convinced that this absolutely does not work 00:08:57:25 - 00:09:01:07 and I think they were using this to try to get people's emails. 00:09:01:15 - 00:09:04:20 I don't know that, of course, but there's no way that just entering 00:09:04:20 - 00:09:07:27 your email somewhere would result in you being unsubscribed. 00:09:08:00 - 00:09:11:13 That would require you giving this site access to your email account, 00:09:11:20 - 00:09:13:12 which would be a bad idea. 00:09:13:12 - 00:09:16:08 I tried to watch the video they have on their site 00:09:16:08 - 00:09:19:15 that was supposed to explain how this works, but for some reason 00:09:19:15 - 00:09:23:03 that video has been made private and cannot easily be viewed any more. 00:09:23:13 - 00:09:24:20 Isn't that weird? 00:09:24:20 - 00:09:27:10 This Ponzi scheme makes all these crazy claims 00:09:27:16 - 00:09:31:24 and at least some of the top execs are skimming off the top as it goes. 00:09:31:29 - 00:09:36:17 Anthony Devolder or maybe George Devolder or you know him as George Santos. 00:09:36:26 - 00:09:38:19 Those are his other names, of course. 00:09:38:19 - 00:09:43:18 Joins this company in January 2020 and works there through March 2021. 00:09:43:26 - 00:09:48:08 Specifically as the regional director of the New York City office. 00:09:48:21 - 00:09:54:14 He was described by Jp Moroney, the CEO of Harbor City Capital, as a perfect fit. 00:09:54:20 - 00:09:58:13 Now, I previously indicated that I did not believe 00:09:58:15 - 00:10:02:28 that Santos could not have known what was going on here, Santos said. 00:10:03:06 - 00:10:07:02 I'm actually Harbor City Capital's head guy for New York City. 00:10:07:04 - 00:10:10:13 Now, right before you decided to go into politics, what were you doing? 00:10:11:00 - 00:10:16:00 Well, I still actually up until August 1st when I initiated my leave of absence. 00:10:16:09 - 00:10:19:10 I'm the regional director for Harbor City Capital, 00:10:19:16 - 00:10:22:16 we’re a fixed income shop. 00:10:22:16 - 00:10:23:15 We are 00:10:24:19 - 00:10:25:19 top 00:10:25:19 - 00:10:28:23 within the Fortune 500 private equity firms globally. 00:10:29:14 - 00:10:34:24 I manage all of our fixed income assets with arbitrage here in New York. 00:10:34:24 - 00:10:37:23 I am actually Harbor City Capital’s 00:10:37:23 - 00:10:39:10 head guy for New York City. 00:10:39:10 - 00:10:42:02 We're based out of Melbourne, Florida, 00:10:42:02 - 00:10:45:18 and I've been with the company now a little under a year. 00:10:46:03 - 00:10:50:07 Prior to that, I've done my I've done my tour, I'd say, of due 00:10:50:07 - 00:10:54:08 diligence through Wall Street, Goldman and JPMorgan, so on and so forth. 00:10:54:22 - 00:10:58:02 So this is you know, I'm still currently employed 00:10:58:02 - 00:11:01:15 just on leave so I can pursue the race. 00:11:01:25 - 00:11:05:10 Which would seem to suggest he was pretty senior and should have 00:11:05:10 - 00:11:08:18 a deep understanding of how these products he was selling worked. 00:11:08:20 - 00:11:13:09 We also previously mentioned the Devolder Organization Red Strategies USA. 00:11:13:11 - 00:11:17:08 The registered agent for these is D&D International Investment Services, 00:11:17:08 - 00:11:20:04 which is Dr. Devaughn Dames’ company. 00:11:20:04 - 00:11:24:29 Devaughn Dames is the former chief financial officer of Harbor City Capital. 00:11:25:06 - 00:11:28:25 That would be the person who signed off on all of their financial statements. 00:11:29:08 - 00:11:32:02 And so if anyone should have known that Harbor City 00:11:32:02 - 00:11:35:04 Capital was a Ponzi scheme, then it would be Devaughn. 00:11:35:08 - 00:11:36:12 And George 00:11:36:12 - 00:11:40:23 Anthony is still happy to work with them across all of these different companies. 00:11:40:25 - 00:11:46:23 Furthermore, D&D/Devaughn is also a member of Red Strategies USA, 00:11:46:28 - 00:11:51:19 which you'll remember is a company that the Devolder Organization is a member of. 00:11:51:21 - 00:11:55:08 Jayson Benoit we mentioned is the other manager for Redstone 00:11:55:09 - 00:11:58:17 Strategies and behind a bunch of the other Harbor City companies 00:11:59:01 - 00:12:02:18 was the chief technical officer for Harbor City Capital. 00:12:02:22 - 00:12:05:26 Jayson's company, Jayson Benoit & Associates, is 00:12:05:26 - 00:12:08:22 also a member of Red Strategies USA, 00:12:09:05 - 00:12:12:15 also a member of Red Strategies USA is Paul Nicolini, 00:12:12:20 - 00:12:14:22 who is the Regional director of the Investment 00:12:14:22 - 00:12:18:13 Professionals Division of Harbor City, also a member of Red Strategies 00:12:18:13 - 00:12:22:16 USA is Red Strategies video, which has only a single person behind it. 00:12:22:22 - 00:12:27:01 One Jesse McMinn, who is the senior videographer for Harbor City. 00:12:27:08 - 00:12:31:06 So George Slash Anthony, who was a perfect fit, was the head guy 00:12:31:06 - 00:12:34:22 for New York City and is still willing to work with the videographer. 00:12:34:27 - 00:12:40:16 Another regional director, the CTO and the CFO of this alleged Ponzi 00:12:40:16 - 00:12:46:00 scheme, George Santos, is still actively working with the chief financial officer 00:12:46:06 - 00:12:50:24 of an alleged Ponzi scheme that involved millions of dollars in embezzling. 00:12:50:28 - 00:12:51:21 Listen. 00:12:51:21 - 00:12:54:16 I cannot prove the biggest liar in Congress 00:12:54:22 - 00:12:57:26 was lying about never realizing this was a Ponzi scheme. 00:12:58:07 - 00:13:00:21 I can only show he's still perfectly happy 00:13:00:28 - 00:13:04:05 to hang out with people who should have known. 00:13:04:14 - 00:13:08:11 So why did we spend so much time on this little diversion about Harbor City? 00:13:08:17 - 00:13:12:17 Well, you see well, George Anthony was working at Harbor City. 00:13:12:17 - 00:13:15:14 He also committed some non Ponzi related crimes. 00:13:15:17 - 00:13:18:29 Allegedly, of course, well employed for this investment firm. 00:13:18:29 - 00:13:22:21 George Santos applied for unemployment in New York State 00:13:22:26 - 00:13:24:24 and received it for months. 00:13:24:24 - 00:13:28:13 Now, perhaps the US government just doesn't understand is that George 00:13:28:14 - 00:13:30:18 Devolder was the one working for the investment 00:13:30:18 - 00:13:33:11 firm and George Santos was the one who was unemployed 00:13:33:18 - 00:13:36:25 and the Anthony Devolder who was the one speaking at events in New York. 00:13:36:26 - 00:13:38:14 So can George Santos 00:13:38:14 - 00:13:41:13 really be held responsible for things that George Devolder did? 00:13:41:17 - 00:13:43:19 Better figure that one out prosecutors. 00:13:43:26 - 00:13:48:25 Santos supposedly received about $25,000 in unemployment benefits, 00:13:49:01 - 00:13:52:27 and thanks to that, he is now indicted for theft of public money. 00:13:53:03 - 00:13:57:13 What makes this particularly funny or perhaps ominous, is that Santos 00:13:57:13 - 00:14:01:12 is the co-sponsor of the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment 00:14:01:12 - 00:14:05:29 Fraud Act, which provided a new incentive for states to go after people 00:14:06:06 - 00:14:08:23 who fraudulently received unemployment benefits. 00:14:09:01 - 00:14:14:01 With these states allowed to keep 25% of the funds they're able to recoup. 00:14:14:04 - 00:14:18:25 Santos co-sponsored a bill that strengthens the incentive to go 00:14:18:25 - 00:14:22:26 after criminals who committed a crime that he allegedly committed 00:14:22:28 - 00:14:26:24 in both his failed 2020 and successful 2022 election. 00:14:27:01 - 00:14:30:09 George was required to file financial disclosure forms. 00:14:30:16 - 00:14:34:09 These forms get weird for the 2020 form. 00:14:34:09 - 00:14:34:19 He said. 00:14:34:19 - 00:14:37:20 He made $55,000 from company number two. 00:14:37:22 - 00:14:43:27 Apparently, he actually received only $27,555 from company two 00:14:44:06 - 00:14:47:18 and $25,403 from Harbor City. 00:14:47:23 - 00:14:50:03 You may notice that if you put those two numbers together, 00:14:50:03 - 00:14:53:25 it gets close to the $55,000 he's reporting. 00:14:53:28 - 00:14:55:20 It seems that for some reason 00:14:55:20 - 00:14:59:11 he did not want to include Harbor City on that disclosure form. 00:14:59:22 - 00:15:03:00 The far stranger disclosure was the 2022 disclosure 00:15:03:09 - 00:15:08:25 and this one, he claimed that he made $750,000 in salary from the Devolder 00:15:08:25 - 00:15:12:12 Organization, along with dividends from the Devolder Organization. 00:15:12:18 - 00:15:15:13 Somewhere between 1 million and 5 million. 00:15:15:20 - 00:15:18:06 That's a lot of money that showed up at his company 00:15:18:12 - 00:15:20:17 right after he worked at a Ponzi scheme, isn't it? 00:15:20:28 - 00:15:22:00 I think it is. 00:15:22:00 - 00:15:24:27 Oh, and let me add that the prosecutors allege that actually 00:15:25:01 - 00:15:27:13 he did not get money from the Devolder Organization 00:15:27:17 - 00:15:32:02 and there's no deposits or anything in his account that matches those amounts. 00:15:32:10 - 00:15:34:14 This disclosure of sudden and massive wealth 00:15:34:14 - 00:15:37:19 also failed to include the money he actually did earn, 00:15:37:26 - 00:15:42:24 including $28,000 from Harbor City and $20,000 from New York State. 00:15:42:29 - 00:15:45:08 Want to know what makes this even weirder? 00:15:45:14 - 00:15:49:12 There was about $700,000 in loans from George Santos 00:15:49:13 - 00:15:53:20 to his campaign that he indicated were self funded. 00:15:53:26 - 00:15:57:21 Even weirder than that, in the later amendment, he changed the disclosure 00:15:57:21 - 00:16:00:08 and no longer said those loans were from him. 00:16:00:12 - 00:16:02:18 What the hell is going on here? 00:16:02:18 - 00:16:04:07 I honestly do not know. 00:16:04:07 - 00:16:07:16 I have the same feeling I did when I was covering Organic Fresh Coin. 00:16:07:24 - 00:16:11:11 There is absolutely a scheme here that absolutely seems political, 00:16:11:17 - 00:16:14:04 but where I cannot put all the pieces together 00:16:14:12 - 00:16:15:28 Now, in this specific case, 00:16:15:28 - 00:16:18:22 I think we're going to see some more of these pieces come together. 00:16:18:25 - 00:16:21:19 There is an implication throughout Santos's career 00:16:21:23 - 00:16:24:01 and this indictment of further criminality. 00:16:24:01 - 00:16:27:05 And I expect unless Santos takes a plea soon, there will be further 00:16:27:05 - 00:16:30:19 superseding indictments with more accusations contained in them. 00:16:30:26 - 00:16:34:05 However, that's not really why I want to talk about Santos. 00:16:34:06 - 00:16:37:10 I want to talk about George because of what he represents. 00:16:37:15 - 00:16:40:20 Santos has indicated that he does not intend to resign 00:16:40:26 - 00:16:43:26 and does intend to run for reelection. 00:16:43:29 - 00:16:46:07 There's a Democratic led effort to oust him, 00:16:46:07 - 00:16:49:00 but it is encountering resistance from the GOP. 00:16:49:07 - 00:16:52:18 The current Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, has indicated that he will not 00:16:52:18 - 00:16:55:21 call on George Santos to resign until he's found guilty. 00:16:55:28 - 00:16:58:19 And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has suggested 00:16:58:19 - 00:17:01:10 we need to wait for the legal process to resolve itself. 00:17:01:14 - 00:17:04:15 This leads us to an interesting question as to why these individuals 00:17:04:15 - 00:17:08:25 are not defecting from Santos, who seems increasingly toxic politically. 00:17:09:00 - 00:17:12:06 Santos won in a district that Biden won. 00:17:12:09 - 00:17:15:23 It's a swing district and could easily swing back 00:17:15:23 - 00:17:19:17 if there was a special election, especially with a whole bunch 00:17:19:17 - 00:17:23:06 of publicity about George Santos's failures. 00:17:23:13 - 00:17:26:06 They need Santos to continue to vote 00:17:26:06 - 00:17:30:05 in favor of their policies, and this has been especially clear lately. 00:17:30:12 - 00:17:32:22 Slate discussed an example from the recent attempt 00:17:32:22 - 00:17:36:02 to raise the debt limit, where Santos waited to be the final vote, 00:17:36:09 - 00:17:40:04 sealing passage at 217 to 215. 00:17:40:10 - 00:17:44:09 If Santos had decided for some chaotic reason to vote against it, 00:17:44:12 - 00:17:45:23 it would have been deadlocked. 00:17:45:23 - 00:17:48:20 Santos could literally shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, 00:17:48:25 - 00:17:52:10 and Kevin McCarthy would probably not be willing to call on him to resign 00:17:52:16 - 00:17:55:11 because that would threaten McCarthy's hold on power. 00:17:55:17 - 00:17:57:23 And as we saw during the speaker debacle, 00:17:57:23 - 00:18:00:17 Kevin McCarthy really wants to hold power. 00:18:00:21 - 00:18:05:04 Santos is still in Congress because people are trying to hold on to power. 00:18:05:06 - 00:18:09:01 This interacts with something I've talked about in some of my past videos. 00:18:09:06 - 00:18:10:22 Like I said in my Fox News 00:18:10:22 - 00:18:14:08 line video, the GOP has tied themselves to Trump, and Trump's 00:18:14:17 - 00:18:18:16 volatility makes it more challenging for them to extricate themselves. 00:18:18:22 - 00:18:21:15 In my view, about Rod Blagojevich going on Fox News, 00:18:21:22 - 00:18:25:24 I talked about how using this very corrupt former governor 00:18:26:00 - 00:18:29:28 helped Tucker Carlson and Fox provide cover for the corrupt individual. 00:18:29:28 - 00:18:32:17 They have tied themselves to in Donald Trump 00:18:32:19 - 00:18:35:23 by pretending Rod’s prosecution was a political prosecution. 00:18:35:29 - 00:18:40:05 They are able to better pretend that Trump's is a political prosecution 00:18:40:08 - 00:18:43:11 as a byproduct of these stances they've contorted themselves 00:18:43:11 - 00:18:47:00 into in order to maintain that these prosecutions are political. 00:18:47:07 - 00:18:52:03 They have provided Santos the cover to pretend that his prosecution is political. 00:18:52:09 - 00:18:54:26 If they turn on Santos, then Santos will immediately 00:18:54:26 - 00:18:57:21 start using the same language they use to defend Trump, 00:18:57:29 - 00:19:00:27 and that puts them politically in a more challenging position. 00:19:01:03 - 00:19:02:16 So Santos won't resign 00:19:02:16 - 00:19:06:01 because he has no shame, and staying here, keeps his face in the news, 00:19:06:09 - 00:19:09:10 gives him connections, and those are valuable for him. 00:19:09:18 - 00:19:14:00 GOP leadership can't really call on him to resign because it threatens their power 00:19:14:05 - 00:19:17:27 and because it would highlight the core hypocrisy in their party. 00:19:18:05 - 00:19:19:17 This is also 00:19:19:17 - 00:19:24:00 why the GOP is so hesitant to condemn many of the worst elements of the party. 00:19:24:02 - 00:19:27:18 You cannot endorse Donald Trump and tell Santos to resign. 00:19:27:20 - 00:19:31:19 You cannot suggest Donald Trump has a well thought through 00:19:31:19 - 00:19:36:03 set of policies and say Marjorie Taylor Greene is a conspiracy theorist. 00:19:36:08 - 00:19:40:04 You cannot chastise Lauren Boebert and then suggest that Trump 00:19:40:04 - 00:19:43:10 has the temperament to be the man in charge of our nuclear arsenal. 00:19:43:17 - 00:19:46:28 The GOP has committed themselves to saying that Trump should be the president, 00:19:47:06 - 00:19:50:01 that his policies are good, and that he has an appropriate 00:19:50:01 - 00:19:52:22 temperament to control our nuclear arsenal. 00:19:53:01 - 00:19:56:16 So they are in this position where they cannot effectively govern 00:19:56:16 - 00:20:00:06 their own party because Trump is fundamentally ungovernable. 00:20:00:12 - 00:20:05:04 The GOP was able to survive the Never Trumper exit of 2016 by tying themselves 00:20:05:04 - 00:20:09:11 even stronger to Trump, but they are now inextricably linked, 00:20:09:16 - 00:20:13:08 which means they must welcome new members who lead by Trumpism. 00:20:13:12 - 00:20:16:18 This fundamental inability to deal with Trump is the conditions 00:20:16:18 - 00:20:20:07 that enabled George Santos, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene 00:20:20:15 - 00:20:24:19 and the rest of the idiots in Congress right now currently making up the GOP 00:20:24:24 - 00:20:28:05 to continue to do this type of deeply objectionable stuff. 00:20:28:09 - 00:20:32:28 There's potentially, I think, a path for the GOP to separate from Trumpism, 00:20:33:05 - 00:20:37:08 but it would almost certainly involve releasing any power they have now 00:20:37:16 - 00:20:41:15 and a long process of rebuilding, and they are fundamentally unwilling 00:20:41:15 - 00:20:44:00 to do that and in some sense can't do that. 00:20:44:07 - 00:20:47:29 So the GOP is not going to deviate from that path, at least not until 00:20:47:29 - 00:20:49:25 Trump is no longer a factor. 00:20:49:25 - 00:20:52:21 And so they have now committed to either 00:20:52:21 - 00:20:56:29 continuing to try to destroy democracy, to hold on to their power 00:20:57:08 - 00:21:00:23 or fade into obscurity as they desperately cling to ever 00:21:00:23 - 00:21:04:19 shrinking interest groups and more and more conspiratorial politics. 00:21:04:26 - 00:21:09:05 I am glad that some of Donald Trump's crimes are being investigated. 00:21:09:17 - 00:21:13:09 I'm glad that George Santos has been indicted for much of the same reason 00:21:13:09 - 00:21:17:05 that I am glad that Democrat Rod Blagojevich was indicted in sentence. 00:21:17:21 - 00:21:21:04 We need to have consequences for want an abuse of our system, 00:21:21:10 - 00:21:24:09 and these individuals enjoy abusing our system. 00:21:24:14 - 00:21:28:07 If you enjoyed this video, then consider checking out some of my other videos 00:21:28:07 - 00:21:30:15 and politics. And thank you for your time.
Bennett's Blog 