Congress
‘They’re shutting me up’: George Santos has a few final thoughts before heading to prison
NEW YORK — Convicted fraudster George Santos will report to federal prison Friday with no signs of clemency from President Donald Trump.
The former House member remains loyal to his president anyway — reserving his signature snark for politicians he views as getting off scot-free for comparable allegations.
“I will not waver in my support for him,” Santos told Blue Light News in a phone call this week.
But does he hold out hope for an 11th-hour pardon or commutation from Trump?
“I don’t think he can,” Santos said. “He’s in a position where he needs to put the country ahead of one man, and that’s just a fact. He would lose support in the House from Republicans who have already capitulated.”
The saga of Santos reaches a new — and perhaps final — public chapter this week as the serial liar begins his 87-month sentence at an undisclosed facility for a bevy of fraud, embezzlement and identity theft crimes. He’s going out with a whimper. New York GOP leaders who once boosted him as the party’s future — then treated him like its biggest albatross — aren’t even bothering to bid him good riddance.
Santos won election to a Queens and Long Island seat in 2022 despite a falsified résumé (selling himself as a Wall Street superstar) and served nearly all of 2023 in the House fighting allegations of campaign fraud (including spending on designer duds, lavish lodging and Botox). His fellow Republicans kept their distance, and Democrats watched the implosion with glee.
The Long Island federal courthouse where he was indicted in May and October of 2023 and pleaded guilty last August served as his reality show set and runway. He faced reporters with performative defiance and dressed to impress in Ferragamo.
A White House spokesperson would not comment this week on whether there’s a pending clemency request concerning Santos.
Santos’ fabulist-but-make-it-fabulous vibe has dissipated as his prison time nears. He said he’s fearful of being targeted for violence in prison as a gay man — and a former politician at that. And while he has managed to reinvent himself in small ways since he was ousted from Congress, including with paid Cameo appearances and as host of the “Pants on Fire” podcast, Santos said he sees “no light” at the end of his incarceration tunnel.
But there are still glimmers of the outsized character who knocked political Washington and New York off their bearings a couple years ago.
In recent social media posts, he raged over Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), who is under investigation for alleged ethics and campaign finance violations, and has targeted others he believes should share his fate. The obvious subtext: Why them and not me? He’s also knocked Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former President Barack Obama.
In his interview with Blue Light News, Santos expressed contempt for the one-time New York Republican colleagues who turned their backs on him, including Reps. Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler. He also slammed Attorney General Pam Bondi as part of a “weaponized” Justice Department, though he won’t say a bad word against her boss, the president.
He discussed his cosmetic procedures with the “Sources Say” podcast, including his lapsed use of “fillers” to smooth wrinkles while behind bars, and saw the disclosures get the tabloid treatment in the New York Post.
He told Blue Light News that his song of the moment is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” then went on X to post a clip of a particularly relevant verse: “And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain.”
He wants credit for the nicknames he’s bestowed on political rivals, including “Senile Joe Biden” and “Temu Obama” for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meaning a cheap ripoff of the original. He’s also proud of “Mallio Stock Tips” for his fellow New York Republican Nicole Malliotakis, who traded bank stocks in 2023 while working to address the banking crisis but was cleared of wrongdoing.
Santos at points sounds like the eccentric dissembler who dressed in drag in Brazil, claimed to be “Jew-ish” and accused other politicians who wear sweaters under suit jackets of stealing his look.
It’s all a sort of last hurrah before heading to the slammer.
“I’m not allowed technology at all, and I’ve been notified that I will not be allowed to do interviews either,” Santos said. “They’re shutting me up essentially.”
There’s not much left to say anyway, the one-time member of Congress said.
“I guess I put it all out there,” Santos said. “It’s essentially: sorry. To keep it simple, I should have done better, not for me, but for everyone else as well. Sorry to everyone.”
The chair of the House Agriculture Committee said he’s not willing to “accept bad results” as a tradeoff for the benefits of advancements in artificial intelligence — a direct rebuttal to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“As someone who practiced health care for 28 years, I’m never willing to accept bad results. I think we just need to do our best,” Rep. G.T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters Monday.
He was responding to Altman’s comments to Decoded by Blue Light News that people “should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”
Pressed further on whether he agreed with Altman’s premise, Thompson replied, “No, I think we have to work harder to prevent any bad things from happening.”
Altman’s comments come in the wake of increased panic over the risks of catastrophic destruction from AI, with many industry leaders and experts arguing that guardrails are needed on the technology to prevent it from spinning out of human control.
Pressure is building on Congress to regulate the rapidly-advancing technology, but lawmakers are divided over whether the AI industry needs federal regulation or if it’s capable of governing itself.
The executives of major AI labs and tech companies gathered at the White House last week to discuss solutions with President Donald Trump, who believes overregulating AI will have national security repercussions. The group ended up signing a “morally binding” AI accord that critics say won’t do enough to prevent a worst-case scenario.
Thompson noted Monday he believes that AI will bring “tremendous solutions,” specifically in regards to finding cures for health issues like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. But he also said AI has to be led with “principle” — comparing it to how he addressed digital assets in a bill to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, which he worked on as chair of the Agriculture Committee.
“The first principle is ‘do no harm.’ So we need to protect consumers, and that means, I think, building some guardrails — some guidelines — to do that,” Thompson said. He added that the second principle is to “foster innovation.”
“I think AI has a lot to do with that,” he added. “I don’t think AI works without RI: Real Intelligence.”
LE SUEUR, Minnesota — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there is no “consensus” yet on advancing a bill establishing permanent daylight saving time even as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Republicans to pass it.
Thune addressed the matter in a Monday interview after Trump used his Truth Social account multiple times over the weekend to rail against the legislation, known as the Sunshine Protection Act — going so far as to post the personal cell phone number of one of its GOP opponents, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
“The president feels strongly on it like he does a lot of issues,” he said. “It’s something we’re having conversations about but there’s no clear path forward or consensus on it yet.”
While Trump singled out Cotton for scrutiny, Thune made clear the opposition to the permanent daylight saving time proposal — which would lead to very late winter sunrises in some parts of the country — ran deeper than one senator.
Cotton has publicly voiced opposition to the proposal for year, citing, among other things, the fact that children in his state would be going to school in the dark for part of the year.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) voiced similar objections Monday to reporters in the Capitol, saying he was mindful of “safety concerns in the more northern and rural states where children get on the school bus in very early hours.”
Thune, who spoke during a campaign swing in Minnesota with GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya, has himself opposed previous daylight saving bills. He said Monday that “a lot of it depends on where you are in the country” and that “your geography probably has as much to do with your position on that as anything.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has aligned himself closely with Trump, is among the lawmakers who have been pushing to get the bill through the Senate. He recently told POLITICO, “I’m going to make sure it gets passed this year.”
Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
Democrats have pulled back some of their ads in North Carolina’s Senate race, days after the top Senate Republican super PAC paused its future spending in the state.
WinSenate, a group affiliated with the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, has removed roughly $1.1 million in North Carolina ad buys this week, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. The group still has roughly $18.8 million in future reservations through Election Day.
“Senate Majority PAC is committed to seeing this race through to victory, and will continue to make spending decisions based on how to best build a strong Senate majority,” Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.
The move, combined with the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund’s decision to pause future spending, are a signal that both parties are shifting resources amid an ever-expanding Senate map. Democrats are increasingly confident in their North Carolina Senate nominee, Roy Cooper, as he continues to hold a sizable lead in public polling over Republican Michael Whatley — but some privately say states like Michigan and New Hampshire need more resources.
Meanwhile, multiple Republican groups, not just SLF, have retreated from the state in recent weeks, effectively deciding that it’s no longer worth the money to boost Whatley’s campaign.
The Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity Action left North Carolina off its $22 million list of future spending across key Senate contests, and Old North Action removed $6.5 million in ad reservations last month.
The Cooper campaign, however, is still treating the race as competitive, pointing to North Carolina’s closely divided electorate and the fact that President Donald Trump won the state in each of the past three presidential elections.
“North Carolina is a truly 50/50 state and Democrats haven’t won a US Senate race in 18 years. We can’t take anything for granted or our eye off the ball,” said Morgan Jackson, a senior adviser to the Cooper campaign. “DC is broken and we’re going to continue to run this race like we’re ten points down to ensure North Carolinians get the change they desperately need.”
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