CNN’s fact-checking demonstrated that Santos told “new lies in [the] interview about his old lies.” For example, Santos again claimed that he attended the prestigious Horace Mann School and may have been enrolled under a variation of his full name, George Anthony Devolder Santos. However, Morgan pointed out that the school and CNN had checked for all variations and found no records of him ever attending the school; CNN also notes Santos had changed his story about when he allegedly went to the school and for how long. In addition, Santos admitted that he lied about graduating from Baruch College and gaining a master’s degree in business from New York University when he did not obtain a college degree from any school. Santos called the decision to lie “stupid.” He hedged his admission, however, claiming that he was not the person who distributed his resume, which included a high school for the GMAT business exam that he never took and other lies. Santos also denied that he stole money from a GoFundMe campaign he set up for a homeless veteran’s sick dog, despite the crowdfunding site removing him from the site when it could not verify he had given the money to the dog owner.
Overall, Santos’ interview with Morgan is unlikely to put to rest the idea that the congressman is a habitual liar. Instead, it demonstrated that Santos intends to stick with many of his stories while deflecting blame for his lies. In the most honest part of the interview, Santos explained why he made many outrageous claims about himself during his 2022 congressional campaign. “I ran for the same exact seat in 2020, and I got away with it then,” Santos told Morgan. Unfortunately, this interview shows that Santos thinks he is still getting away with it.