Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah called GOP Rep. George Santos of New York a "sick puppy" and said that he didn't "belong" in the House chamber in a tense exchange before President Biden delivered his State of the Union address. Video footage of the encounter shows Romney confronting serial liar Santos and saying what looked to be: "You ought to be embarrassed."
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, chastised Santos, the truth-averse freshman politician for choosing a prominent and extremely visible seat in the center of the aisle, as members of Congress piled into the chamber for Biden's speech on Tuesday evening.
Heated Exchange
Prior to Tuesday's State of the Union, Santos secured one of the coveted aisle seats. From this vantage point, members of Congress could shake hands with justices of the Supreme Court, cabinet secretaries, or even the president.
Santos, though, received somewhat more than he anticipated. Romney confronted the pathological liar and video footage shows that he appeared to say, "You ought to be embarrassed."
The Utah Republican told Santos, who has acknowledged lying about parts of his biography and is the subject of multiple investigations into his campaign funds, "You don't belong here."
A brief video captured part of the tense exchange but Romney later claimed he couldn't hear the full conversation. "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," Romney told reporters after Biden's address.
"He shouldn't be in Congress, and they are going to go through the process and hopefully get him out," Romney continued. "But he shouldn't be there, and if he had any shame at all, he wouldn't be there."
Santos controlled himself in the House chamber but went back and took to social media to fire back at Romney.
"Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!" Santos tweeted at Romney, who failed to stop President Barack Obama's re-election bid.
Everyone's Disliking Santos
According to a legislator who asked for anonymity to discuss the general annoyance freely, several other senators also objected to Santos' choice of seat. 1Santos, 34, occupied a spot next to the aisle that Biden and other notable figures would use to enter the House chamber.
"I didn't expect that he'd be standing there, trying to shake hands with every senator and the president of the United States," Romney told reporters later.
Romney said that Santos is being investigated and just for that reason, "should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet, instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room."
Romney also called out Santos for a series of lies he spread throughout his campaign, including falsehoods about his background, education, religion, and humanitarian activities.
"He says that he embellished his record. Look, embellishing is saying you get an A when you get an A-minus. Lying is saying you graduated from a college you didn't even attend," Romney said.
The incident comes on the same day when Santos' 3rd Congressional District constituents from New York visited Washington, DC, calling for his resignation.
Santos has repeatedly said that he won't step down.
Republicans are now stuck as a result of this. In a closely contested House, Santos is a crucial vote for them, but many have voiced worries about the way he won the election last year with a highly exaggerated résumé.
Residents of Long Island and Queens gathered in front of the White House for a press conference that was conducted by Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman, two New York House Democrats.
They not only pushed for Santos' resignation but also put pressure on McCarthy to "do the right thing" and remove the troubled congressman. Goldman told reporters that Santos' ongoing membership in the House was a blemish on the institution while pointing out that Republican leaders have not acted against him.
New questions have come to light almost on a daily basis. Santos claimed to have produced Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark, which ran from 2011 to 2014, to contributors during his congressional race in 2021, but primary producer Michael Cohl denied his claims.
Santos claimed to have attended the prestigious private Horace Mann School in the Bronx, where yearly tuition is $59,800. The college claimed he didn't.
He has already walked back on some of the claims. He claimed throughout his campaign that he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, but he now claims that he made a "bad choice of words" in how he described his association with the two companies.
