A new video has emerged that appears to show lying House Rep. George Santos boasting about performing as a drag queen in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, despite Santos refuting such claims on Thursday. The video shows Santos speaking to an interviewer in Portuguese while participating in the Pride march in 2005 while wearing a black dress and sunglasses.
This comes just a day after photos emerged that showed Santos dressed as a drag queen in Brazil more than a decade ago. Santos was seen in the photos as a drag queen named "Kitara." The shocking photos emerged online on Wednesday as calls for the embattled freshman congressman's resignation continue to grow.
Drag Queen Santos
The video shows Santos wearing a black dress and sunglasses and speaking in Portuguese to an interviewer at the Pride parade in the Rio suburb of Niteroi in 2005. "I do presentations at 1940 in Jacarepagua, I do Cascadura, I also did Cabaret Casanova in Gloria and I did one at Le Boy," Santos says, naming well-known drag clubs in and around the city.
He is then seen cheering the participants. He also applauds the organization for coming up with the idea of a drag queen parade. "The event is good, well-organized. I really love it." He continues, "But it was really small and there was no room to ride on top, so I'm with the crowd. I wanted to ride on a float in the parade."
"It's better with the crowd," the interviewer Joao Fraga says agreeing with Santos, to which he replies: "Yes, look at these lovelies here," before grabbing the man standing beside him.
Santos' past as a drag queen in Brazil more than a decade ago was revealed on Wednesday as more shocking details continue to emerge about his convoluted identity.
According to a report by journalist Marisa Kabas from the Substack site "The Handbasket," Santos, who is said to have used a variety of identities in his truth-challenged past, appears to be seen in a photo from 2008 wearing a drag costume.
Eula Rochard, a drag performer in Brazil and a former acquaintance of Santos, gave Kabas the most recent glimpse into Santos' youth. According to the article, Santos and Rochard first met while Rochard was already well-known as a drag queen in a Brazilian city close to Rio de Janeiro.
Santos, who Rochard claims is on the right of the picture, appears to be wearing a strapless red top or dress and has longer brown hair.
"I think I met him when he was around 16 or 17 years old," she said of Santos, who used to go by Anthony back then. "He used to hang out in my house while his mom was playing Bingo."
Santos appears to be sporting at least some makeup on his face despite the image's graininess.
The report states that Rochard remembered Santos using the name "Anthony" rather than "George" at the time. When she first met Santos, she claimed to be in her late teens.
His Different Identities
The congressman's full name is Anthony George Devolder Santos. According to reports, Santos has gone by the names Anthony Devolder and Anthony Zabrovsky. Santos allegedly conned a disabled veteran out of charity funds to save his dying dog by posing as Anthony Devolder.
Santos was "poor" in 2005, according to Rochard, who also told Reuters that in 2008 "he came back to Niteroi with a lot of money." Santos entered a drag beauty pageant that year under the drag alias Kitara Ravache, but she came in last, according to Rochard.
Another Niteroi resident who asked to remain anonymous also claimed that Santos competed in drag queen beauty pageants and intended to be Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro.
However, Santos has vehemently denied the accusations and claims.
"The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or 'performed' as a drag Queen is categorically false," Santos tweeted on Thursday morning.
"The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this."
Santos has made a number of outlandish claims, such as his grandfather survived Nazi persecution in Europe and that 9/11 was the reason behind the death of his mother. According to immigration documents, his mother, grandparents, and other family members were in Brazil throughout both of those catastrophes.
Santos has come under increasing pressure to quit as facts of his past unravel since he acknowledged last month to lying about his educational and professional credentials. Santos is also wanted by Brazilian authorities and his apparent accumulation of massive wealth in recent years has also raised questions about his past.
The congressional con artist, however, acknowledged to The New York Post that he made up almost the entirety of his resume while running for office, including his claims that he attended Baruch College and NYU and had experience working for Citigroup and Chase Bank.
Following the revelations, the freshman congressman became a national laughing stock. A stunning New York Times expose shortly before the start of his first term in government essentially disproved the personal narrative he had used during the campaign.
Local, state, and federal officials are looking into the lawmaker's extensive litany of lies and his apparent wealth in recent years and the $700,000 of his own money that he loaned to his campaign. Santos is also wanted by Brazilian authorities.
Santos, the first openly gay Republican elected to the House who is not an incumbent, has defied calls for him to step down.
