Rep. George Santos (R-NY) cited Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as his "inspiration" to get into politics.
In an interview on CNN's Inside Politics with Manu Raju, Santos explained the reported fabrications about his life before politics as being due to insecurity and his flaws as a human. When he got to the topic of why he joined politics in the first place, however, Santos cited an unlikely influence — Ocasio-Cortez.
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"I was always in some way disconnected from the GOP because I've only been doing politics for four years. I came out of nowhere," Santos said. "And said, 'I want to do this, AOC can do it.' AOC was my inspiration! Most people don't know that. You know, I felt like she's — I always felt like you needed to be a Kennedy, a Bush, or a Clinton to be in politics. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is there, and I'm like, look — she's a scrappy girl. She's from where I'm from! I'm like, let's do this. I think if she proved that everybody can do this. No matter right or left."
New -- Asked George Santos why he fabricated large portions of his life.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 5, 2023
"It's insecurity. It's stupidity. I don't know. Look I'm human, we make mistakes."
Also, he says "AOC was my inspiration" to get into politics.
More at 11aET @insidepolitics on his criminal charges pic.twitter.com/SR4bGyUbU1
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Ocasio-Cortez used Santos's fabrications about his life to accuse Republicans of hypocrisy after they tried to get Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) expelled for falsely pulling a fire alarm.
“They are protecting someone who has lied to the American people, lied to the United States House of Representatives, lied to congressional investigators,” Ocasio-Cortez, told CNN’s State of the Union last month.