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George Santos claimed he had a brain tumor
By
Josefa Velásquez
Published Dec 30, 2022
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John Paraskevas/Newsday
By
Josefa Velásquez
Published Dec 30, 2022
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Rep.-elect George Santos’ convoluted background and history has taken another curious turn.
In a March 2020 video episode of the Empire State Conservatives Podcast — which has since been made private on YouTube — Santos tells the hosts that he “battled a brain tumor a couple of years ago.”
“I had radiation done, which really, really lowers your immunity in general,” Santos said, recounting his experience with COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
Santos’ campaign did not respond to questions about when he was diagnosed, what treatment he received and where. Efforts to reach Santos directly were unsuccessful.
Santos admitted to fabricating key parts of his resume earlier this week, including his work history, religious background, education and real estate holdings. He’s now facing federal and local investigations.
During the roughly hourlong interview, Santos said he got COVID-19 in March 2020 and thought the response was “blown up,” noting that although his underlying health conditions would have made him more susceptible to serious illness, he was fine.
“I have an immunodeficiency and I also have acute chronic bronchitis,” in addition to the brain tumor, Santos said.
“And I’m susceptible to cancer, it’s in my DNA, right? So I’m not gonna say I’m the healthiest person out there, but I’m not one of the most healthy,” the Republican said, adding that all he needed to recover from COVID-19 was to use an inhaler for three days.
“I am just shocked that the proportion that this has been blown up because I am the perfect candidate to be, you know, R.I.P., and it just didn’t happen,” Santos said.
In the latter half of March 2020, New York was averaging hundreds of hospitalizations from COVID-19 a day and an average of two dozen deaths, which ballooned to thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths by mid-April.
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Congress
George Santos
new york state
Politics
Josefa Velásquez
Josefa is a former WNYC & Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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