Sen. Mitt Romney called serial liar Rep. George Santos a “sick puppy” and said the Long Island Republican didn’t “belong” in the House chamber in a heated exchange before President Biden delivered his State of the Union address.
The veteran Republican senator scolded the truth-averse freshman lawmaker for taking a prime and highly visible, center-aisle seat in the chamber as members of Congress piled in for Biden’s speech Tuesday evening.
“You don’t belong here,” the Utah Republican said to Santos, who has admitted to lying about parts of his past and is facing several investigations into his campaign finances.
Brief video captured some of the tense encounter, though Romney later said he couldn’t hear the entire exchange.
“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 took to Twitter to fire back at Romney.
“Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” he tweeted at the 2012 presidential nominee, who failed to stop President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.
Several other lawmakers members took issue with Santos’ seat choice as well, said a lawmaker who requested anonymity to speak freely about the widespread annoyance.
Santos, 34, stood in a spot next to the aisle where Biden and other prominent officials would walk down after they entered 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 given the investigations, Santos “should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet, instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room.”
The Utah senator also blasted Santos for the long string of lies he told during his campaign, including falsehoods about his career, education and religious background and charitable work.
“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.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said it was “questionable” that Santos showed up for the address, but sitting in the aisle took it a step too far.
“The fact that he was wanting to be in the center of the limelight, it just makes no sense,” Comer told NBC News after the speech.
He acknowledged that Santos deserves due process as the investigations continue, adding that “he has a lot of explaining to do,” but he’s “crossed the line, obviously.”
Santos is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after he admitted he fabricated much of his curriculum vitae.
Federal, state and county investigators are also evaluating whether he violated campaign finance law.
Despite calls to resign, Santos has vowed to stay in office until the next election in 2024.
With Post wires
