It was the first day of the new 118th Congress on Tuesday as 434 members of the House of Representatives convened in the lower chamber to begin the people's business under a new GOP majority following the midterm elections.
But things quickly diverged from the regular order when GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy failed to secure enough votes on the first, second, and third ballot to be elected as the Speaker of the House.
As a result, Republicans realized the stalemate they were in and the House adjourned for the evening, set to reconvene on Wednesday at noon to begin again the process of selecting their constitutional officer to assume his or her place in the presidential line of succession and as leader of the House.
But the reality that — in a historic turn of events not seen in 100 years — a speaker was not elected on the first day of the new Congress, which also meant none of the Representatives-elect were sworn in did not apparently get in the way of George Santos' first day of public relations efforts.
In an official press release — just the third ever issued by his office — on Tuesday, Santos' office made the following statement:
U.S. Representative George Santos was sworn in as a Member of the United States House of Representatives by the Speaker of the House on January 3rd, 2023.
The Honorable George Santos was elected to serve as Representative of New York’s 3rd Congressional District. Representative George Santos was added to the rolls of the House upon executing the oath of office.
Only, Santos was not sworn in on January 3. None of the 434 reps-elect were. At present, there is no Speaker of the House, either, due to the inability for any nominee or other party to secure the majority of support needed to claim the gavel.
Santos also was not "added to the rolls of the House upon executing the oath of office" because there was no oath of office taken on Tuesday.
Official Santos office press release:
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) January 4, 2023
"U.S. Representative George Santos was sworn in as a Member of the United States House of Representatives by the Speaker of the House on January 3rd, 2023."
One problem: that didn't happen.https://t.co/YuhngHF6Pf
The press release was subsequently removed from Santos' website, but an archived version is here.
Whether the press release was the result of a mixup due to substantial overconfidence in the House GOP's ability to elect a speaker on the first day of the new Congress or just an attempt to flood the zone with mundane press releases to tamp down negative stories, it's still... false.
UPDATE: It appears freshmen members had the release published for them by House officials:
Told this was done by CAO for all freshman offices and that it was published without some offices knowing about it.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) January 4, 2023
The release added to the colorful tapestry of falsehoods that Santos spun during his campaign. From where he attended to college, to his heritage, to his previous employment, Santos has admitted that he was not truthful. And now there is more than one official investigation into his campaign to determine whether any laws were broken during his run for office, either through his copped-to lies about his resume or in other potential yet-undisclosed misdeeds.
Somehow, Democrats missed the low-hanging opposition research fruit leading up to the midterm elections, but now Santos has an uphill battle to climb to regain trust among his constituents and his House colleagues. One would think someone looking at such a task would take extra care to ensure what they and their office is saying is above reproach. But that, apparently, was not the case on his first day in the House chamber.
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