George Santos blames fellow New York Republicans for losing district seat

Ex-Congressman George Santos blamed his former New York Republican House colleagues after for Democrats successfully flipped his old seat on Tuesday.

Former Representative Tom Suozzi won the special election for New York’s 3rd Congressional District, defeating Republican candidate Mazi Pilip by a comfortable margin on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.

Suozzi previously held the seat between 2017 and 2023 but stepped away for an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 2022, when Santos snatched the seat for Republicans by defeating Democratic candidate Robert Zimmerman.

Santos, who was expelled from Congress in December following an ethics investigation and a series of controversies concerning his history of lying, cast blame on his fellow New York Republicans on Tuesday shortly after it became apparent that Philip would lose the seat.

“Hey Americans!” Santos wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, while sharing an image of current Republican New York Congressmen Anthony D’Esposito and Nick LaLota. “Please thank these two gems for losing a seat in the house today!”

The image had originally been posted to X by D’Esposito earlier in the day, who said that he had been “hitting the phones” with his “good friend” LaLota to “get out the vote and help get Mazi Pilip across the finish line.”

Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of D’Esposito and LaLota via email on Tuesday night.

Santos previously lashed out at former Republican colleagues following his expulsion from Congress. Over 100 House Republicans joined almost every Democrat in voting to expel Santos on December 1.

LaLota was one of three House Republicans whom Santos threatened to file ethics complaints against within hours of his removal from Congress. All three, including New York Representatives Nicole Malliotakis and Mike Lawler, voted to expel Santos.

Santos was charged with 23 federal criminal counts before being expelled last year, including wire fraud, theft of public money and giving false statements related to his 2022 run for office. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and repeatedly refused calls to resign.

Shortly after Santos was elected in November 2022, reports about questionable claims in his biography emerged. Several details were later debunked— including his education and employment history and false claims that his mother died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and he was the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

Earlier on Tuesday, Santos predicted during an appearance on NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live that Pilip would win the race for his old seat, although he had refused to vote for her personally because she remained a registered Democrat despite being the GOP candidate.

Pilip told supporters that her loss “doesn’t mean we are going to end here” in a concession speech on Tuesday night while adding that she was “so proud to be part of this amazing organization, the Republican Party.”