People are now questioning Republican Rep. George Santos’s name in light of a video clip from 2019 that appears to show him using the name Anthony Devolder.
The mystery surrounding the embattled freshman Republican’s name is the latest controversy faced by Santos, who has been accused of misrepresenting his educational, work and family history.
Santos was elected to New York’s 3rd congressional district during last year’s midterm elections.
In the video posted on Twitter by PatriotTakes, Santos addressed Brandon Straka, the founder of the conservative “Walk Away” campaign that encourages Democrats to leave the party, at a New York City LGBTQ event.
“My name is Anthony Devolder,” Santos says. “I’m a New York City resident. I’ve recently founded a group called ‘United for Trump,’ so if you guys want to follow, that would be awesome.”
In 2019, George Santos introduced himself as Anthony Devolder, the founder of “United for Trump,” during a Q & A session at a “Walk Away LGBT” event in NYC.
Santos said trans people could benefit from a trans conservative activist educating them. pic.twitter.com/b2RkA3YPnI
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) January 13, 2023
The congressman’s full legal name can’t be confirmed, Business Insider reported Saturday, because his birth certificate hasn’t been made public. It remains unclear why Santos seemed to have used multiple variations of that name.
Other resurfaced clips and social media posts showed Santos using the names Anthony Devolder and George Devolder as recently as 2020, according to Business Insider.
Do you think George Santos should resign?
Yes: 88% (38 Votes)
No: 12% (5 Votes)
However, he ran for Congress in New York for the first time in 2020 as George Santos, losing to Democratic incumbent Thomas Suozzi.
PatriotTakes posted another video online from that campaign that showed a speaker introducing Santos confused as to why the candidate changed his name from Anthony Devolder to George Santos.
During George Santos’ 2020 campaign, a person introducing him at the Queens Village Republican Club expressed confusion as to why he changed his name from Anthony Devolder to George Santos. pic.twitter.com/onmvPjo2Wx
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) January 12, 2023
CNN unearthed social media posts from that same year in which Santos went by the name George Devolder.
CNN found a 2020 exchange in which George Santos—going by George Devolder—was confronted by a potential customer who looked into his Ponzi scheme and was told by Deutsche Bank that it was “a complete fraud” (Which, it turns out, was true)https://t.co/7sl3gy2Nln pic.twitter.com/9FHsR1rQfU
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 13, 2023
Questions about the congressman’s biography were raised last month, following a story in The New York Times that found Santos apparently did not graduate from Baruch College, as he claimed.
The Times also found that Santos did not work for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup as he said, and it could find no records of him being a successful financier.
The newspaper did find that Santos had been charged with check fraud in Brazil.
Other media outlets have found no evidence of the congressman’s repeated claims that he is Jewish and that he is descended from refugees fleeing the Holocaust.
Santos has admitted to embellishing his resume but has rebuffed political pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to resign.
