Santos’ NY District Office Still Displays Predecessor’s Name on Awning, Neighbor Calls Him a ‘Clown’

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

One of the first duties of a newly-elected member of Congress is to set up their offices, one in Washington, D.C. and one in their district. But when that new Congressman is serial fabulist Rep. George Santos (R-NY) even this seemingly mundane duty isn’t quite routine.

Santos has spun so many wild fabrications, exaggerations, and pants-on-fire lies that my attempt on Jan. 20 to list and rank them didn’t even last a day before needing an update and now seems laughably out of date only ten days later. Among the latest highlights in the fabricated adventures of Congress’ semi-Talented Mr. Ripley are attempting to hide his Spotify playlists from reporters, claiming a mugger once stole his shoes, and making up fake donor names on his campaign finance reports.

The New York Times looked into how Santos’ office in New York’s third congressional district was shaping up and found several amusing details.

First of all, the location’s history includes previously hosting a flower shop and what the Times described as “a massage parlor that neighbors worried sold more than just foot rubs.” (Whether or not that is an upgrade from the Dollar Tree strip mall that hosts Santos’ asset management company, we will leave for readers to decide.)

The immediate prior tenant was Santos’ predecessor in Congress, former Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY), who decided to run for governor instead of re-election in 2022, losing the Democratic nomination to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY).

Suozzi’s name “still adorns the green awning” on the office’s storefront, reported the Times, as well as being displayed in gold block letters on the window.

Santos’ staff seem in little hurry to properly label and promote their workplace, keeping the door locked even during regular operating hours, propping up a “detached blue cubicle wall” against the front window to block the view from curious passersby, and taping a handwritten note to the door that said, “No videotaping allowed. No audio recording allowed. No weapons allowed.”

None of the local residents seemed to have ever seen Santos himself at the office, and the owner of a nearby deli (a registered Republican) called Santos a “clown.”

Even a local minister seemed skeptical of Santos’ ability to redeem himself in the eyes of his constituents, telling the Times that she hoped Santos “can be in a place where he can start to tell the truth about who he is, both as himself as a human, but also as an elected official,” and “as a citizen of this district, I have zero confidence in his ability to govern without that honesty.”

Read the report and see the photographs of Santos’ district office here.

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