New York GOP Rep. Santos rebuffs calls from party leaders in his state to resign

New York GOP Rep. George Santos said Wednesday that he will not resign despite calls from party leaders from Nassau County, N.Y., over his largely fabricated life resume that help him win office last November. 

"George Santos’s campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication," Nassau County GOP chairman Joseph Cairo said at a press conference, according to The Hill newspaper. "Today I am calling for his immediate resignation."

Beyond giving a false account of his education and work history, Santos, whose district includes the northern part of Nassau County, is also facing investigations from Brazilian prosecutors, the Nassau County District Attorney and others. 

Brazil officials he forged checks to buy roughly $700 worth of clothes and shoes in 2008. 

The newly-elected congressman told reporters Wednesday that he "will not" resign, according to Fox News.

Santos, the first openly gay Republican elected to the House without being an incumbent, admitted to lying on his resume in late December. He said he never finished college nor did he work directly for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs. 

He has also been under scrutiny for claiming that his mother was at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, his grandparents fled the Holocaust and, most recently, that he was an early COVID survivor.