George Santos: Drag Queen
He also stole $3,000 meant to pay for a homeless veteran's service dog who needed surgery to remove a large tumor. Without the surgery, the dog died.
On Wednesday, journalist Marisa Kabas reported that George Santos, the inveterate liar and recently-elected congressman, performed at many drag clubs in Riode Paniero and competed in drag competitions under the name “Kitara Ravache”.
Eula Rochard of Niterói, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, says she met Santos in Brazil more than 15 years ago. According to Kabas:
She says people often seek out her friendship because she’s “highly respected in town,” and she remembers becoming friends with Santos, who at the time went by Anthony (one of his many aliases) or Kitara, his drag name. “I think I met him when he was around 16 or 17-years-old,” she said. “He used to hang out in my house while his mom was playing Bingo.”
So when she saw Santos on Brazilian TV the other day, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She messaged some friends who were around during the time she knew Santos to say she thought it was him, but they all doubted her. So she dug up an old photo and posted it to her Instagram.
“The picture was taken in 2008 at the Pride Parade at Icaraí Beach in Niterói,” she says. “George had disappeared for a little while, and then returned to Brazil with a lot of money, and that was about the same time when the picture was taken.” . . .
Eula says Santos was never a professional drag performer, but did it for fun and enjoyed dressing up. “He did not have what it takes to be a professional. George did not have the glamour for that.”
Rochard said the George Santos she knew lied constantly.
Kabas posted a video of a Niterói pride parade. Rochard said she is wearing pink at about 2:00 and Santos is interviewed at 4:20.
The New York Post:
Rochard provided a photo of her and someone she said was Santos — who at the time went by one of his pseudonyms, Anthony Devolder — dressed in drag at a Pride parade that year. The picture appears to show Santos in a sparkly red, feather-lined top with chandelier and a wig. Rochard also provided the video of Santos at the 2005 parade.
Reuters reported the same day that it had also spoken with Rochard, as well as another of Santos’s Brazilian acquaintances, and both of them confirmed Santos performed as a drag queen. The second person said Santos’s wish was to be crowned Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro. Rochard also noted Santos was “poor” in 2005, but “he came back to Niteroi [in 2008] with a lot of money.”
From that video:
Santos has spread multiple and contradictory lies about his life for years — an astonishing list of lies, to be honest — from claiming he went to Baruch College on a volleyball scholarship (nope) and was a star volleyball player (nope) on the school’s championship team (nope) which forced him to need two knee replacements (nope) plus he graduated in the Top 1% of his class (nope; he never attended Baruch, not even for one minute; he also lied about where he went to high school) to stating one of his companies “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting (completely false) to claiming his mother was “the first female executive at a major financial institution” (she worked as a housekeeper) to insisting his mother witnessed the 9/11 attacks (she was in Brazil that day and her eyesight was not that good even if she had stood on top of a mountain) to insisting his mother died in the South Tower (nope) to insisting his mother survived the 9/11 attack but died years later of cancer (he’s given two different years in which she died) to claiming his maternal grandparents were Jewish refugees (nope) from Ukraine (nope) who escaped the Nazis (they lived their entire lives in Brazil) to being one of the first people in the US to contract Covid (he’s given at least four different days on which he was told of his infection) to identifying as both Jewish and a Roman Catholic and so many, many other lies — and of course he denied these reports.
I should point out that Santos has refused to comment publicly on almost all of the lies that have been uncovered (and it seems there are two or three new ones every day). But he quickly denied the drag claim. Why? Because his political party has been obsessed with drag performers and drag shows for quite a while. It is their most important talking point. They have decided that drag performers are America’s newest, most dangerous enemy. While the GQP’s daily denouncements never cross over into outright calls for violence against people in drag, they walk right up to the line. (You can attempt to murder the Vice President and commit sedition, but if you’re a man, don’t even think about putting on a little eye shadow.)
“Outrageous” and “categorically false”!
Well . . . you all know what happens now.
Yes, it’s public video of Santos, wearing a black dress and sunglasses, speaking in Portuguese at a 2005 Niteroi pride parade, talking about the many drag clubs at which he performs.
I do presentations at 1940 in Jacarepagua, I do Cascadura, I also did Cabaret Casanova in Gloria and I did one at Le Boy. . . . The [Pride] event is good, well-organized. I really love it. . . . [I wanted to ride on a float] but it was very small and there was no room to ride on top, so I’m with the crowd.
When the interviewer says, “It’s better with the crowd,” Santos replies: “Yes, look at these lovelies here” and grabs the man standing beside him.
When asked by the Post about the video, Santos replied: “Absolutely false and just another bit of nonsense from the pile-on effect I’m dealing with.”
BUT:
Santos appears to acknowledge his drag queen exploits on an old Wikipedia page he created as a teenager living in Brazil, also boasting he had won several drag beauty pageants. The page had not been edited in more than 11 years, long before Santos (presumably) considered a public or political career. The page is no longer visible.
Politico’s Christopher Cadelago reports:
A Wikipedia page accessed by POLITICO shows a user named Anthony Devolder — a Santos alias — writing that he “startted [sp] his ‘stage’ life at age 17 as an gay night club [sp] DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral [sp] GAY ‘BEAUTY PAGENTS [sp].’”
The Wiki biography was last edited on April 29, 2011. It contains basic information that matches up with the newly sworn-in congressman, including Devolder being born on July 22, 1988, to a Brazilian family with a European background.
Santos has used the name Anthony Devolder elsewhere for online accounts. . . .
[I]f the person who created the Anthony Devolder Wiki bio was anyone other than Santos, it would mean someone used the same alias and same biographical details as him a dozen years ago, all for a user page no one else would see. . . .
In the 2011 Wiki bio, the user Anthony Devolder sprinkles show business credits that ring similarly untrue. He describes his Hollywood career as taking off after a meeting with a producer of the 1996 blockbuster "Independence Day." He name drops the director Steven Spielberg (he misspelled his last name as "Spilberg"), and claims to have started in "a few T.V shows and DISNEY Channel shows such as 'the suite life of Zack and Cody" and the hit "Hanna[h] Montana."
The Wiki bio concludes with Santos writing that, two years prior, he "taped his very first movie startting [sp] Uma Turman, [sp] Chris Odanald, [sp] Melllisa George, [sp] and Alicia Silver Stone [sp] in the movie "THE INVASION."
"The Invasion" is a 2007 sci-fi/thriller with roots in the "Body Snatchers" storyline and stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
The spelling errors are amazing.
Here’s another question: Has anyone ever seen Santos and Harriet Hageman (Wyoming congressperson) together?
I Wish I Believed In Hell
If I thought hell really existed, it would give me some measure of comfort to know that the heinous and evil people who prey on others would actually receive some measure of justice. George Santos belongs in that group because of his actions in 2016 with an animal charity he set up, which was apparently nothing more than a way to steal money.
Santos set up a GoFundMe for Rich Osthoff, a homeless Navy veteran who needed money for lifesaving surgery for his service dog (to have a large tumor removed). Santos raised $3,000 — which he promptly stole. The veteran’s dog died.
My partner Laura and I have rescued eight dogs in our 36 years together — from shelters, from rescue groups, from subway stations and the street — and given all of them a loving and warm home. It’s hard to find the right words to express the anger and disgust and contempt I have for Santos. When I think about being in that dog owner’s situation, I’m not sure what I would do to get satisfactory revenge on the worthless piece of shit that condemned my dog to die. Honestly, I can’t think of many scenarios to which I would say, “No, I wouldn’t go that far.”
Michael Boll, a retired policeman in New Jersey, tried to help Osthoff by contacting Santos. But Santos broke off contact and disappeared. Boll: “I really felt bad for Rich. He has PTSD, and this dog is his lifeline. When I first heard about it, I thought, this is going to kill him.”
Osthoff:
Little girl never left my side in 10 years. I went through two bouts of seriously considering suicide, but thinking about leaving her without me saved my life. I loved that dog so much, I inhaled her last breaths when I had her euthanized.
Osthoff told NBC News that after he left the Navy in 2005, he got Sapphire from a rescue organization to help with his bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders.
I was going through some really bad times when I got out of the service. My dad even told me at one point he thought I had a death wish. [By 2016, Sapphire was old and had developed a large fatty cyst on her rib cage. The surgery was $3,000.] I was homeless and living in a tent. I didn’t have that kind of money. . . .
I was so livid that I realized that this guy is now a serving congressman. He doesn’t deserve that job. It’s horrendous that he could lie and steal and cheat his way through life. . . . It’s disgusting. It’s horrible. . . . He’s a psychopath.
See? Only 48 minutes after I posted this . . .
"George Santos Planned ‘Engagement Party’ With Man While Married to Woman"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/george-santos-planned-engagement-party-with-man-while-married-to-uadla-vieira-santos
"My partner Laura and I have rescued eight dogs in our 36 years together"
Those are the 8 we adopted. There are a few others we rescued and re-homed. <3
(Does substack let you linkify and use emojis and stuff in comments?)