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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Rhian Lubin

Trump-pardoned liar George Santos claims he’s fleeing NYC over Zohran Mamdani: ‘Nice knowing you’

You never know what is truth versus fiction with George Santos, but the inveterate liar and convicted former GOP congressman is now claiming he’ll flee New York City because Zohran Mamdani is going to be the next mayor.

Santos, who was recently pardoned and freed from jail by President Donald Trump after pleading guilty to committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, made the latest claim in a video posted on X the day after the socialist Mamdani’s stunning win.

“[Andrew] Cuomo was by far a flawed candidate, a terrible human being, but much better than what we just landed ourselves with,” Santos said. “I’d rather the evil I know than the evil I don’t wanna know.

“Good luck, New York. It was nice knowing you,” said Santos. “After 37 years, I’m out.”

The former New York congressman did not reveal where he planned to go next, but some of his followers on X welcomed the news.

“We would love for this Republican convicted felon to leave NYC,” said one of them.

“You need help packing?” remarked another.

“Good riddance,” someone else added.

His remarks about leaving the city were markedly more measured than his initial social media reaction to news that Mamdani had won the election, where he launched into an expletive-laden rant about the Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

The former New York congressman did not reveal where he planned to go next but some of his followers welcomed the news (AP)

“I hope the idiot in the red beret is happy,” Santos wrote in a post on X of the Guardian Angels founder, whose campaign failed spectacularly Tuesday night.

“F*** you, Curtis Sliwa, I HATE YOU, your dumb wife, that stupid Beret of yours, and all your f***ing cats!” he fumed in a follow-up, alluding to Sliwa’s extensive collection of pet felines.

In other posts, he called Sliwa a “clown,” posted a video of Cuomo voter David Rem calling him a “f***ing scumbag” and expressing the hope that “every single New Yorker spits in your f***ing face every single day” and accused him of being in the pocket of his campaign adviser Rob Cole, demanding an audit of the Republican’s finances.

Santos served just 84 days of his seven-year sentence when Trump announced last month he had commuted his sentence, which was handed down in April after the 37-year-old pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft stemming from several schemes to deceive donors and steal identities to fund his campaign.

“From his creation of a wholly fictitious biography to his callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors, Santos’s unrestrained greed and voracious appetite for fame enabled him to exploit the very system by which we select our representatives,” prosecutors said before sentencing.

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