Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) claimed in a television interview Thursday that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) offered him words of encouragement shortly after he was rebuked by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for seeking out a prominent place on the House floor ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for Sinema said the episode never happened.
“I know this is *shocking* but he is lying,” Sinema spokeswoman Hannah Hurley said in an email. “Kyrsten did not speak to him.”
Appearing on Newsmax on Thursday, Santos, who has admitted to fabricating key parts of his biography and is facing multiple investigations, recounted the alleged interaction in detail.
Around the time Romney reportedly said, “You don’t belong here,” Sinema passed by him, Santos claimed.
“She said something to the effects of, ‘Hang in there, buddy,’ or something like that,” Santos said. “I said, ‘Thank you, thank you, Madam Senator.’ She was very polite, very kindhearted as I’ve learned to see her. She’s a good person, unlike Mr. Romney, who thinks he’s above it all and is an all-mighty white horse trying to talk to us down on morality.”
Romney told reporters Tuesday after his interaction with Santos that the freshman lawmaker “shouldn’t be in Congress.”
“They are going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” Romney said. “But he shouldn’t be there, and, if he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”
