George Santos is a lying liar who lies, and is a bad person to boot. However, I have a hard time taking him seriously because the chances of him ghosting Congress and just not showing up for work anymore is not zero, and there’s something disarming and non-threatening about that because it would screw Kevin McCarthy over and that’s funny. I’m also not entirely sure his name even is George Santos, or if he’s not two malevolent 14-year-old boys stacked on top of each other trolling us for the lolz and it’s just gotten out of hand. This is all to say, I take a sick perversive delight each time something new and terrible comes out about the dumbs*it he’s engaged in, because look. The fine people of New York in his Long Island district had a choice, and in the immortal words of the very old Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade they “chose poorly.” They’ll get a do-over again in 2024 (if not sooner if he just decides to ghost them) and if they choose poorly again, well, then, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe this is the Bad Place?
Anyway, the newest saga in the annals of George Santos Is a Malicious Nincompoop comes courtesy of Patch.com, and it’s a mad libs of yikes and sadness. See, the “G” in George stands for grift and this particular apparent con job was to do a GoFundMe in 2016 for Richard Osthoff, a disabled Veteran who was living in a tent with his service dog Sapphire. Unfortunately, Sapphire developed a stomach tumor and needed a life-saving operation which would cost $3,000. From Patch:
A veterinary technician took Osthoff aside and told him, “‘I know a guy who runs a pet charity who can help you,'” Osthoff recounted.
His name was Anthony Devolder, and his pet charity was called Friends of Pets United, the vet tech told him.
Anthony Devolder is one of the names that Long Island Rep. George Santos used for years before entering politics in 2020.
You know where this is going. You have to by now. Santos set up a GoFundMe, the money was raised, and then, according to Osthoff, Santos took the money and neither the dog nor owner ever saw a cent of it. Instead, Santos told Osthoff that his charity had set up the surgery with a vet out of state, and once Osthoff got Sapphire up there he was told by the vet that he was unable to operate on the dog. From there, Osthoff was given the runaround by Santos, and Sapphire was never given treatment despite $3,000 being raised in her name.
This story does not have a happy ending, so if you have a dog you might want to go give them a hug right now. Unfortunately, Sapphire died, months later I might add, so had Santos given the money to Osthoff, who knows what might have happened. According to the article, Santos had “also posted GoFundMe fundraisers for dogs needing medical care on his now-deleted personal Facebook page, mostly toy breeds with stories of medical issues” so who knows how many times he ran this obvious scam, or how much money he made off of people, or whether the other dogs were even real?
Here’s what I do know: George Santos is a bad person who should be in jail for a myriad of reasons, so let’s add allegedly stealing money from a Veteran’s service dog’s GoFundMe to the pile. (Santos has denied the allegations made by Osthoff and Patch.com, but he hasn’t exactly established himself as a trustworthy source of information.)
I also know, courtesy of Wikipedia that his district is 69.5% white, and if I may be blunt about my own demographic: For whatever reason (and we all know there are quiet parts we could say out loud) messing with dogs seems to be a unifying cause and a line in the sand you do not cross.
Santos is an embarrassment to the office, but he was elected on a campaign of conservative hate. However, I suspect him doing a dog dirty is what people will remember when it comes time to vote if he’s on the ballot again. That’s a big if. Don’t forget, dude is under investigation on not one, but two continents!
(featured image: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
