‘You Ought to Be Embarrassed’: Romney Scolds Santos at State of the Union

Representative George Santos (R., N.Y.) and Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah.) traded some choice words last night just minutes before President Joe Biden addressed the nation.

Multiple camera angles captured Romney confronting Santos as he walked down the center aisle in the House chamber. The veteran lawmaker scolded the freshman for claiming one of the sought-after seats near the president’s path to the rostrum.

“You don’t belong here,” Romney can be seen telling Santos, adding “you ought to be embarrassed.”

When asked about the exchange afterward by a reporter, Santos admitted that the two traded insults.

Santos is under a House ethics investigation for fabricating much of his résumé.

Since Election Day, several biographical details Representative Santos shared on the campaign trail have been debunked.

At various times, the representative stated that he did not graduate from college and was also an alumnus of Baruch College; that he worked in financial firms such as Citigroup and Goldman Sachs despite both companies showing no record of employment; that his grandparents were Jewish Holocaust survivors, although he is “clearly Catholic.”

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos insists. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”

In late January, Santos stepped down from his House committee assignments.

The fight continued after President Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

“He’s a sick puppy, he shouldn’t have been there,” Romney told NBC News. “Given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation he should be sitting in the back row and being quiet instead of parading in front of the president.”

Santos came back at Romney later Tuesday evening online.

“Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” Santos tweeted, commenting on an earlier post endorsing former president Donald Trump.

However, Senator Romney did not engage with the callout. Instead, Romney released a video outlining his thoughts on the SOTU.

Romney was pleased with Biden’s comments on Ukraine and framing bilateral relations with China along the lines of “competition” and not “conflict.” However, Romney criticized Biden’s remarks when the president accused Republicans of trying to trim social services.

“The President got off on the wrong foot when he said Republicans–some Republicans, he said–want to cut Medicare and Social Security and there was just an immediate response from our side of the aisle where people said ‘No, no, no. That’s just not true.'”

Seventy-eight percent of voters in Santos’s New York district want him to resign,  including 71 percent of local Republicans, according to a recent Siena poll.