对于居住在纽约第三国会选区的大约75万人来说，四面楚歌的众议员乔治·桑托斯不仅仅是他每天的头条新闻。
这位新国会议员是共和党人，因其过去的谎言和修饰以及正在进行的多项调查而处于争议的中心。(他否认有不当行为。)
但他也是他的选区与联邦政府的直接联系，也是联邦政府在国家政策制定中的首席代表。正如州议员查尔斯·拉文(Charles Lavine)对美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)所说，这些丑闻严重削弱了桑托斯为其选民辩护的能力，使他成为“名义上的国会代表”——许多居民更希望看到他下台。
A新闻日报/锡耶纳学院调查上周公布的桑托斯选区653名选民的调查结果显示，78%的人表示希望他辞职。
桑托斯拒绝了下台的呼吁，称2024年是否让他连任取决于选民。
“他们值得有人来这里战斗，而不是卷入我们看到的媒体胡说八道，”桑多斯在1月份接受史蒂夫·班农“作战室”播客采访时说。
上周，他暂时回避他告诉ABC新闻资深国会记者雷切尔·斯科特，这是“为了选民的利益”
“这种(争议)不会阻止我...我会有效的。我会乖乖的，”他告诉纽约邮报十二月。
但根据新的新闻日报/锡耶纳民意调查，75%的受访选民表示，他们认为桑托斯事实上无法成为一名有效的代表，相比之下，只有16%的人认为他可以。一组成分周二前往华盛顿据说该地区有1000多人签名请愿，希望桑托斯下台。
ABC新闻采访了桑托斯选区的十几名居民或工人，以更好地了解他们对这位议员的看法。
桑托斯的办公室没有对此事发表评论。
“你为什么在那里，”
桑托斯最近在纽约市道格拉斯顿社区开设了一个选民办公室。当美国广播公司新闻在1月下旬的两天多时间里访问该地点时，除了门上贴着一张纸之外，它没有任何桑托斯的标志，而是似乎仍然由桑托斯的前任汤姆·索兹(Tom Suozzi)持有。
没有选民来访，尽管办公室已经开始运作。
詹姆斯·施纳克(James Schnacker)是一名退伍军人，他说他已经出院，现在是纽约牡蛎湾五金店的员工，他说他没有信心去桑托斯的办公室寻求服务。
“你显然不能相信他的话，”施纳克说。
州议员、民主党人拉文表示，他已承诺与桑托斯合作，帮助他们共同的选民，但仍有严重的担忧。Lavine举了一个例子，一个假想的居民在签证过期后可能需要移民身份方面的帮助。
“我不知道桑托斯先生是否会向移民局举报此人，然后移民局可能会找他逮捕此人，”拉文说，并将桑托斯的问题描述为“信任危机”
众议员George Santos于2023年1月31日离开DC华盛顿州的国会山俱乐部。
亚历克斯·王/盖蒂图片公司
与拉文一样与桑托斯分享选民的民主党参议员凯文·托马斯(Kevin Thomas)表示，他打算将选民问题提交给纽约州参议员查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)和柯尔斯顿·吉利布兰德(Kirsten Gillibrand)，尽管他们的办公室通常需要更多时间做出回应。
托马斯说:“(国会选区)三，那里的选民，将没有代表权。”。
鉴于桑托斯面临的一些欺诈指控，托马斯与拉文有着类似的担忧。巴西检察官在一月份表示他们正在寻求恢复指控指控他涉嫌在19岁时用偷来的支票簿购物，消息人士此前告诉ABC新闻，纽约的检察官我们在看桑托斯的财务档案这表明他在2020年至2022年间变得富有。
桑托斯在12月告诉《纽约邮报》，“我不是这里的罪犯——不是这里或巴西或世界上任何司法管辖区的罪犯。”
但是托马斯说他很担心:“我怎么可能把一个想去军事学院的孩子……送到一个有他这样名声的国会议员那里?”
如果当地居民需要护照帮助，这是选民办公室的常见问题，托马斯说他会毫不犹豫地派他们去桑托斯。
“鉴于他的历史...我害怕派选民把他们的护照信息交给那个办公室，”他说。
托马斯说，桑托斯从他的委员会中辞职-他的办公室上周表示，这将是暂时的，“直到他被适当清除竞选和个人财务调查”-也“妨碍”了他帮助他的选区的能力，因为委员会如何塑造立法和政策。
“你要去国会，你不会辞职，也不会去做他们分配给你的工作。你为什么在那里?”托马斯说。
哈佛大学政府部门的前主席南希·罗森布鲁姆同意桑托斯在他的选区获得立法成功的可能性很低:“他不能参与。他没有做这件事的设备。他不能谈判。他什么都不知道。”
周一，桑托斯做了一件似乎是他作为立法者的第一次重大政策推动他在众议院发言，主张扩大政府的世贸中心健康计划，以覆盖更多受9/11及其后果影响的人。
“我要求我的同事，我们一起努力，找到一个解决方案，”他在一次讲话中说，这将是他现在关注问题的几个主要工具之一。
9月11日已经成为桑托斯个人的争议点，他坚持认为他的母亲在恐怖袭击中幸存下来，后来死于覆盖纽约市部分地区的“有毒尘埃”。
然而，美国广播公司新闻查阅的美国移民记录显示，她当时不在美国。
当地人看到“破碎”的系统
新闻日报/锡耶纳民意调查中的一个问题表明，桑托斯选区77%的选民将他视为“破碎”政治体系的一个例子，而不是一个局外人。
接受ABC新闻采访的多名居民对此表示赞同。
在纽约曼哈塞特一家珠宝店工作的安吉洛·迪洛伦佐说:“比起政客，我更信任诈骗犯。”。
虽然接受ABC新闻采访的居民中没有人对桑托斯有正面印象，但新闻日报/锡耶纳民意调查发现，他并没有遭到普遍拒绝:18%的共和党人和17%的无党派人士表示他不应该下台;25%的共和党人和17%的无党派人士表示，他能在国会发挥作用;31%的投票给桑托斯的人说，如果他们知道关于他的生活故事的争议，他们仍然会这样做。
约翰·霍普金斯大学国际事务教授、民主的成功与失败的作家Yascha Mounk告诉ABC新闻，美国人通常希望政治家说善意的谎言。
“人们对修饰有一些容忍，”蒙克说，桑托斯坚持认为他过去的一些谎言是为了填充他的简历。
然而，蒙克说，更重大的谎言——关于实质性的政策错误陈述或传记式的谎言——会产生更大的破坏性影响，尤其是当其他政府官员放任不管的时候。
蒙克说:“事实上，有一个人是一个强迫性说谎者，他设法逃脱了惩罚，而事实上整个系统让他逃脱了惩罚。”。
一些当地人也将此归咎于新闻媒体找出桑托斯背景的问题更快。
“你知道，有哪家媒体在调查一个新的竞选公职的人?”曼哈塞特一家药店的药剂师斯科特·费格斯说。
哈佛大学教授丹尼尔·艾伦说，鉴于该县许多地方失去了重要的当地新闻渠道，费格斯的担忧是有道理的。
艾伦说:“他能够在这么多欺诈性主张的情况下当选，这一事实是我们的新闻生态系统有多么脆弱的一个真实指标。”
民主党人罗伯特·齐默曼在秋季选举中输给了桑托斯，他表示自己很遗憾。“相信我:没有人比我更沮丧了，”他说告诉华盛顿邮报。“有几次我对着枕头大喊:‘为什么这个不早点出来?’"
在桑托斯获胜后的一连串爆料中，他的选民说，他们留下的国会议员与他们在11月认识的国会议员大不相同。
Guy Finocchialo三个月前为桑托斯投了一票，但现在他说，“如果我可以回到过去改变我的投票，我可能会这样做。”
另一名选民汤姆·安德雷奥斯说，他仍然认为桑托斯应该辞职，不管这可能多么不现实。
“我屏住呼吸两年了，”他说。
George Santos' constituents speak out, worry about services: 'You obviously can't take his word'
For the roughly 750,000 people who live in New York's 3rd Congressional District,embattled Rep. George Santosis more than the near-daily headlines he makes.
The freshman congressman, a Republican, sits at the center of controversy over his past falsehoods and embellishments and multiple ongoing investigations. (He's denied wrongdoing.)
But he is also his district's direct link to the federal government and its chief representative in national policymaking. As state Assemblymember Charles Lavine put it to ABC News, the scandals have severely curtailed Santos' ability to advocate for his constituents, leaving him as "a congressional representative in name only" -- who many residents would prefer to see out of office.
ANewsday/Siena College surveyreleased last week of 653 voters in Santos' district, conducted in late January, found that 78% said they want him to resign.
Santos has rebuffed calls to step down, saying it's up to the voters to reelect him, or not, in 2024.
"They deserve somebody who's going to come here and fight and not get involved with the media nonsense that we're seeing take place," Santos said in an interview on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast in January.
Last week, hetemporarily recused himselffrom his two committee assignments -- on the small business and science, space and technology panels -- and told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott it was "in interest of the voters."
"This [controversy] will not deter me ... I will be effective. I will be good," hetold The New York Postin December.
But according to the new Newsday/Siena poll, 75% of polled constituents said they believe Santos will not in fact be able to be an effective representative, compared to 16% who said they believe he can. A group of constituentsheaded to Washington on Tuesdaywith a petition they said was signed by more than 1,000 people in the district who want Santos out of office.
ABC News spoke with more than a dozen residents or workers in Santos' district to better understand their views on the congressman.
Santos' office did not comment for this story.
'Why are you there?'
Santos recently opened a constituent office in the Douglaston neighborhood of New York City. When ABC News visited the location over two days in late January, it lacked any Santos signage except for a taped piece of paper on the door and instead appeared to still be held by Santos' predecessor, Tom Suozzi.
No constituents visited, though the office was up and running.
James Schnacker, an Army veteran who said he had been medically discharged, who now works as an employee at an Oyster Bay, New York, hardware store, said he would not be confident approaching Santos' office for services.
"You obviously can't take his word," Schnacker said.
State Assemblymember Lavine, a Democrat, said he has pledged to work with Santos to assist their shared constituents but still has serious concerns. Lavine gave an example of a hypothetical resident who may need help with their immigration status after overstaying a visa.
"I have no way of knowing whether Mr. Santos is going to report this person to immigration, who then may look for him to arrest that person," Lavine said, describing Santos' problem as a "crisis of trust."
State Sen. Kevin Thomas, a Democrat who like Lavine shares constituents with Santos, said he intends to forward constituent issues to New York's senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, though their offices typically take more time to respond.
"[Congressional district] three, the constituents there, will not have representation," Thomas said.
Thomas shared similar worries as Lavine, given some of the fraud accusations Santos faces. Brazilian prosecutorssaid in January they were seeking to revive chargesagainst him for allegedly paying for goods with a stolen checkbook when he was 19, and sources previously told ABC News that prosecutors in New Yorkwere looking at Santos' financial filings, which show he became wealthy between 2020 and 2022.
Santos told The New York Post in December, "I am not a criminal here -- not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world."
But Thomas said he was concerned: "How can I possibly send a kid who wants to go to the military academy … to a congressperson who has the reputation that he has?"
And if a local resident were to need help with a passport, a common issue for constituent offices, Thomas said he would hesitate to send them to Santos.
"Given his history ... I would be afraid to send over a constituent giving their passport information over to that office," he said.
Santos stepping down from his committees -- which his office said last week would be temporary "until he has been properly cleared of both campaign and personal financial investigations" -- also "handicaps" his ability to help his district because of how committees shape legislation and policy, Thomas said.
"You're going to Congress, you're not resigning and you're not going to do the work that they've assigned you. Why are you there?" Thomas said.
Nancy Rosenblum, a former chair of Harvard University's government department, agreed that Santos has low odds of achieving legislative success for his district: "He can't participate. He doesn't have the equipment to do it. He can't negotiate. He knows nothing."
On Monday, Santos made what appears to behis first major policy push as a lawmaker, speaking from the House floor to advocate for expanding the government's World Trade Center Health Program to cover more conditions for people affected by 9/11 and its aftermath.
"I ask my colleagues that we work together and find a solution," he said in a speech, which will now be one of his few major tools to spotlight issues.
Sept. 11 has become a personal point of controversy for Santos, who maintains that his mother survived the terror attacks and later died from the "toxic dust" that blanketed parts of New York City.
However, U.S. immigration records reviewed by ABC News indicate she wasn't in the country at the time.
Locals see 'broken' system
A question in the Newsday/Siena polling indicates 77% of voters in Santos' district see him as an example of a "broken" political system rather than an outlier.
Multiple residents who spoke with ABC News echoed that.
"I trust better racketeers than a politician," said Angelo DiLorenzo, who works at a jewelry store in Manhasset, New York.
While none of the residents who spoke with ABC News on the record had positive impressions of Santos, the Newsday/Siena poll found that he has not been universally rejected: 18% of Republicans and 17% of independents said he shouldn't step down; 25% of Republicans and 17% of independents said he can be effective in Congress; and 31% of those who voted for Santos said they still would have done so if they knew about the controversies over his life story.
Yascha Mounk, a Johns Hopkins University international affairs professor and writer on the successes and failures of democracies, told ABC News that Americans generally expect politicians to tell white lies.
"People have some tolerance for embellishment," Mounk said, and Santos insists some of his past falsehoods were in the vein of padding his resume.
However, Mounk said that more significant lies -- about substantive policy misrepresentations or biographical falsehoods -- can have a more damaging effect, especially when other government officials let it slide.
"It's less about the fact that there's one guy who is a compulsive liar, who has managed to get away with it, when in fact this whole system lets him get away with it," Mounk said.
Some locals also placed blame on the news media for notferreting out problems with Santos' backgroundsooner.
"Where was any one of the media outlets, you know, doing an investigation into somebody new running for elected office?" said Scott Feigeles, a pharmacist at a Manhasset drug store.
Harvard professor Danielle Allen said Feigeles' concerns were valid given the loss of vital local news outlets in many parts of the county.
"The fact that he was able to be elected with so many fraudulent claims is a real indicator of how weakened our news ecosystem is," Allen said.
Democrat Robert Zimmerman, who lost to Santos in the fall, has said he has his own regrets. "Trust me: No one's more frustrated than me," hetold The Washington Post. "There are a few times I shouted into my pillow: 'Why didn't this come out earlier?'"
Amid the cavalcade of revelations after Santos won, his constituents said they are left with a congressman far different from the one they knew in November.
Guy Finocchialo cast a ballot for Santos three months ago but now says, "If I could go back and change my vote, I probably would."
Another constituent, Tom Andresakes, said he still thinks Santos should resign, however unrealistic that might be.
"I'm holding my breath for two years," he said.
