Derek Myers, a reporter from Ohio, was trying a job on a volunteer basis last month, working toward a respectable offer to serve as a congressman’s staff assistant for a $50,000 salary. The offer sounded like a lock except for one thing: His boss would be George Santos, who is not known for doing what he says. After a preliminary offer and a week of unpaid work, Santos rescinded the job — and insulted Myers on his way out.
According to an audio recording from Myers delivered to Talking Points Memo, Santos was eating a Brazilian candy bar when he began firing his would-be assistant. “Are you firing me?” Myers asked, unsure what the congressman was saying with the chocolate in his mouth. Santos then gave Myers a chance to defend himself before being let go. For some reason, that involved Myers telling a story about going to Colombia to cover a mass-murder trial but leaving to “get my Botox.”
“It’s like $100, but it’s $400 here,” he said. Santos replied that he spends “a lot more than that on Botox, but I trust the people.” Later, he would make fun of Myers over the treatments: “Stop going to Colombia for your diluted Botox.” Santos also made light of Myers’s clothes after he said he bought his tie at a thrift store for two bucks. “His ties are from thrift stores,” Santos said. “He says he paid $2 for them.” Myers also claims that Santos said he was actually stripped of his committee positions by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, contrary to Santos’s public statements claiming he voluntarily stepped down from his posts.
The pretext for the firing was an incident last year in which Myers was charged with wiretapping in Ohio after publishing audio from courtroom testimony he received from a source. Journalism advocates defended his rights and urged the state to drop the charges, though the case is still ongoing. Santos claimed this unusual criminal charge could get in the way of Myers’s role as an assistant. “It’s not concerning to us; it’s concerning to this institution,” Santos told him. Myers naturally found this insane considering Santos’s own criminal record and all the lies in his wake. “I’m thinking to myself, I’m a threat and concern to this institution?” Myers told TPM. “George Santos, you’re George Santos!”