Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power,

politics and society. On each episode, I will talk to an American expert or an expert on

America about something that's going on in America in

2003. I'm thrilled to be joined by Sean McRish today, who is a features writer at New York

magazine covering media, politics and power, and he's written a very good piece called George Santos Maga It Girl.

Sean, I think for our British listeners, we should sort of do a bit of background on George

Santos in case they haven't been following his story, because it is an extraordinary one.

Let me start with the middle introduction. You can correct me if I get anything wrong or add any

more detail.

There was a bit of a Republican red wave in New York in the midterms in November.

And one of the seats that the Republicans won was the third district, which is Long Island.

That's right, isn't it?

Yeah, it's Long Island.

It's a little bit of Queens, but mostly it's Long Island.

And a little bit of Queens, but mostly it's Long Island. And a little bit of Queens. And George Santos, who was a gay, married man, won a seat there.

And there was a lot of sort of talk about this red wave in New York. And Santos was seen as a sort of possible star of this little wave.

But then it very quickly transpired that he was a, or is a, fabulous,

and had invented all sorts of extraordinary things about his past. There were then all sorts

of calls for him to be sort of thrown out of politics, but the Republicans have a very slim

majority. And he finds himself still in politics, still in Congress. Obviously,

it's quite a big deal to throw him out, but there aren't any obvious moves afoot to get rid of him.

And he's even got a bit of a sort of cult status, as you refer to in this piece, because he's

...