Hello there, I'm Shark Todd and this is the Shark Todd cab.

It's been hard to turn our eyes away from the George Santos saga.

The story of an unknown Republican from Long Island who makes his way to Congress on the

back of a seemingly unending string of lies reads like a piece of fiction and frankly at

times mediocre fiction.

And like any car crash, the Santos story has its fair share of rubber neckers.

But there's another way to think about George Santos because whatever happens next to San

Fizz, his success so far reveals some fundamental flaws in how our political system chooses

and bets candidates.

From the local and national political machinery to the local and national media, the fact

that someone with such a questionable resume, to make it to the House of Representatives,

reveals some fundamental flaws in our system.

And that's what we're going to talk about today with two guests.

I'm going to join later in the show by Daniel Scarpinato.

He's a Republican advisor and consultant from the State of Arizona.

But first I'm joined by a reporter, Nicholas Fandos.

He's a Metro reporter at the New York Times who's been covering this story.

Nick, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Chuck.

It's good to be here.

So let's start with a question I'm sure you've been asked before, which is why did the

New York Times find out about George Santos after he got elected not before?

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