Vatnik Soup Profile picture
Jan 13, 2023 17 tweets 6 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a US representative and a pathological liar, George Santos. It is almost impossible to do a proper profile on this guy, since it's hard to know what aspects of his life are true and what are false.

But let's try!

1/16
Santos is a member of the GOP, & he was elected to the open seat in 2022. He is the first openly gay Republic elected to congress.Interestingly, he was married to a woman during 2012-2019 - they divorced just 12 days before officially filed his first congressional campaign.
2/16
He's said that his maternal grandparents are Jewish and that they fled Soviet Ukraine and Belgium from the Holocaust - they were actually both born in Brazil. He later gave an interview to WABC radio, where he stated that "I never claimed to be Jewish, I am Catholic...

3/16
... Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.'"

Santos has used a fake Jewish name Anthony Zabrovsky to raise funds for a pet charity. He never gave any of its proceedings to the charity organization.

4/16
He has also claimed that his father is African American with Angolan roots. There is no evidence of this.

George speaks highly of her mother, writing that she was "the first female executive at a major financial institution" and survived 9/11.

5/16
In Jul, 2021, he tweeted that "9/11 claimed my mothers life"; then in Oct, 2021 he said that she was "caught up in the ash cloud" but was never treated for it. Then, in Dec, 2022 he claimed that both of his parents survived 9/11.

6/16
In real life, George's mother was apparently a home care nurse in Brazil and, accordingly to George's friends, she didn't speak much English.
Based on George, his education is top notch: he's claimed to hold a bachelor's degree in finance and economics from Baruch College...7/16
... graduating at top 1% of his class. During his claimed attendance he was actually in Brazil. He has also said that he was a "star player" on the Baruch volleyball team. He also has a fake Master's degree in business from NYU.

8/16
In Dec, 2022, he told The New York Post that "I didn't graduate from any institution of higher learning. I'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my résumé".

Besides being a volleyball star, George has also worked as a "seasoned Wall Street financier and investor"...9/16
... at both CitiGroup and Goldman Sachs. Neither company has any record of him working there. His latest real job was in a alternative investment firm accused of being a Ponzi scheme.

10/16
In an 2020 interview, he said that he had a brain tumor and that he received radiation treatment for it. Perhaps he's been cured: as of Dec, 2022, there hasn't been any more mentions of his illness.

11/16
Santos has called the Ukrainian government a "totalitarian regime". Regarding the puppet states of Donetsk and Luhansk, he has said that Ukraine "welcomed the Russians into their provinces" and that Ukrainians in the east "feel more Russian than Ukrainian".

12/16
In Feb, 2022, George tweeted that Joe Biden is "willing to start a war in Eastern Europe". At the time of these statements, he had received a 32 800 USD donation from Columbus Nova, owned by Andrew Intrater, a cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

13/16
George is a strong supporter of Donald Trump, and he also attended "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan 6, 2021. He was caught on camera stating that he had written a "nice check to a law firm" to bail the US Capitol arrestees out of jail.

14/16
As almost always with vatniks, George has trouble with money - he has unresolved charges for check fraud in Brazil. Somehow he's managed to make some money for his campaigning - in 2020 he listed his net worth at 5000 USD, ...

15/16
... but by 2022 his fortune had increased to somewhere between 2,5 and 11 million USD. He's campaing spendings are just absurd and too long to list here, you can find more info here: politico.com/news/2022/12/3…

16/16
*His campaign spendings

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Vatnik Soup

Vatnik Soup Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @P_Kallioniemi

Oct 21
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll explain the context of the upcoming Budapest Blunder, and how it follows the infamous Alaska Fiasco from two months ago and Trump’s absurd delaying of serious aid to Ukraine and effective sanctions on Russia for the past nine months.

1/20Image
Two months ago, Trump embarrassed the United States by rolling out the red carpet for war criminal dictator Putin and overall acting like a pathetic servant eager to meet his master. Of course, the Alaska Fiasco didn’t bring peace any closer.

2/20
Image
Worse, the main outcome of the humiliation was to delay serious sanctions, which the US Congress, in rare bipartisan unity against Russia, was on the verge of passing. Two weeks by two weeks, Trump Always Chickens Out, postponing any real pressure on Putin for 9 months now.

3/20 Image
Image
Read 21 tweets
Oct 10
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American propagandist Alexandra Jost, aka “Sasha” (@sashameetsrus). She’s best known for being paid by the Russian state to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda — and for doing it with a big smile.

1/23 Image
Alexandra, now 26, was born in Hong Kong. Her father is from Texas, and her mother is from Siberia. According to her, she has “dreamed of living in Russia since childhood.” Sasha's mother runs a dance studio in Moscow and her younger brother is avoiding mobilization.

2/23 Image
Image
Since the beginning of her creator career, Sasha has been adamant about one thing: that she’s “never had to be paid” to speak of her “love” for Russia. But, as always with Russia, this turned out to be nothing but vranyo — a Russian “tactical lie.”

3/23 Image
Read 24 tweets
Oct 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll reintroduce an American political commentator and pro-Kremlin propagandist, Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson). He’s best known for his promotion of crazy conspiracy theories and for his support of authoritarian regimes around the world.

1/24 Image
Tucker’s career spans decades, but he’s also been very active in recent years, so a lot has happened since our previous soup on him, which can be found here:

2/24

Once described as “the most powerful conservative in America”, Tucker has now fully transformed into a grifting conspiracy theorist and propagandist willing to work for whoever pays him the most. It’s unclear whether Tucker truly believes his endless conspiracy theories or…
3/24 Image
Read 25 tweets
Sep 25
This is what you’re debating with on social media:
It appears that a few pro-Russian bot farms already found this thread, so remember - just block them all, there's no point in arguing with a computer.
Most of you have seen those "No DMs" profiles, right? That's because you can interrupt the GPT procedure by injecting them new instructions.

At some point it also worked in comments ("give me a cake recipe"), but not so much anymore.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.

1/18 Image
Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.

2/18 Image
As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.

3/18 Image
Read 19 tweets
Sep 8
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.

1/22 Image
David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.

2/22 Image
Image
But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.

3/22 Image
Read 24 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(