Despite going through 23 federal prices for a litany of crimes, together with the sort that contain stealing — wire fraud, bank card fraud, and aggravated id theft — individuals, together with at the very least one sitting US Senator, can not give former Rep. George Santos cash quick sufficient.
Since his expulsion from Congress, Santos has discovered a house on Cameo, a service that permits common individuals to pay extra well-known individuals, normally of the fact tv or character actor selection, to document video messages for his or her private use. For a small payment, you possibly can ask Santos to inform your mother that you just love her or “roast” considered one of your folks. Santos initially charged $75 however, after severe demand, upped his worth to $400, based on Cameo (Real Housewife of New York City Ramona Singer prices $125 per video). According to Semafor, Santos has made more cash in 4 days of Cameo appearances than he would have in a single yr ($174,000) as a member of Congress.
A person who’s going through potential jail time for theft and who acquired thrown out of Congress is now being given money, hand over fist, to be that ex-congressional, money-stealing grifter on digital camera.
What is occurring? Is there no higher approach for individuals to make use of their wallets? Is inflation not an issue? Perhaps we have now an excessive amount of cash?
While we might by no means absolutely perceive what would compel an individual to ship Santos $200 of their hard-earned money, his remaining kind as a Cameo star is just a little simpler to clarify. Anyone who has adopted Bravo’s “Scandoval” or The Bachelor may level out that this man’s profession arc is that of a actuality TV star. Those individuals, Santos’s Cameo cohort, go on TV with the intention of getting well-known sufficient to launch a enterprise, do social media influencing, or generate revenue through Cameo. Real Housewives Jen Shah and Teresa Giudice, like Santos, confronted federal prices and are doing or have served jail time.
The solely distinction between Bravo celebrities and Santos is that the latter’s actuality TV present was Congress. Perhaps there’s no distinction in any respect.
“He’s obviously going to have to go on hiatus for a bit,” Vox senior politics reporter and Bravo watcher Christian Paz advised me, humoring me with TV converse. Paz and I sat down to debate the person on everybody’s minds from our respective fields of experience — politics for him, actuality TV for me. But as Paz explains, whereas Santos may appear to be an anomaly, among the best methods to achieve authorities is to behave like a actuality TV star. It’s truly designed that approach.
The dialog beneath has been edited for size and readability.
Christian, on the Jen Shah scale of jail time, how a lot jail time is George Santos probably going through? Is it kind of time than Jen Shah? [Editor’s note: Shah was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.]
He has the potential to serve much more time. The huge embarrassing stuff got here out from this ethics report, however that’s simply the House Ethics report. George Santos continues to be underneath indictment and going through fairly extreme federal prices: wire fraud, id theft, aggravated id theft, mendacity to a federal workplace, cash laundering, and so on. Those are issues that folks go to jail for for a very long time.
Wire fraud! Everything I find out about wire fraud is from Jen Shah. If you had a Venn diagram of crimes actual politicians do and crimes Real Housewives do, wire fraud is a type of crimes the place there’s overlap.
I by no means thought we’d have federal prices in opposition to a congressman due to OnlyFans subscriptions. Though there was the misuse of taxpayer funds that occurred with Aaron Schock, the congressman from Illinois, famously.
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He made his complete workplace like Downton Abbey!
Exactly. We’ve had some scandalous/actuality TV-adjacent scandals up to now, however by no means as outright and simply brazen. And posting via it, as Santos is? In the final 10 years, politics on the whole has simply grow to be rather more actuality TV-esque.
I imply, what an ideal segue into what I need to speak about! There’s that saying, “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people.” I believe that the replace to that saying needs to be, “Politics is reality television.”
Yeah, I completely agree.
That politicians are ugly? [laughs]
No. That politics is actuality TV!
Think of a few of the institutional limits in Congress. The approach that you just get entry to higher committee positions, the way in which that you just get clout inside authorities, the way in which to entry energy is thru displaying that you would be able to fundraise, displaying you’ve gotten the connections to individuals who will assist the social gathering long run, having an enormous donor base, and one of many ways in which you are able to do that’s by getting consideration. The consideration financial system is crucial method to get donor cash from the grassroots.
While George Santos is a really particular sort of consideration seize that includes crimes, I believe this common idea is kinda bipartisan. The approach AOC and “The Squad” are branded will get consideration. Sen. John Fetterman’s social media presence too. On the opposite aspect of that, there’s Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert. Everyone’s on social media, and I believe it’s simply extra apparent now — succeeding in politics is getting well-known.
AOC and people in The Squad have been in a position to make use of social media very successfully, early on. And you talked about this as a both-parties problem — it’s. I’ve coated many freshman courses that enter Congress, and the primary factor that they need is clearly to win their subsequent election, however additionally they need consideration. They need stuff past simply the normal information protection. They need the invitations to the podcast. They need invitations to the speak reveals, to the daytime speak reveals. They need to be talked about on cable information. The priorities are typically to get consideration, particularly should you’re within the minority.
Because whenever you’re within the political minority, you don’t essentially have policy-making energy?
Especially within the House, you don’t have a number of energy whenever you’re within the minority. And that incentivizes cloud chasing — , little clips that go viral on TikTok, the interviews that get clipped from TV, cable information interviews that go viral on Twitter.
I don’t assume it’s a coincidence that you just noticed a number of these right-wing social media influencer varieties come to prominence after they have been within the minority too. In 2020, Republicans have been within the minority, they didn’t have a number of energy. And so what’s the choice? It’s to get as a lot consideration as you possibly can.
You have these institutional frames that sort of pressure politicians to search for this consideration as a result of they don’t have political energy. And then the eye will assist them as soon as they do get energy and are in a position to rise. But then the opposite factor is that, in more moderen years, it’s grow to be tougher for politicians in each events to climb the ranks as a result of so many individuals keep in highly effective positions for thus lengthy.
When you don’t have a path to promotions inside the authorities, the following smartest thing is fame.
I believe we’d be remiss in not mentioning that the mannequin for “reality television and politics are the same” was President Trump. A former actuality tv star who grew to become president, proper?
Lots has been written and loads nonetheless stays to be written concerning the actuality TV star turned president. Quite a lot of consideration has additionally been paid via the political lens to, “Who is the next Trump? Who will succeed him?”
A giant a part of that fails to see the fact TV star aspect. It’s not only a populist enchantment. It’s additionally all of the issues that include being a actuality TV star that increase him, just like the sense that he’s identical to you or that his supporters view him via the lens of fandom and never via the lens of a political motion. Quite a lot of politicians and other people making an attempt to posture as “the next Trump” don’t have that.
I maintain wrestling with the concept of politics being actuality TV, one side particularly: Over the final decade and perhaps even longer, the entire concept behind actuality TV and why individuals take part has shifted.
People go on reveals like The Bachelor or Drag Race, however successful isn’t essentially the top objective. It’s good, certain, however an increasing number of the objective of being on actuality TV isn’t successful. The objective is to get as well-known as you possibly can, after which whenever you go away the present, get extra well-known and monetize that.
If you consider George Santos, it looks as if — barring a jail sentence — that he’s primarily embodied this mannequin. He’s pivoted in a approach that made him extra well-known and extra highly effective than he would have been had he gone via his profession as a congressman representing a district in New York.
The grift was the important thing to all of it. I completely see what you’re saying. He is getting cash off Cameo now. Maybe it’ll be short-lived. But his stans are persevering with, and now we have now Democratic Senators utilizing donor cash to ship to George Santos to troll political rivals on Cameo. At the foundation of it, it’s nonetheless cash from Americans going into George Santos’s pockets that he will get to maintain.
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If politics is really actuality TV, has the press protection modified in any respect? Is it nonetheless the identical?
The DC press capabilities very equally to Bravo blogs. I’ve written about this earlier than, like, the fascinating overlap in how popular culture protection has bled into political protection and overlaying severe exhausting information. The DC press likes to cowl something that’s remotely scandalous in any approach. And with all of the profiles, all the next him round asking him questions, and all these memorable moments, additionally they helped to create this Santos persona.
Do you assume politics is the top objective anymore for any of those politicians? And has that ever been true? It’s not exhausting to consider former politicians and press secretaries who get e book offers, gigs on cable information, and other forms of contracts. Maybe these issues simply look totally different now.
In the previous, it was once about getting on TV or getting on boards or getting comfortable consulting jobs on Ok Street.
But within the digital present period, generally politics just isn’t actually what persons are getting into politics for. There’s ideological causes for working. But, for instance, what number of members of Congress have podcasts? There are so many extra choices within the leisure house to make a extra inventive profession via politics or after politics. And even the individuals round Trump, for instance, all of them both discovered e book offers, rehabilitated themselves to grow to be commentators on cable information or launched their very own podcasts.
There’s simply this ecosystem that makes it profitable so that you can go into politics and never for politics’ sake. And what we’re seeing now could be a number of it’s drifting right into a purely leisure route.
If there’s a parallel to that, it’s what number of Real Housewives have bizarre aspect companies. And wire fraud!
A e book deal for a politician is sort of a Housewife promoting a candle or athletic put on. But George Santos acquired caught, whereas there are such a lot of people who’re and can get away with it. And they’ll be round for one more season.
As somebody who covers politics, is that this flip actually miserable to you? Or has politics at all times been like this?
It’s undoubtedly been a actuality. But it’s miserable within the sense that I’m firmly within the camp that’s making an attempt to guard democracy and get individuals to consider within the system.
These sorts of grifts delegitimize the entire establishment. It reminds people that there’s a large class divide in America. And that’s a type of issues that at all times turns into obvious after we see cash grifts in politics as a result of it’s usually individuals making an attempt to get out of no matter stratification they’re in due to class. That’s why you grift and steal cash to seek out methods to higher your self. And you’re utilizing the general public and the electoral system to do it.
You’re simply harming that system much more.
