Joshua Chaffin’s piece “Audacity trumps truth for the Talented Mr Santos” (Life & Arts, January 7) was on target. New York breeds chutzpah and brazen lies in the name of ambition.
I was involved in statewide politics when I was finishing law school. I travelled with the attorney-general of New York state. His saying was tell them what they want to hear and bathe them in chicken soup. Nevertheless there were guardrails.
I like to think that George Santos is such an amateur and utterly unqualified that we have finally reached the limit of tolerance. Needless to say, Donald Trump laid the groundwork for all candidates to lie in order to win. The “big lie” became a campaign platform. The voters may accept stretching the truth, but fraud creates Pinocchio.
I commend the investigative reporters for exposing this travesty. The blame game has been directed at many stakeholders, but as a newly elected congressman from New York with real credentials said, the responsibility lies squarely on George Santos’s shoulders. I doubt he can handle that weight.
Steven A Ludsin
East Hampton, NY, US
