Santos invites 9/11 rescue worker to the State of the Union. He accepts
Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who is facing scrutiny over a web of false claims, including a family connection to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will bring a former firefighter who did rescue work at ground zero as his guest to the State of the Union on Tuesday.
Santos’ guest, Michael Weinstock, a Democrat who once ran for the House district that Santos now represents, said Santos officially extended an invitation two weeks ago. Santos confirmed the invitation in a speech on the House floor Monday.
Weinstock said he had decided to attend because he is suffering from a neurological condition related to his time as an emergency worker and wanted to raise awareness of the needs of those like him.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to stay focused enough on the issue of 9/11 responders receiving the health care that they need without being sullied by George Santos,” Weinstock said.
To do so has already proved challenging. Weinstock, a lawyer, said that he was let go by his law firm last week over his decision to attend the State of the Union with Santos.
Members of Congress generally get one ticket to bring a guest to the State of the Union address, and many of them make symbolic choices either to highlight issues or make political statements.
But Santos’ choice of Weinstock is particularly curious given the questions over the congressman’s purported ties to the Sept. 11 attacks. He has said that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was at the World Trade Center that day, at times claiming that she was working as a financial executive there. In a Twitter post from July 2021, he said that “9/11 claimed my mother’s life.”
Santos’ campaign website currently says that Devolder “survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.”
Devolder died in 2016, according to her obituary and local news coverage. On immigration documents reviewed by The New York Times, she told government officials in 2003 that she left the United States in 1999 and had not returned since. Santos’ friends and former roommates could not recall Devolder ever having worked in finance, and in immigration documents, she described herself as a housekeeper and home aide.
Santos’ assertion about his mother was one of many that have come under scrutiny after the Times disclosed that he had misled voters about his background and raised questions about both his personal and campaign finances.
Santos has since been largely ostracized by politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Ten fellow Republican representatives have called for his resignation, while others have said they refuse to associate with him.
Like Santos, Weinstock has faced some scrutiny about his own ties to Sept. 11. When he was running in the Democratic primary in 2020 against former Rep. Tom Suozzi, the president of his former fire company said that there was no record of Weinstock being at ground zero on behalf of the company.
But other former firefighters said they worked with Weinstock on rescue and recovery efforts there, and Weinstock has provided to news outlets at least one photo of him from that day.
Weinstock, a volunteer firefighter from 1990 to 2001, said that his illness was tied to pollutants he inhaled during rescue efforts at the rubble of the World Trade Center.
At least two medical studies have found a link between nerverelated conditions like Weinstock’s and Sept. 11 rescue workers. But the World Trade Center
Health Program, which provides health care to ground zero responders and Sept. 11 survivors, does not offer medical coverage for those conditions.
In the immediate period after his injury, Weinstock said, he was unable to work because of his condition.
A year and a half later, he says he still experiences severe pain nearly every day that can make it difficult to focus, and he sometimes uses a cane to walk.