George Santos vs. Jimmy Kimmel: You can’t make this stuff up.
The irony is thick.
Last year, George Santos was kicked out of the US House of Representatives for fraud, stealing from donors, and misuse of campaign contributions, among other things. He promptly made his way to Cameo, to milk his notoriety and get paid to do video messages. The guy appears to be entirely comfortable using his misdeeds as a career springboard.
On Saturday, Santos filed a civil suit against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Disney, claiming Kimmel violated Cameo’s terms by submitting at least 14 Cameo video requests to Santos using fake identities. Five of those videos were used for a segment on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” called “Will Santos Say It?” Among Kimmel’s scripts for Santos: congratulating a woman for cloning her schnauzer named Adolf, and congratulating a man for winning a competitive ground beef eating contest.
According to the suit, Kimmel “misrepresented himself and his motives” to get Santos to “produce personalized videos for the sole purpose of capitalizing on and ridiculing” Santos’s “gregarious personality.” Santos is seeking a minimum of $750,000 in damages.
So yes, one of America’s icons of untruth, a lying liar who lied his way into Congress, is suing someone for lying.
“Could you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for a fraud?” Kimmel said in December. “I mean how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true.”
And a dream come true for Santos, too? Maybe the guy is dreaming about getting a reality series of his very own, or at least a season on “Dancing With the Stars.” But maybe, more realistically, he’s dreaming about staying in the public eye by bringing a civil lawsuit against a high-profile figure.