Santos says he wants to make public policy ‘entertaining’: ‘I cannot bear to watch C-SPAN’

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) has said he wants to make public policy more “entertaining,” calling politics “boring” and arguing he “cannot bear to watch C-SPAN.” 

“Here’s how politics works. Politics is boring,” Santos told CBS News when CBS2 reporter Marcia Kramer asked the lawmaker about a proposed vaccine mandate-limiting bill titled the “MINAJ Act,” titled after rap star Nicki Minaj.

The controversial congressman said he so named the bill “to make sure that we can get pop culture-meets-politics, and we can harness the energy of a younger generation, which necessarily doesn’t enjoy politics, or laymen people who don’t pay attention to politics.” 

“But then you put some pop culture reference in there and you’re opening the doors to politics to a whole new window of people,” Santos said in the interview, which aired Sunday.

Kramer pressed that “it sounds again like you’re doing your notoriety thing.”

“I’m trying to bring more engagement into public policy. Isn’t that a good thing though?” Santos said. “You make it entertaining … so people can bear to watch C-SPAN. … I cannot bear to watch C-SPAN.” 

The public service channel C-SPAN, which covers government affairs, came into the spotlight earlier this year as the House ran through more than a dozen rounds of voting to elect a Speaker. 

C-SPAN was given, during the window before House rules were adopted for the new session, unprecedented access to cover the votes and control cameras — which prompted some to argue that C-SPAN should stay in control of the cameras throughout the legislative session. 

Santos has come under scrutiny over a number of controversies surrounding his resume, which he admitted to fabricating in part as he ran for office, as well as his campaign finance.

He told Kramer that he plans to use the notoriety he’s come into to his advantage.