'We do stupid things in life': GOP Congressman-elect George Santos admits to lying about his résumé

United States Congressman-elect George Santos (R-New York) admitted to lying about his résumé in an exclusive interview with The New York Post published on Monday.

Santos – the first openly-gay freshman Republican elected to the House of Representatives – was discovered by The New York Times earlier this month as having fabricated his educational, personal, professional, and religious backgrounds.

Following repeated denials, Santos insisted to the Post that “I am not a criminal" and that "this [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”

READ MORE: GOP Congressman-elect George Santos promises to explain all the seeming lies in his bio

Santos admitted that "my sins here are embellishing my résumé. I’m sorry." Santos further revealed that he "didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my résumé,” he conceded, adding that “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life.”

Santos also came clean about his purported ancestral Jewish heritage as well as his sexual orientation.

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos stated. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was 'Jew-ish.'”

Additional reports emerged last week that Santos had been married to a woman and subsequently divorced, which he had omitted from his public profile. Nonetheless, he confirmed that he is "very much gay" and that he is "okay with my sexuality. People change. I’m one of those people who change.”

The full interview is available at this link.

READ MORE: George Santos apparently also lied about being the grandson of Ukrainian Holocaust survivors