0 laughing and i mean it and it's joyful. and i hope we all have that. >> america, if i have one wish for us, it's that one bag of groceries doesn't cost $3,000. >> i know it's kind of pie in the sky but if we work together as a nation we could truly, truly achieve great things. great things that we never thought were possible. we've done it before. >> on behalf of everyone at "anderson cooper 360" and the entire cnn team worldwide, thank you for watching and being with us through it all. i'm tom foreman and my wish for you and yours, how about all of the best and none of the worst in 2023. good evening everyone. this is cnn tonight. we have news tonight on the congressman-elect who keeps getting caught in flagrant lies. he may be in more hot water. you'll recall george santos admitted to lying about key parts of his biography from his wealth to his education to his resume to his family to his religion. now the u.s. attorney's office in the eastern district of new york is looking into some of his dubious finances. the nassau county district attorney has announced she is looking into his, quote, numerous fabrications and inconsistencies. we have new lies he has just been caught in. also, the southwest airlines meltdown continues. the airline is still canceling thousands of flights. passengers are still outraged. we've learned that southwest airlines got a $7 billion bail out during the pandemic. what did they use all that money for? let's begin with george santos and more of his lies getting exposed. the republican congressman-elect just cannot seem to get his own story straight. he lied about going to college. he lied about graduating from college. he lied about who he worked for. he lied about being jewish. cnn's k file just dug up new lies we'll bring you if a moment. now federal prosecutors are looking into his dubious finances. a source tells cnn they're investigating the congressman-elect's financial situation that seems to rapidly swing from being too broke to pay rent to being a multi-millionaire. the district attorney of nassau county new york also says she has santos on her radar. but, wait, there's more. cnn has confirmed that santos was charged with embezzlement in brazil. let's go to cnn's evan mccann with more. >> let's narrow it down and start with the federal investigation now into george santos. who are prosecutors looking at there and is that different than with the nassau county da is looking at? >> reporter: federal prosecutors in new york are investigating santos' finances. that is what a source familiar with the matter is telling us tonight. this is the u.s. attorney's office in the eastern district of new york. santos has faced questions over his wealth and loans totaling more than $700,000 that he made to his winning 2022 campaign. we don't know yet about the scope of the investigation but like much of this story, it is likely more will come into focus in the days ahead. >> eva, we also have new reporting from cnn's k file, our investigative unit. what did they uncover? >> this is really remarkable. from k file, santos said that he attended horace mann prep school in the bronx. i actually grew up in new york city so i'm calling my friends who went there as well today asking them hey do you know this guy? they said we don't know this guy. k file called horace mann and they said he never attended the school but he gave sort of this sad story about his family falling on hard times and him being four months shy of graduation and not being able to graduate from this esteemed school. well, it turns out this entire episode is not true. he also claimed that he stood up at this conference and criticized goldman sachs when he was working there at the salt private equity conference. of course we know santos never worked for goldman sachs. we spoke to anthony carmouchy who many folks are familiar with who runs that conference. they say not only did santos not speak on a panel, he didn't even attend. >> okay. how about these criminal charges against santos in brazil? what do we know about that? >> cnn can now confirm reports santos was charged with embezzlement in a brazilian court. according to case records from the rio de janeiro court of justice. this dates back to 2008, a charge of embezzlement. court records show from 2013 that the charge was archived after the court was unable to locate santos. >> okay. thank you very much for all of that reporting. as we've said this is not going away, this story. so much to unpack tonight. we're joined by former nixon white house counsel john dean, cnn political commentator errol lewis, nina turner cochair of bernie sanders '2020 presidential campaign and the former governor of south carolina mark sanford. great to have you all here. just to recap for everybody i want to put up on the screen some of the lies george santos has been caught in. they are wide ranging. he never worked for citigroup or goldman sachs. he didn't graduate from baruch college or go to nyu. he didn't go to college at all. his parents are not holocaust survivors, he is not jush. he never ran an annimal nonprofit. he did not leave horace mann because he never went there to begin with. he was charged with embezzlement in brazil as cnn learned for forging an elderly man's signature on checks that were not his. i think you wouldn't want this person to be a lawmaker in your country's capitol but he is going to be, so now what? >> well, now what? there are a couple different possibilities. one is that he does get seated and he serves and if the law catches up with him then and possibly only then would his fellow members of congress decide to take action against him. the last member of congress to be kicked out was after he was convicted on ten federal fraud charges. you can be under quite a cloud and still exist in congress. ask matt gaetz about that. any number of members are being investigated at any time facing very serious charges. that is one distinct possibility, that the lies that this man has told and the investigations of those lies are likely to have some consequences. while it is very attractive to look at the embellishment and people can kind of understand that on an emotional level, fake it till you make it, the ones, the charges and the lies that involve money are going to get him in a lot of trouble. when you raise money for animal rescue and none of the money makes its way to where it is supposed to be that's when you get into real trouble. those are the kind of charges the prosecutors will look at most closely. >> governor, why haven't we heard anything from republican leader mccarthy? he okay with all of this? why isn't he saying anything? >> clearly he is not. i'm sure of that. the reality is ability to become speaker hinges on one vote. it is very tight given the hold outs on sort of the right flank of the republican conference. so as a consequence in terms of self-preservation he is quiet. i think it is a real mistake and where leadership is absolutely essential in stepping out, condemning wrong, and saying, this does not fly. we do not want him as part of our caucus. he'll be a drain and distraction and he shouldn't join us. there ought to be that kind of forceful comment. i doubt we'll see that in mccarthy though. >> nina, it is sort of fascinating to listen to george santos in these lies because he is unabashed when he does it and when he is caught. here is a moment where he is talking about going to that new york city prep school and the sad story about how he had to withdraw because his parents, you know, fell on hard times. i just want viewers to hear him in his own words. >> they sent me to a good prep school which was horace mann prep in the bronx. my senior year of prep school unfortunately my parents fell on hard times so, anyway. i left school four months to graduation am. >> apparently none of that was true. what's going to happen? >> the man is a pathological liar. you look up pathological liar he is at the top of the list right now. if the governor's contention is correct that for self-preservation mccarthy is just going to let this go on without speaking out and up against this and saying we don't want this man here, then that is a very sad commentary, condemnation on the gop leadership itself. the people who are going to lose out the most are the voters who voted for this fraud because they did not know he was a fraud. now that the truth is out, the republicans should be calling for this man to have some decency and step down. i mean, there are lies and then there are damn lies. this man has told lies. >> john, there are three republicans so far who have spoken out, not in leadership but new republicans to congress. congressman elect nick lolota, and two others. basically what he has said is he believes a full investigation by the house ethics committee is necessary. your thoughts? >> i think that's absolutely correct. it's very difficult to remove an elected member. it takes a two-thirds vote of the house. there is no way the republicans will go for an ejection of this man even after he is sworn in and seated. he is going to wrap himself around his patriotism, his seat in congress, and claim they're coming after him as something of a defense and it might work a little bit for him. but he's got both the federal and state governments now investigating. he is in a heap of trouble. he may well have committed wire fraud by putting up false advertising to entice donors. that is a serious offense. he may -- there are endless potentials in new york election laws he might have violated. i don't think he is going to survive but i think speaker would be mccarthy is going to get his vote. >> errol, it is incredible there is no process for getting rid of someone who has this flagrantly violated public trust. i saw today a petition going around among i think voters in his district i guess trying to write him out of the position. i don't even know if that is possible. >> yeah. we don't have any legal provisions for this. this is a highly unusual situation. frankly, the timing is unusual. for this to all come out after the election but before he's been sworn in i think is probably the most unusual thing about it. you know, plenty of politicians get caught lying after the fact but in this case he is not quite a politician until he takes the oath of office. once he does john is exactly right. he'll be in ensconced and have a couple new privileges that he won't be able, we won't be able to sort of pass through or crack through. he even has a relative immunity speaking privilege as long as the statements are made on the floor of the house. so he can spin all kinds of stories and have relative immunity as a member of congress. we are in a very tough position. this is intended to be self-correcting. the system is intended to be self-correcting. i wouldn't like george santos' chances for re-election or for example if the seat were vacated and he tried to run again. i don't think he'd get very far. ultimately that is the way the system works. >> governor, what committee is he fit to sit on in congress? >> none. that is something mccarthy could do is not seat him on a committee. that is ultimately a leadership prerogative and something i would encourage leadership to exercise. we will see. but again, i think the bigger cone cone -- conundrum we're all dealing with is somehow trump reset the bar on the value and significance of truth in the political process. we see and hear in its aftermath effects like this that i think going back to john dean's time and others where people would just say, the uprise has to end, you'd see a much stronger pushback at the local level and maybe that will come next and much stronger pushback at the leadership level. tragically we've not seen that thus far. >> nina, what about that? has integrity sort of lost its way now? >> this is outrageous. that leadership does not have to follow the path of president donald trump. but mccarthy, all he cares about right now is getting that one vote and basically -- of the third district in new york. that is the problem. trump is not the problem though i am not disagreeing with the governor in terms of resetting the bar but mccarthy can do something different and put the pressure on this man. he needs to have some decency and the gop needs some decency to say, look. we don't want you here. go. put the pressure on him. tell him to stand down. but he's not going to do that because all he cares about is being the next speaker of the house. >> maybe he'll do it right after george santos votes for him. can he get rid of him then? >> as i say, it is very difficult to expel somebody from the house. what they can do is not give him a seat on a -- any decent committee. they can put him in charge of janitorial services or something like that. but i think we have a republican party today that trump somehow convinced should have no shame. and they don't. it is not the republican party i was once a member or the governor. so it's a different time. and this man seems to get out there and say anything he wants to and no repercussions and no personal anxiety about his behavior. so it is really quite striking. and the system isn't built for these kind of people. >> yeah. i made a prediction last night and it has come true which is this story is not going away. so i predict there may be even more chapters with george santos. thank you all very much for the insight on that. next we have more revelations from the january 6th committee. testimony about how donald trump suggested a blanket pardon for some of the rioters at the capitol.