Ex-boyfriend [Pedro Vilarva] of George Santos speaks out to CNN
by Erib Burnett
CNN
Jan 26, 2023
CNN's Erin Burnett talks to the former boyfriend of embattled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) about their relationship and the many false claims Santos has publicly made. #CNN #News
Transcript
0:00
New video tonight of embattled
0:01
Republican Congressman George Santos
0:03
under fire
0:04
for telling a long list of lies
0:05
to voters.
0:06
Dodging questions from our Manu
0:07
Raju, specifically refusing to say why
0:09
among many other lies,
0:11
he falsely claimed to be a member
0:13
of the Baruch College volleyball team.
0:15
Here's Santos, his response.
0:17
Why did you lie
0:18
about being on a volleyball
0:20
you're like American people.
0:22
When you stop
0:25
reporting, I'll start to show
0:26
where you actually were on a volleyball
0:28
team.
0:28
Is that right?
0:29
In college, Baruch College.
0:30
Is that true?
0:32
Is that true?
0:34
This is Santos
0:35
ex-boyfriend is speaking
0:36
to OUTFRONT
0:37
for his first television interview
0:39
and an OUTFRONT exclusive.
0:40
Pedro Vilarva
0:41
shared this photo with us of him
0:43
celebrating Christmas with Santos
0:45
and other loved ones in 2014.
0:48
He told me that Santos went by the name
0:49
Anthony Devolder when they dated.
0:51
They lived together for about a year.
0:53
And the Lava says
0:54
he repeatedly turned down
0:55
Santos proposals to get engaged
0:59
Pedro joins me now from Brazil.
1:01
And Pedro,
1:02
I very much appreciate your time
1:03
and I know
1:04
that you're
1:05
deciding to speak out
1:06
was a very careful decision
1:09
Does this George Santos,
1:11
the one that we are now all seeing, sound
1:14
like the man that you dated
1:15
and lived with?
1:17
No.
1:18
Not at all.
1:20
Completely different person.
1:23
How so?
1:26
It's just
1:27
at the beginning of the relationship.
1:29
It was fine.
1:31
He was so sweet, caring
1:35
He actually showed
1:37
that he actually cared, you know?
1:39
But later on,
1:40
like when I started finding out the lies,
1:43
I thought that was it.
1:45
That it was my phone.
1:46
The ones that he stole, that
1:49
you ponded that I believe
1:52
the jewelry as well from from our friend
1:55
that used to live with us.
1:57
And so,
1:58
like the tickets to Hawaii that he had
2:01
purchased for us to
2:02
go where he was planning
2:03
to be
2:04
proposing for the third time as well.
2:07
Well, the engagement never happened.
2:09
Nothing like that.
2:11
I know you say Santos
2:14
repeatedly asked you to get engaged
2:16
before you broke up,
2:17
and he appears, Pedro,
2:18
to reference you
2:19
in an Instagram post
2:20
that you shared with us from 2015
2:23
he writes,
2:24
This is my family that I managed to
2:26
screw up.
2:27
I will not give up.
2:28
I will fight till the end.
2:29
I love you, PvE.
2:31
I miss you now.
2:33
Pedro, you were 18
2:34
and Santos was 26 when you met him.
2:37
When did you know
2:39
that you couldn't trust him?
2:42
Towards the end of the relationship.
2:44
It was more started.
2:45
Like I started finding out
2:46
about the lights in December
2:48
and then it went on till February.
2:52
And then
2:53
that's when I broke up with them.
2:55
And then I went on my way.
2:58
But then later on,
2:59
like we still had contact with each other
3:01
because he didn't like,
3:02
I found out about the lies,
3:03
but we still kept
3:05
in contact with each other
3:06
just being like, Oh, how are you?
3:09
How's your mom and stuff?
3:10
Because when I found out
3:10
that she was sick, I still cared for her.
3:13
And then I went to visit her
3:14
a couple of times later on.
3:16
But then
3:17
when I found out about the other stuff,
3:19
I was like, What a psycho
3:22
You know,
3:23
I want to share a picture of you
3:24
that you shared
3:25
with us of you and his mother.
3:27
You say you were close.
3:28
And besides, you know,
3:30
he said she's was a survivor of the nine
3:32
11 terror attacks, right? She was.
3:33
He also claims
3:34
she was an executive at Citigroup.
3:36
She was a part of many of his lies there.
3:38
There you are with her.
3:39
This is a picture you shared with us.
3:42
Did did she ever discuss
3:43
these these lives with you?
3:45
Did she know any of this?
3:47
Oh, I never
3:50
know. Nine 11? No.
3:52
Citigroup, nothing like that
3:54
from when I was with them.
3:56
I never saw her going to work
3:57
at Citigroup. Or anything.
3:59
And they never mentioned anything
4:01
about nine 11,
4:02
even because I was born on nine 11.
4:05
And if I see if they knew that
4:08
I was born in nine 11,
4:09
I think they were going to reference that
4:11
and say something about it,
4:13
but never heard anything about it.
4:16
I want to play Jorge Santos
4:18
what we've all now heard
4:19
Pedro explaining
4:20
who he is
4:21
in his own words over the years.
4:24
My grandparents survived the Holocaust.
4:27
I'm a Latino, too.
4:28
My mom was a nine elevenths survivor.
4:31
They sent me to a good prep school, so
4:33
and which was harassment.
4:34
Prep in the Bronx.
4:35
I actually went to school on
4:38
on a volleyball scholarship.
4:39
And when I was in Peru,
4:40
we were the number one volleyball.
4:42
But I put myself through college
4:44
and got an MBA from
4:45
NYU and also founded my own
4:47
nonprofit organization.
4:49
Prior to running, I decided to close it.
4:52
It was an animal rescue
4:53
We had a great organization.
4:55
We were able to save animals, dogs,
4:57
cats, horses.
4:58
I've lived an honest life.
4:59
I've never been accused, sued of anything
5:04
bad doing.
5:06
I do want to
5:07
note, of course,
5:07
he was charged with embezzlement.
5:09
So he has obviously been
5:10
accused of bad doing.
5:11
But you know, Pedro,
5:12
the point is
5:13
some of these lies were so minor
5:15
and yet so specific.
5:16
I mean, the volleyball one. Right.
5:18
Not just saying that
5:19
he played volleyball,
5:20
but he had a scholarship
5:21
that he slayed teams
5:22
from Harvard and Yale
5:23
that he was the smallest player
5:24
on the team, that he needed
5:25
to get two knee replacements.
5:27
I mean, you know,
5:27
he went deep with the lies.
5:30
Why does he do this?
5:31
I think he was I don't know.
5:33
I think he's just out of his mind.
5:35
And one lie led to the other.
5:38
And now this.
5:39
Everybody found out.
5:40
Like they're finding out
5:42
like the little stuff as well.
5:44
I just think
5:46
he should now be in Congress.
5:49
And one.
5:51
Oh, my God.
5:51
It was so many things that I found out
5:53
afterwards as well.
5:55
Things that I did not know
5:56
because I still believe that
5:57
he actually went to college.
5:59
Like like he used to say
6:01
I already knew about the Citigroup.
6:03
They he said that he used to work in
6:05
like those investments.
6:06
And so so I already knew that
6:08
those were lies
6:09
because I never saw him working actually.
6:13
But then
6:15
the other stuff,
6:16
like the stuff about the part
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he actually did used to say
6:21
about the organization,
6:22
about football as well,
6:24
that he used to do like
6:28
he there was another person.
6:30
They also had a pet organization,
6:32
so they used to have like a little
6:34
picking fights with each other as also
6:38
But then I never saw
6:39
anything going towards there like
6:44
charity stuff when we were together.
6:47
He never used to do anything.
6:48
So for his dad.
6:49
So it was so it's.
6:51
You know, what do you say?
6:52
Are you surprised he's
6:53
now a member of Congress?
6:55
That
6:56
that was that was an ambition that he had
7:00
always what he always looked for
7:03
was fame and power.
7:06
That's all the all he cared about.
7:09
And he got it.
7:09
He got the thing
7:11
of the lies
7:12
and he got the power
7:13
that he's in Congress now.
7:14
But it's a he shouldn't be there.
7:17
Well, the story has gotten so big, right?
7:19
Everyone everyone
7:20
is paying attention to it.
7:21
You know,
7:21
he's being spoofed by late
7:23
night shows and other comedians.
7:26
Here's a clip from this
7:27
weekend's Saturday Night Live.
7:28
Don't know if you saw it,
7:29
but I'll play it for you, Peter.
7:32
You lied about your mom dying in nine 11.
7:34
I think I said seven 11.
7:36
No, you know,
7:38
you even lied about being Jewish.
7:39
No, I said I was Jewish.
7:42
Jewish people need to know who you are.
7:44
Okay, well,
7:44
I am George
7:45
Santo's mischievous older sister.
7:48
Nasty.
7:50
I graduated on a volleyball scholarship
7:52
from Baraka tomorrow night.
7:53
University
7:57
I see you laughing.
7:58
People are laughing.
7:59
But obviously, you know,
8:01
this is serious stuff.
8:02
I mean,
8:02
do you think that he'll ever resign?
8:06
I don't think so.
8:07
His ego's too is too big.
8:10
Isn't too high.
8:11
He's not going to resign
8:13
if they don't find out
8:14
something to get him off
8:15
he's not going to do it, that's for sure.
8:17
All right.
8:18
Well, Pedro, I appreciate your time.
8:19
Thank you very, very much.
8:22
I appreciate your time as well.
8:24
Thank you so much.