George Santos Compares Himself to Rosa Parks

New York Rep. George Santos appeared to compare himself to civil rights icon Rosa Parks as he criticized fellow Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, after the Utah senator told him he shouldn't be in Congress.

Santos made the comparison during a conversation on talk show host Mike Crispi's podcast as he criticized Romney about an exchange before President Joe Biden's State of the Union address in February.

The two Republicans were seen engaged in a conversation ahead of Biden's speech and the senator later spoke about the interaction with reporters, calling Santos a "sick puppy" who "shouldn't have been there."

Romney also suggested that Santos should have been "sitting in the back row and staying quiet," because an ethics complaint had been filed against him.

"I don't think he ought to be in Congress, and he certainly shouldn't be in the aisle trying to shake the hand of the president of the United States and dignitaries coming in," Romney said following the incident. "It's an embarrassment."

Speaking on Crispi's podcast, Santos said: "They come for me, I go right back for them, because I think for far too long they've gotten away with going along to get along. So no, it's not going to stay that way anymore.

"I'm gonna call them out. You want to call me a liar. I'll call you a sellout," Santos said.

The Republican then mentioned Romney, who told Santos he didn't belong in the congressional chamber during Biden's speech.

"I mean Mitt Romney—the man goes to the State of the Union of the United States wearing a Ukraine lapel pin, tells me, a Latino gay man, that I shouldn't sit in the front, that I should be in the back," Santos told Crispi.

"Well, guess what? Rosa Parks wouldn't sit in the back and neither am I going to sit in the back," Santos went on. "That's just the reality of how it works. Mitt Romney lives in a very different world and he needs to buckle up because it's gonna be a bumpy ride for him."

Santos has criticized Romney in the past following their exchange before the State of the Union.

In February, Santos told reporters it "wasn't very Mormon" of Romney to confront him on the House floor—a reference to the senator's faith.

Newsweek has reached out to Santos' and Romney's offices via email for comment.

A video of the podcast comments shared to Twitter by PatriotTakes, which describes itself in part as "researchers monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism," had been viewed more than 300,000 times as of early Monday morning.

Mike Crispi retweeted the PatriotTakes video to his own followers on Sunday.

Santos pled not guilty in May to a 13-count federal indictment that accuses him of committing fraud during his 2022 campaign and alleges he used political donations "to line his pockets," among other allegations.

Before facing federal charges, Santos was already under pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to resign from Congress amid accusations that he lied about his education, his employment history and his claim to be the "grandson of Holocaust refugees."

Parks, an icon of the civil rights movement, famously refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 for a white passenger when the white section of the bus was full. Her act of civil disobedience became one of the seminal moments in the campaign for civil rights and the end of segregation.