come out exposing santos as a fraud, despite the financial resources he-ed marshal to the race, mccarthy had good personal reason to be wary of mr. santos. earlier in 2021, an aide to the candidate was caught impersonating mccarthy s chief of staff. you would think that would be enough for mccarthy to say, don t pretend to be my campaign adviser. but no. and then also, i think this is also nick s great reporting about stefanik knowing. around that time, santos began attracting the suspicion of a pair of friends and potential donors active in new york republican circles. mr. santos claimed to one of them to have secured the endorsement of trump, when he had not. that prompted her to express concerns about santos to plugged in republicans including associates of elise stefanik, one of santos biggest early backers, whose top political aide was assisting his campaign.