Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) said Thursday that he’s willing to resign from Congress if a certain number of people ask him to do so.
However, the figure he initially offered caused a lot of confusion and speculation among Twitter users.
Various state and local GOP leaders in New York called on the truth-challenged congressman to “immediately” resign Wednesday, but he refused to do so.
On Thursday, he took a different tack and told reporters, “If 142 people ask for me to resign, I’ll resign.”
Since that’s not such a huge number in a country of 333 million people, some critics of Santos saw an opportunity for low-effort, high-reward grassroots action.
Others speculated on what, precisely, might be the significance of the seemingly humble number 142…
…only to be frustrated.
Santos later clarified that he’d had a different, much larger number in mind ― 142,000 people, the number of votes he got when he ran for Congress. But he did not offer any more details.