As Santos fiddles with his phone, investigators circle, speaker votes are cast.

He sat off by himself in the U.S. House of Representatives, playing with his phone on the first day, looking dejected on the second, clad in a crisply pressed white shirt under a gray suit, set off with a bright blue tie and punctuated with a small circular pin signifying his status as an incoming congressman.

George Santos, the Republican freshman from Long Island, has garnered perhaps more headlines leading up to his swearing in than any of the other 434 representatives-elect.

There were the lies he told about graduating from college. He didn’t. About his job experience at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Nope, didn’t work for either. About being Jewish and his grandparents fleeing the Holocaust. Might have made for a compelling campaign speech, but no, he later tried to explain, what he meant was Jew – “ish,” meaning similar to, but not actually, a Jew. Then folks found out he called himself a Jew and didn’t just claim ish-ness.

What can Congress do?: Rep.-elect George Santos caught in numerous lies ahead of winning election

Santos at first said he had “embellished” his resume and used “a poor choice of words.” “I own up to that,” he told the New York Post. “We do stupid things in life.”

Soon, the Internet began to buzz about "The Talented Mr. Santos,” a play on “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” a 1999 movie about a man fabulist who lied about himself and fabricated his life.

There were the claims he made about running an animal rescue group and owning properties that there was no record he owned, and The New York Times reported that Santos appeared to come by a load of unexplained wealth, loaning his congressional campaign some $700,000 when his income was just $55,000 two years earlier.

A district attorney in Nassau County, New York, opened an investigation. Federal prosecutors opened a probe. So did the New York Attorney General.

'He's an embarrassment'

Initially, the victory by Santos, an openly gay Latino Republican who flipped a Long Island House seat held by Democrats for a decade, was seen as one of his party’s bright spots in an otherwise underwhelming midterm election. Now, not so much.

“George Santos is a liar, fraud, and cheat who’s proven he can’t even issue an apology without spewing more lies,” Nebeyatt Betre, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement Wednesday. “He’s an embarrassment to Long Island and is completely undeserving of being a member of Congress.”

Zac Petkanas, who leads Democrats' House Accountability War Room, also pulled no punches. “George Santos is a serial liar and MAGA extremist," he told USA TODAY. "He fits right in with this new MAGA Congress."

But Santos was not dissuaded, having arrived in Washington, D.C., this week to take the oath of office. To become a congressman. He declined to answer reporters’ questions, including inquiries about whether he would, in fact, resign.

No, Santos sat on the Republican side of the House floor during each successive round of votes. He cast his for McCarthy, six times. His focus returned often to his phone, his face an expression of disgust, his lower lip jutting out, in what appeared stubborn frustration.

Contributing: Associated Press

Go deeper

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'My sins ...are embellishing my resume': Rep.-elect George Santos admits to lying about college and career

District attorney opens probe: Nassau County to investigate GOP Rep.-elect George Santos for 'stunning' lies

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As House speaker votes roll on, New York Rep. George Santos bides time