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A day after federal prosecutors levied new charges against Rep. George Santos (R-NY), a group of his fellow New York freshman Republicans want to make sure he does not serve out his term.
“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster, George Santos,” stated Rep. Anthony D’Esposito on Twitter.
The lawmaker added that he would be joined by first-term New York Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams.
Santos may be the most controversial member currently serving in Congress, which is quite the distinction.
In fact, in a way, he never got elected at all because much of his persona was invented. Therefore, the voters of his district did not vote for the person he really his; they voted for somebody he pretended to be.
Even before he was sworn in, it became clear that Santos had embellished his resume quite a bit.
Over time, more and more revelations came to light — not just of lies he told but also of alleged and admitted criminal activities on two continents.
Since he took office, Santos has been accused of sexual harassment, he admitted to theft, and he was indicted for a variety of crimes in May.
It was that indictment that was updated on Tuesday. In total, he now faces 23 federal charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud.
Following the initial indictment, House Republicans had an opportunity to kick Santos out of Congress. Instead, in light of their slim majority in the chamber, they unanimously voted to keep him around, even though a vast majority of Republican voters thought he should be expelled and several of his GOP colleagues had expressed similar sentiments.
Now, however, it seems as though at least some of them are fed up with Santos… even though expelling him would temporarily, and perhaps permanently, reduce their House majority.
Last November, the person whom Santos pretended to be won a district previously held by Rep. Tom Suozzi, who had vacated his seat to run for governor.
Having lost that race, Suozzi announced this week that he would try to win his old seat back.
It seems highly unlikely that Santos would be his opponent in any case. Even if he is not expelled, it seems probable that he will not survive a Republican primary.
It will be up to the rest of the GOP conference whether he lasts that long.
Once an expulsion resolution has been filed, the House will form an investigatory committee and, if it recommends that Santos should be kicked out, then the matter goes to the entire chamber for a vote.
There, it takes a two-thirds majority to expel him.
While Santos is the difference between a slim and a slimmer GOP majority, it stands to reason that he will do more harm to Republicans if they allow him to stay in office.
Even now, he is already a huge political liability because his case is so egregious.
On the other hand, it would also be tough for Republicans to explain why they are holding Santos to account while giving Donald Trump, who faces four times as many charges, a pass.
