House votes to expel Rep George Santos from Congress

Table Of Content

• George Santos ends long shot comeback bid for Congress after being expelled
• The Ethics Committee's report
• Column: President Biden’s big campaign promises come with a warning label
• George Santos Said He Was Running for Congress Again. (He’s Not.)
• More News
• New Yorkers, mainstream Republicans and those most familiar with Santos’s case turned against him.

Mr. Santos’s expulsion ends one of the most turbulent political odysseys in recent memory, a stunning reversal in fortune for a political outsider whose election in Long Island and Queens last year was once heralded as a sign of Republican resurgence. On this vote, the yeas are 311, the nays are 114, with two recorded as present, two-thirds voting in the affirmative. The resolution is adopted and a motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. The clerk will notify the governor of the State of New York of the action of the House. Under clause 5D of Rule 20, the chair announces to the House that in light of the expulsion of the gentleman from New York, Mr. Santos, the whole number of the House is now 434. Mr. Santos, a New York Republican, is the sixth member of the House to be expelled in the body’s history.

George Santos ends long shot comeback bid for Congress after being expelled

But recapturing the seat may be more difficult than many Democrats once hoped. David Blake, 68, drove 10 minutes from his home in New Hyde Park on Long Island to Santos's field office in Douglaston, Queens, when he heard that Santos had been expelled from Congress. “I know he’s in Washington, but I had to be here when it happened,” he said. “He was a major distraction to the Republicans themselves." Blake, who called Santos's lies “off the charts,” took selfies in front of his office to commemorate the moment. They have also charged him with stealing from donors by repeatedly charging their credit cards without authorization, and dispersing the funds to his and others’ campaigns, as well as his own bank account.

The Ethics Committee's report

Rep. George Santos remains defiant as House to vote on expulsion this week - CBS News

Rep. George Santos remains defiant as House to vote on expulsion this week.

Posted: Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Other members of his leadership team, including the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 House Republicans — Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Elise Stefanik of New York — also voted to save Mr. Santos. Mr. Johnson, the speaker, had made no secret of his desire to keep Mr. Santos in Congress, citing concerns about creating a new precedent in which members could be ousted without a criminal conviction. Lydone Anderson, 55, of Douglaston, said Mr. Santos should have resigned months ago. Outside his district office in the Douglaston neighborhood of Queens on Friday, some of his constituents gathered outside to take selfies and commemorate the moment. One passing motorist offered his thoughts in a decidedly New York fashion.

Column: President Biden’s big campaign promises come with a warning label

The serial fabulist, indicted on 23 federal felony counts, arrived on the Capitol grounds at 8 a.m. Thursday for a news conference where he railed against the precedent that was being set with the vote to expel him scheduled for the following day. Less than seven weeks after announcing he would try to return to the House of Representatives, Mr. Santos, the fabulist ex-congressman from New York who is facing federal charges, said on Tuesday that he would end his latest congressional bid. Opponents of the tax include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a number of real estate groups and the editorial board of the Los Angeles Daily News. They say the tax could drive up rents and make Los Angeles a harder place to do business, which could cause firms to flee the city. Some also take issue with how the proposal is being pitched to voters since it’s being called a “mansion tax,” even though most its proceeds would come from sales of multifamily housing and commercial property.

George Santos expulsion spurs rare bipartisanship among House lawmakers - Axios

George Santos expulsion spurs rare bipartisanship among House lawmakers.

Posted: Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

That’s good news for a state still mired in a housing crisis that is fueling poverty and inequality and hindering economic growth. And it’s a welcome sign that voters are still eager to do more, even after the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom have passed ambitious laws to spur housing construction and after many communities have passed earlier tax measures to accelerate affordable housing construction. — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced he is calling a special legislative session in December for lawmakers to consider passing a tax on excessive profits oil companies are making because of the increase in California gas prices, Times writer Phil Willon reported. Newsom said he is working with the leadership of the Democratic-controlled Legislature to determine the best way to tax the profits and return that money to Californians getting stung every time they fill up their gas tanks. Unlike the nationwide increase in gasoline costs over the summer — driven by high oil prices and a surge in travel — the recent spike is unique to California and some of its Western neighbors, underscoring the fragility of the state’s transitioning energy markets. Newsom, as of late September, sat on a reelection campaign fund with more than $23 million on hand.

"You gotta go!" Bowman repeatedly shouted, also telling him to "resign." As Santos was speaking to reporters, Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both D-N.Y., could be heard taunting him. Just calm down and step back,” said the Louisiana Republican representative Clay Higgins as he addressed the House. “It’s theater for the cameras, theater for the microphones, theater for the American people at the expense of the American people,” he added.

Santos made his case for remaining in office by appealing directly to lawmakers who worry they are setting a new precedent that could make expulsions more common. Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California was the first to introduce a "privileged" resolution to expel the New York Republican after a damning report from the House Ethics Committee earlier this month said there was "substantial evidence" that Santos repeatedly broke the law. Introducing it as privileged means the House is required to vote on it within two days. He also launched a tirade against New York Democratic representative Jamaal Bowman who was charged last month with setting off a false fire alarm in a House office building ahead of a House vote on a government funding bill. The GOP congressman slammed the committee's report as politically motivated, claimed it poisoned the jury pool in his federal case and set a "dangerous" precedent. The Ethics Committee’s comprehensive report, which concluded there was “substantial evidence” that Mr. Santos had committed crimes, was released two weeks later.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has not asked Santos to step down, but said he would if Santos is found guilty or if the Ethics Committee says he broke the law. Several Republican lawmakers have called on Santos to resign, including GOP Rep. Mike Lawler of New York. The expulsion is just the latest chapter in what has been a spectacular fall from grace for Santos, a first-term lawmaker initially celebrated as an up-and-comer after he flipped a district from Democrats last year and helped Republicans win control of the House. Reports began to emerge that Santos had lied about having Jewish ancestry, a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree. His presence in the House quickly became a distraction and an embarrassment to the party. Congress voted to expel Rep. George Santos of New York on Friday, as more than two-thirds of the House of Representatives found his actions, fabrications and alleged lawbreaking warranted the chamber's most severe punishment.

Elections

Last week, Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene and allow a special master to examine roughly 100 classified records found during the court-approved search of his Florida home in early August. The Justice Department is investigating alleged retention of classified information, theft of government documents and obstruction of justice. I think this will play into down-ballot races but it’s too soon to say exactly how. The Fed has endorsed a number of candidates and put quite a bit of money into races of this election cycle.

Whoever emerges as the winner in February would also likely become the front-runner for next fall’s elections and lend their party momentum as they prepare to fight over six crucial swing seats in New York alone, including a total of three on Long Island. Two staff members inside Santos's field office in Douglaston, Queens, watched the vote go down on a computer. Through the window, reporters could see his district director, Mark Woolley, bring his hand to his forehead and shake his head. He walked to the back of the office before preparing to come out and deliver a statement.

But dozens of Democrats also opposed the motion to expel Mr. Santos, even as their party has been unified in calling for his resignation. On Tuesday, he posted, "I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house" to Democrats. Five members have been expelled from the House in U.S. history, three of them in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy. The most recent member to be expelled was Democratic Rep. James Traficant of Ohio, who was ousted in 2002 after he was convicted of 10 felony counts of racketeering, bribery and fraud.

He also acknowledged the political reality of his tiny Republican majority, which allows him to lose no more than a handful of votes from his own party on any piece of legislation, and which made the prospect of losing a precious G.O.P. vote unpalatable. The author of the expulsion resolution, Michael Guest, Republican of Mississippi, said he understood the frustration from members within his party but strongly pushed back against the idea that the expulsion was inappropriate. But he expressed relief for the office’s staff members that the months of speculation about Mr. Santos’s political future had come to an end. Representatives of the Architect of the Capitol, which maintains the congressional complex, arrived promptly Friday afternoon to change the locks on the door to Santos’s House office. C-SPAN got footage of the work, not long after Santos left the building.

The first effort to expel him in May, led by Democrats, was blocked by Republicans and referred to the Ethics Committee for further investigation. The House is now required to act on the competing efforts to oust the indicted congressman by Thursday. After the release of the Ethics report, Santos announced Thursday that he would not seek re-election next year. Santos' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the expulsion resolution. By referring the matter to the House Committee on Ethics, which has been investigating Santos since early March, Republicans for now avoided a vote on the resolution itself, which was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. “Every member expelled in history of this institution has been convicted of crimes or confederate turncoats guilty of treason.