Second time’s the charm: Support growing in Congress for Santos ouster

WASHINGTON (CN) — The end of Congress’ Thanksgiving recess may herald a reckoning for Representative George Santos, as more and more lawmakers said this week that he should be removed from the House.

The New York Republican, facing a salvo of criminal charges connected to alleged campaign finance violations, fraud and other malfeasance, has already survived one expulsion vote — the House on Nov. 1 struck down such a measure offered by a group of Empire State lawmakers.

This week, however, Santos’s political fortunes are shifting, as the House Ethics Committee published a damning report exposing the sordid details of his conduct.

Dozens of lawmakers from both parties, including some who previously voted against removing the congressman, have said his time is up this time around.

“I’m recommending Mr. Santos resign immediately,” said Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, who helped to defeat the Nov. 1 resolution, “and will vote for his expulsion if he does not.”

Iowa Republican Randy Feenstra said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Santos “has proven that his ethics do not align with what we expect from our leaders.”

“In light of the Ethics Committee report, I will vote to expel him from Congress for his illegal and unethical behavior should he choose not to do the right thing and resign,” Feenstra said.

Representative Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the House Ethics Committee, introduced a resolution Friday morning to expel Santos from Congress. The lawmaker wrote in a statement that the evidence uncovered in his panel’s inquiry “is more than sufficient to warrant punishment” and that “the most appropriate punishment is expulsion.”

Roughly 80 members of Congress would have to back Guest’s resolution to give Santos the boot.

Published Thursday, the Ethics Committee’s report concluded Santos had lied to federal regulators about campaign contributions while running to represent New York’s Third Congressional District in 2020 and 2022. The lawmaker also deceived donors and used campaign funds for an array of personal expenses, investigators found.

Evidence investigators uncovered, they said, backs up allegations made against Santos by the Justice Department, which charged the congressman with 23 federal counts in an October superseding indictment.

Santos has pleaded not guilty to those charges. Despite that, the New York Republican said this week that he would not seek reelection. In a post on X Thursday night, Santos summed up the experience as “my year from Hell.”

“What the ‘ethics committee’ did today was not part of due process,” the lawmaker wrote. “[W]hat they did was poison a the [sic] jury pool on my ongoing investigation with the DOJ. This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights.”

Santos added that he would hold a press conference Nov. 30 and encouraged all members of the media to attend. The lawmaker could very well no longer be a member of Congress when that event takes place — the House could vote on Representative Guest’s expulsion resolution as early as Nov. 28, when it returns from Thanksgiving recess.

Santos has been under intense scrutiny since he took office in January, facing accusations that he fabricated parts of his background and experience while running for Congress. The lawmaker has admitted to flat-out lies about his education and work and to embellishing other details.

Members of New York’s Republican congressional delegation, led by Representative Anthony D’Esposito, have campaigned for months to give Santos the boot. D’Esposito’s first attempt at expelling his colleague came in the spring, but fizzled amid lackluster support from Republican leadership.

The lawmaker got his measure on the House floor earlier this month, but Democrats and Republicans were reticent to remove Santos. The measure failed on a 179-213 vote.

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