Lying NY Rep. George Santos becomes 6th member expelled from House ever
Bye, George.
Lying Long Island Rep. George Santos (R-NY) became the sixth member ever to be expelled from the US House of Representatives on Friday, a little more than a year after he won election despite fabricating much of his personal and professional history, lying about his campaign’s finances and defrauding donors.
The House voted 311-114 to oust the 35-year-old Republican, with 105 of his fellow GOP lawmakers supporting his removal.
All but seven House Democrats voted to boot Santos, with Bobby Scott of Virginia and Nikema Williams of Georgia opposing the measure and Al Green of Texas and Jonathan Jackson of Illinois voting present.
Eight members, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and far-left Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, did not vote.
“The clerk will inform the governor of the state of New York of the action of the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced solemnly as a hush fell over the chamber. “The whole number of the House is now 434.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was “prepared to undertake the solemn responsibility of filling the vacancy” in a statement posted to X.
By law, Hochul must announce a special election within 10 days to be held no more than 90 days post-vacancy.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was outraged by the result, telling reporters that any member could face expulsion in the future based on “the whims of random politicians.”
“That’s how the Roman Republic fell. And if we continue these kinds of actions, that’s how this republic will fall,” Donalds said.
“I’m upset about it because you’re talking about erasing the very fabric of what’s made us the greatest nation in the world,” he went on. “And it’s not the actions of George Santos. It’s the fact that everybody is afforded their day in court, and that was denied to him.”
“Are we gonna now tell every American that if you’re accused of something, you get fired on the spot? Is that now going to be the standard in the United States of America?” Donalds added.
Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said she “had faith” in the Nassau County Republican Party to put forward a winning candidate and keep the seat in GOP hands.
“It’s up to the voters … whether Republicans hold this seat,” Malliotakis said. “But certainly just to keep somebody here who was a stain on the institution and did these wrong things just because we wanted that extra vote — that’s not the right thing. We needed to vote our conscience.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the outcome posed “a very serious problem” to the Republican Party.
“They have proclaimed a new standard of ethics, and yet they all continue to stand by [former President] Donald Trump, who lied about having won the presidential election … and then proceeded to try to overthrow” the election “and violate our constitutional order,” Raskin said.
Santos, who dodged two previous expulsion votes earlier this year, told “Fox & Friends” hours before the vote that he had already “accepted the fate.”
“I believe that if it’s God’s will to keep me here, I will stay and if … it is his will for me to leave, I will leave and I will do so graciously,” he said.
Santos watched the vote from the back of the House chamber with an overcoat draped over his shoulders. As his fate became clear, he left the Capitol and got into a waiting car.
When asked if he would exercise the privileges accorded former members who have not been convicted of a felony — including access to the House floor, dining area, and gym — Santos answered: “Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place,” according to CNN.
Johnson, who expressed “real reservations” earlier in the week about voting to expel Santos, told reporters shortly before ballots were cast that he would not support the congressman’s removal.
He had also urged House Republicans “to vote their conscience,” stressing that there were “good faith” arguments for and against Santos’ removal.
Every other member of House GOP leadership also revealed they would oppose the expulsion less than an hour before the vote.
“No Member of Congress has ever been expelled without a conviction; this is a dangerous precedent and I am voting no based upon my concerns regarding due process,” House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York said on X.
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) revealed in an email obtained by Punchbowl News that he was, in fact, one of the donors that Santos had defrauded.
“Earlier this year,” Miller wrote, “I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card — and the personal credit card of my Mother — for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits. Neither my mother nor I approved these charges or were aware of them.”
The lawmaker added that he and his relative had spent “tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees” as a result of the deception and that he knew of “roughly 400 other people to whom the Santos campaign allegedly did this. I believe some other members of this conference might have had the same experience.”
Friday’s vote followed a scathing report from the House Ethics Committee about the congressman’s use of campaign funds for personal splurges, including X-rated OnlyFans subscriptions, Botox and lavish trips.
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Clay Higgins (R-La.) expressed solidarity with Santos during debate on the House floor Thursday afternoon and argued against his removal.
“Whatever Mr. Santos did with Botox or OnlyFans is less concerning to me than the indictment against Senator [Bob] Menendez [D-NJ], who is holding gold bars inscribed with Arabic on them from Egypt while he’s still getting classified briefings today,” Gaetz said in a floor speech.
In a move that will surely be noted, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), the son of the indicted Democratic senator, voted to expel Santos.
The elder Menendez has similarly refused to resign in the face of federal corruption charges.
But Santos’ fellow New York Republicans, who had previously pushed for his removal following the House ethics inquiry, argued it was time for the body to set “a new precedent” for expulsions based on rule violations rather than felony convictions.
“If we have an opportunity in this great institution to start a new precedent that means we hold members of the House of Representatives to a higher standard, ladies and gentlemen, I’m pretty confident that the American people would applaud that,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) said.
D’Esposito had privileged the expulsion resolution, which was introduced Nov. 17 by House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) following the panel’s investigation, forcing the chamber to take it up by the end of the week.
“As the Ethics Committee’s report lays out in thorough detail, Mr. Santos has repeatedly, egregiously and brazenly violated the public’s trust,” Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), a member of the committee, said on the House floor Thursday.
What George Santos' expulsion means and what happens next
The short, strange congressional career of George Santos came to an abrupt end Friday morning, as the House of Representatives voted 311-114 to expel him from the chamber.
Santos, who represented his constituents in Nassau County and Queens for a little under 11 months, left the Capitol as his fate became clear and hopped into a waiting car.
Below, The Post explains where Congress and the voters go from here.
How rare is an expulsion from the House of Representatives?
The House began work on April 1, 1789, 234 years ago. In that time it has only expelled six members — and just three since the Civil War.
The first three lawmakers to get the boot — John Bullock Clark and John William Reid (D-Mo.) and Henry Cornelius Burnett (D-Ky.) — were expelled for leading Confederate regiments against Union troops in 1861, though Reid had technically resigned his seat four months prior to his expulsion.
When might there be a vote on replacing Santos?
Per New York state law, Gov. Kathy Hochul has ten days to announce the date of a special election to replace Santos.
That election must be held between 70 and 80 days of her announcement — setting up a special vote before the end of February.
“I am prepared to undertake the solemn responsibility of filling the vacancy in New York’s 3rd District,” Hochul said in a statement on X following Santos’ expulsion. “The people of Long Island deserve nothing less.”
Who might replace Santos in Congress?
Santos announced earlier this month he would not seek a second term in 2024, but his sordid past meant he had no shortage of challengers.
On the Republican side, Bayside small business owner Daniel Norber, retired NYPD detective Mike Sapraicone, and Afghanistan war veteran and former JP Morgan vice president Kellen Curry are among those challenging for the seat.
Contenders on the Democratic side include former state Sen. Anna Kaplan, Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan, St. John’s University professor William Murphy and activist Zak Malamed.
The contest in New York’s Third District is expected to be one of the most closely contested of next year’s cycle. Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman by 7.5 percentage points in 2022, but the Cook Political Report rates the district’s Partisan Voting Index as narrowly in favor of Democrats.
“Mr. Santos is not a victim. He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud on his constituents and the American people.”
The now-former representative from New York’s 3rd Congressional District is also facing a 23-count federal indictment for allegedly having laundered his campaign’s money and defrauded donors. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Santos had declared in a press conference Thursday morning that the lower chamber would set a terrible precedent in “bullying” him from office before he has his day in court and decrying the ethics report as “slanderous.”
“They are trying to join me to the group of three Confederates and two people convicted in a court of law,” he said, mentioning the five previous expulsions in the history of the House.
“So if I am to get expelled tomorrow, I will be number six in the history — the first Republican and the only one without a conviction or without having committed treason,” Santos added.
“[I]f I leave, they win,” he said when asked why he had chosen not to resign before the vote. “If I leave, the bullies take place — this is bullying.”
Three House Democrats — former Missouri Reps. John B. Clark and John W. Reid and former Kentucky Rep. Henry C. Burnett — were expelled in 1861 for supporting the Confederate rebellion against the Union.
Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Michael Myers was also voted out of Congress in 1980 after he was recorded taking a bribe from an undercover FBI agent as part of the Abscam scandal.
Before Friday, Ohio Democratic Rep. James Traficant was the most recent House member to be expelled, following his 2002 conviction on bribery and corruption charges.
In a last-ditch effort, the truth-challenged pol had introduced a resolution to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) for having falsely pulled a fire alarm in a House office building as Democrats were trying to delay a September vote to avert a government shutdown.
Unlike Santos, Bowman has already pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count in connection with the incident and agreed to pay a fine of $1,000 through an deal with DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, which will see the charges dismissed after three months.
Santos will head to trial Sept. 9, 2024.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
