House Republicans from New York say they’re serious now about kicking fabulist freshman Rep. George Santos off the island. They have had an expulsion resolution ready to go for the last couple of weeks. Now that the speaker drama is over and Republicans conveniently don’t have to worry as much about their narrow vote margin, the New Yorkers moved forward with it on the House floor. It’s a privileged resolution, which means it has to be considered by the full House. That will happen next week.
First-term Republican Reps. Anthony D'Esposito and Nick LaLota are the lead sponsors, joined by fellow New York House Republicans Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams. All but Langworthy are members of the “Biden 18,” GOP freshmen in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020.
They wrote the resolution in response to new charges added to Santos’ existing federal indictment, including identity theft, embezzling money from his campaign, and lying to the FEC and Congress. D’Esposito called Santos "a stain" on the House and on the state of New York. "It's time that we move on from George Santos," he said.
LaLota told CBS News this week that there will be momentum now to act on the expulsion. "It's all organic," he said. "Everybody knows the facts of the case. The facts are not good for Mr. Santos. That's why I expect Democrats and Republicans to remove him as soon as possible."
Democrats already tried to do that when the first indictments were handed down. They introduced a resolution in May to expel him, and Republicans voted in lockstep to keep Santos around by sending the motion to the House Ethics Committee. They’re not really bathing themselves in glory at this point by saying Santos is a disgrace and needs to go—not when they tacitly approved of his behavior just a few months ago.
Rather than being embarrassed by Santos, what these “moderates” should be worried about is the fact that they all just voted to elect an election-denying, homophobic, forced birth advocate and Christian nationalist as their leader.
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First-term Republican Reps. Anthony D'Esposito and Nick LaLota are the lead sponsors, joined by fellow New York House Republicans Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams. All but Langworthy are members of the “Biden 18,” GOP freshmen in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020.
They wrote the resolution in response to new charges added to Santos’ existing federal indictment, including identity theft, embezzling money from his campaign, and lying to the FEC and Congress. D’Esposito called Santos "a stain" on the House and on the state of New York. "It's time that we move on from George Santos," he said.
LaLota told CBS News this week that there will be momentum now to act on the expulsion. "It's all organic," he said. "Everybody knows the facts of the case. The facts are not good for Mr. Santos. That's why I expect Democrats and Republicans to remove him as soon as possible."
Democrats already tried to do that when the first indictments were handed down. They introduced a resolution in May to expel him, and Republicans voted in lockstep to keep Santos around by sending the motion to the House Ethics Committee. They’re not really bathing themselves in glory at this point by saying Santos is a disgrace and needs to go—not when they tacitly approved of his behavior just a few months ago.
Rather than being embarrassed by Santos, what these “moderates” should be worried about is the fact that they all just voted to elect an election-denying, homophobic, forced birth advocate and Christian nationalist as their leader.
RELATED STORIES:
The new Republican speaker is a gift for Democrats
George Santos charged with money laundering, fraud, and more
Rep. Santos faces new charges he stole donor IDs, made unauthorized charges to their credit cards
Campaign Action