Lower than a 12 months into his first congressional time period, serial liar and alleged thief George Santos was expelled from Congress in a bipartisan effort Friday. The vote to expel the 35-year-old Republican from New York—the topic of a 23-count federal indictment on fees together with wire fraud, cash laundering, and theft of public funds (Santos has pleaded not responsible to all fees)—handed with 311 lawmakers in favor and 114 towards. Whereas 5 different expulsions have occurred within the Home’s 234-year historical past, Santos is the primary member to go down with out having been convicted of against the law or having supported the Confederacy.
In feedback to CNN, Santos accepted his ouster however aired a warning to those that voted for it. “The Home spoke—that’s their vote. They simply set [a] new harmful precedent for themselves,” he mentioned earlier than declaring, “Why would I need to keep right here? To hell with this place.”
A ground debate was held Thursday to debate Santos’s numerous fabrications and alleged crimes, together with these revealed in a damning report from the Home Ethics Committee, which discovered he used marketing campaign money to fund OnlyFans purchases, holidays within the Hamptons and Las Vegas, and luxurious buying binges. Some members additionally cited the time he lied about his mom dying within the September 11 assaults.
Santos had survived two prior expulsion efforts thanks partially to assist from Home Speaker Mike Johnson and his predecessor Kevin McCarthy. Already main a razor-thin majority and sure cautious of shedding Santos’s seat to a Democrat, Johnson shared reservations about expelling the freshman Republican earlier this week, claiming that doing so might create a deadly precedent. He finally voted towards the expulsion, together with different high Home Republicans Steve Scalise, Elise Stefanik, and Tom Emmer. However help from on excessive failed to save lots of Santos Friday.
To fill the open seat, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, shall be tasked with scheduling a particular election. “I’m ready to undertake the solemn accountability of filling the emptiness in New York’s third District,” Hochul wrote in a Friday publish on X. ”The individuals of Lengthy Island deserve nothing much less.” Among the many Democrats vying for the seat are Anna Kaplan, a former New York state senator, and Thomas Suozzi, who represented the district earlier than Santos however deserted it for a gubernatorial run.
