Seemingly on his method out of Congress for good, Republican George Santos isn’t leaving with out one other dramatic showdown. On Thursday, the cartoonishly delinquent consultant from Lengthy Island launched a privileged decision to expel New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman. Santos argued that if he has to go down, so too ought to Bowman, who pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor final month for falsely triggering a hearth alarm minutes earlier than a vote on a authorities funding invoice.
After surviving a pair of prior expulsion efforts, Santos’s destiny might have lastly been sealed by a damning ethics investigation this month that discovered he spent marketing campaign funds on OnlyFans subscriptions, luxurious procuring sprees, a vacation within the Hamptons, and a honeymoon in Las Vegas. Santos has sought to downplay the probe, claiming it was “slanderous” and “littered in hyperbole, littered in opinion.” Separate from his alleged marketing campaign finance violations, he faces 23 federal legal counts for costs together with wire fraud, theft of public funds, and cash laundering. He has pleaded not responsible.
However, Santos was defiant throughout a morning press convention outdoors the Capitol constructing. “If I go away, they win,” he mentioned. “If I go away, the bullies happen. That is bullying.”
He additionally famous that he can be simply the sixth member expelled within the Home’s 234-year historical past. “And the one one with no conviction or with out having dedicated treason,” he added, warning that his ouster might set a harmful precedent. “[This] goes to be the undoing of a variety of members of this physique, as a result of this may hang-out them sooner or later the place mere allegations are ample to have members faraway from workplace.”
Whereas greater than 90 Republicans are anticipated to help the vote to expel Santos, in keeping with Axios, some within the occasion have resisted calls to take away the congressman, citing considerations about due course of and submitting that he has but to be convicted of against the law. Amongst them is Home Speaker Mike Johnson, who mentioned Wednesday that he has “actual reservations” concerning the precedent Santos’s expulsion would possibly set. After all, for Johnson, there may be one other doable motivation. He already resides over a razor-thin majority, and shedding Santos might grant extra leverage to Republican mavericks and Democrats alike.
The vote to expel Santos is slated to be held on Friday. The 35-year-old lawmaker has beforehand mentioned he doesn’t plan to hunt reelection, opening the door for Democrat Anna Kaplan, a former New York state senator, to flip Santos’s seat. “If George Santos is expelled tomorrow, the particular election might be proper across the nook,“ she wrote in a Thursday post on X. “I’m battle examined, and I’m prepared.… We’ve already raised over $1 million.”
As for Bowman, the sophomore lawmaker shrugged off Santos’s belligerent decision. “Nobody in Congress, or wherever in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos significantly,” he mentioned in a press release. “That is simply one other meaningless stunt in his lengthy historical past of cons, antics, and outright fraud.” Bowman was ordered to pay a $1,000 superb for yanking the fireplace alarm and to submit a written apology to the Capitol Police.
