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Within hours of Rep. George Santos facing a new round of criminal charges, two of his fellow New York Republicans — Reps. Anthony D’esposito and Nick LaLota — told CNN that if the scandal-plagued congressman doesn’t resign, the House should consider his expulsion.
Evidently, they were quite serious. NBC News reported:
“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said Wednesday on X [the social media platform formerly known as Twitter]. ... He said the resolution will be co-sponsored by fellow New York House Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams.
It’s worth noting for context that there are 11 Republicans in New York’s congressional delegation. Six want to expel Santos, four have remained neutral on Santos’ future, and one is Santos himself.
The new expulsion measure has been assigned a bill number (H.Res.773), and it does not yet have any additional co-sponsors, though no one would be especially surprised if other members soon added their names.
Expelling sitting members of Congress isn’t easy — it requires a two-thirds majority of those in the chamber — and it’s only happened twice since the Civil War. In 1980, Democratic Rep. Michael Myers of Pennsylvania was expelled over his involvement with the Abscam scandal, and in 2002, Democratic Rep. Jim Traficant of Ohio was expelled after he was convicted on multiple corruption charges.
Santos might soon join this small club, though leading GOP officials, already struggling with a tiny House majority, will likely be reluctant to even bring this resolution to the floor.
As for the scandal-plagued congressman, Santos pleaded not guilty to his original indictment in May, and he continued to proclaim his innocence in the wake of the 23-count superseding indictment filed in federal court this week.
The Republican, echoing a catch phrase I haven’t heard in four decades, told Politico, “They can try to expel me, but I pity the fools that go ahead and do that and think that that’s the smartest idea.”
As for his legal dilemmas, Santos also told a group of reporters that he won’t “take a plea deal,” adding, “I can prove my innocence.”
That might very well be his plan, though as a Washington Post analysis noted this week, members of Congress caught up in criminal scandals have been known to use the possibility of a resignation as a bargaining chip with prosecutors. Watch this space.