A resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress is set to be voted on Thursday and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has “real reservations” about it.
Nevertheless, the Republican leader told the House GOP conference to “vote their conscience” when it comes up as the embattled Santos loses support within his own party. The lawmaker, who faces 23 federal criminal counts, has been able to emerge from two previous efforts to oust him but is reportedly now losing ground with some GOP colleagues, and on Tuesday, two House members moved to force votes on whether Santos gets to keep his seat.
“What we’ve said as the leadership team is we’re gonna allow people to vote their conscience, I think, is the only appropriate thing we can do. We’ve not whipped the vote, and we wouldn’t. I trust that people will make that decision thoughtfully and in good faith,” Johnson said Wednesday during a press conference, according to The Hill.
“I, personally, have real reservations about doing this. I’m concerned about a precedent that may be set for that. Everybody’s working through that, and we’ll see how they vote tomorrow,” the GOP leader added.
Johnson reportedly indicated that “there were opinions shared on both sides” during the conference meeting.
“I said that the Republican Party is the rule of law team, and we are. We believe in the rule of law. There are people of good faith who make an argument, both pro and con, for the expulsion resolution for Santos,” the House speaker said.
“There are people who say you have to uphold the rule of law and allow for someone to be convicted in a criminal court before this tough penalty would be exacted on someone. That’s been the precedent so far,” he added. “There are others who say, well, upholding the rule of law requires us to take this step now because some of the things that he’s alleged to have done, the House Ethics Committee having done their job, are infractions against the House itself.”
Meanwhile, a defiant Santos announced early Thursday that he is looking to force a vote on ousting Rep. Jamaal Bowman from the House. The New York Democrat pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge after he pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building in late September just ahead of a key vote.
“They go ahead and release this report littered, littered in hyperbole, littered in opinion, that would have — no decent cop would bring this to a prosecutor or a [district attorney] and says here’s our report, go ahead and charge,” Santos said Thursday, referring to the Ethics Committee whose final report he called out as “slanderous” and “unprecedented.”
“This is what the Ethics Committee put out,” Santos added during what The Hill called “a farewell tour-esque press conference” outside of the Capitol. “God bless them and what they think they’re doing and what their work is. You know, I believe they do good work when it’s relevant, but this ain’t it.”
Santos told reporters he will not resign and will have to be voted out, which he thinks is a good possibility, citing numbers from Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), who is among those Republicans leading the effort against him.
“Congressman LaLota said he has 150 votes. So I mean, if he has 150 votes — as he said already, on the record — he has the votes,” Santos added. “This is just plain and simple.”
“If I leave, they win,” he said. “If I leave, the bullies take place. This is bullying.”
Bowman dismissed Santos’s expulsion announcement as “meaningless.”
“No one in Congress, or anywhere in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos seriously. This is just another meaningless stunt in his long history of cons, antics, and outright fraud,” he said in a statement.
But Santos called on “consistency” and to “hold our own accountable” while vowing that he “will be filing a slew of complaints in the coming hours of today and tomorrow to make sure that we keep the playing field even.”
“Now if the House wants to start [a different] precedent and expel me, that is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body, because this will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts,” he said.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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