A New York Republican jump-started the process to expel his embattled colleague, Rep. George Santos (R-NY), from the House, teeing up a likely vote on Thursday.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) noticed a motion to expel Santos as privileged on Tuesday night, which means the House will now have two legislative days to take a vote. The resolution was originally filed by House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) nearly two weeks ago, but D’Esposito‘s move to expedite the process comes hours after two House Democrats filed their own privileged resolution to oust Santos.
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However, the motion filed by Guest and noticed as privileged by D’Esposito will ultimately be the measure the House will vote on to expel Santos.
The push to oust Santos has been led by New York Republicans and especially D’Esposito, who filed a motion earlier this year to oust him from office, which failed.
But this measure has significantly more legs following the release of a report from the House Ethics Committee that detailed “substantial evidence” that the freshman engaged in unlawful conduct.
This expulsion motion, which will require a vote of two-thirds of the House, is expected to pass overwhelmingly following the report.
“Everybody that we have spoken to over the last two, two and a half weeks, many have said that they were waiting for that ethics report and I think that this report speaks for itself,” D’Esposito said.
Even Santos has come to terms with his fate.
“It’s going to pass,” he said. “It’s a circus; it’s going to pass.”
Santos is also under indictment on 23 federal charges, including two counts of wire fraud, several counts of making false statements and falsifying records with the Federal Election Commission, two counts of identity theft, seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making false statements in the House.
Coming out of a leadership meeting, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had been talking to Santos about how “the right thing possibly to do” would be for him to “examine the position and resign.”
Santos, who has made clear throughout his time in Congress, reiterated on the House floor Tuesday that he “will not be resigning.”
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If expelled, Santos would be only the sixth member in the history of Congress to be expelled and the first person to be expelled who was not convicted of a crime or a member of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
On the House floor Tuesday night, Santos defended himself against expulsion, saying going through with ousting him would set a “very dangerous precedent” that says “if somebody doesn’t like you, they get to throw you out of your job.”
