George Santos has entered the parliamentary history of the United States through the door of scandals. The Republican congressman who lied non-stop during the election campaign, inventing a resume and a parallel life, has been expelled by the House of Representatives in a vote in which a two-thirds majority was required. A large majority of Republicans and Democrats have agreed that the situation of Santos, charged with 23 serious crimes, including various types of fraud and falsehoods and even identity theft, was unsustainable.
With 311 votes in favor of his departure, 114 against and 2 abstentions, Santos becomes the sixth member of the Lower House expelled by his colleagues. The Constitution expressly grants each chamber of Congress the power to “punish its members for disorderly conduct and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member,” something that until now had been put into practice with 15 senators and 5 representatives. , most of them for support of secession and the Confederacy in the Civil War. In the case of the Chamber, since the Civil War there have been two expulsions due to high-profile cases of corruption, but after a sentence was handed down.
On Thursday, Santos appealed to congressmen who are concerned that a new precedent is being set. “This will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are enough for members to be removed from office when they have been duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts,” he said at a press conference. Then, in the House, during the debate on the proposal, he seemed resigned: “If tomorrow when this vote comes to the floor, it is on the conscience of all my colleagues who believe that this is the right thing to do, then let it be voted on. I am at peace. “I have accepted that whether I am expelled or not, I cannot control that destiny,” he said.
The New York congressman did not want to resign. “If I leave, they win. If I leave, the bullies win. This is harassment,” he said at the press conference. Santos had previously survived two other expulsion votes, but the Ethics Commission report two weeks ago concluded that his conduct deserved public condemnation, that the congressman is below the dignity of the office and has seriously discredited the camera.
The report found “substantial evidence” that the legislator, who represents a district in Long Island and Queens, knowingly committed a series of ethical violations and possible crimes. Santos used campaign funds for personal purposes, such as purchases at luxury stores and adult content websites like OnlyFans, and then had the campaign team submit false or incomplete justifications, according to the report. Two members of his team had previously pleaded guilty.
Santos had announced that he would not run for re-election in November of next year, but he had refused to resign and still had a little more than a year left in his theoretical term. He himself saw his end coming. “I know they are going to expel me when this expulsion resolution reaches the plenary session,” he said Friday night during a conversation on X Spaces. “I’ve done the math over and over again, and the situation doesn’t look very good,” he added. Of the 210 Democrats, 206 have voted for his expulsion, 2 against and 2 have abstained. In his own party, the Republicans, 105 voted to expel him from the House and 112 preferred not to expel him.
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The president of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, said he had “real reservations” about the expulsion of Santos because of the precedent it would set. He declared himself in favor of parliamentarians from his party voting “in conscience.” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference with a huge photo next to him of Santos and Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump’s faithful supporter, sitting together and laughing in the House of Representatives. “George Santos is an evil distraction, and let’s hope that issue is resolved,” Jeffries said Thursday.
special election
His vacancy will now have to be filled in a special election in a district balanced between Republicans and Democrats, in which the now expelled representative won in November 2022 by an eight-point margin, but where Biden won the elections in 2020. Good Known among the most ultra circles of the party, his election, along with that of three other of his co-religionists in New York, was decisive in giving control of the House to the Republicans. He also represented a wake-up call for the Democrats of New York, a traditional blue fiefdom.
In addition to inventing a good part of his academic and professional resume, Santos filled his biography with striking, if not unnecessary, details. One in particular, which the true victims do not forgive him, was boasting of a false Jewish heritage, linked to the Holocaust on the part, supposedly, of his grandparents, and of a mother who escaped from 9/11, when that day in 2001 her mother He wasn’t even in New York, but in Brazil. It so happens that many voters in his district are descendants of Holocaust victims, which led journalist Andrew Silverstein to investigate the veracity of his affiliation.
Silverstein exposed the fraud, before it was picked up in late December by The New York Times and that, immediately, the falsehoods became a political fireball. Santos, who is openly gay, also angered the LGTBIQ community by hiding that he had had a marriage of convenience with a woman until 2019.
Under the mountain of tricks, their tricks also began to appear, such as stealing the money raised in a social media campaign for the dying dog of an Iraq war veteran; or having stolen a dog from a dairy Amish. Nothing glamorous for a supposedly brilliant life, thanks to inventing degrees from New York University and Baruch College, as well as equally false professional experience at major Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Two fabulations that match the image of a guy who is a victim of “delusions of grandeur,” according to a roommate’s description of him.
The satisfaction of having been elected congressman was short-lived for Santos despite his lack of political experience. In January he was sworn in at the Capitol as a representative of the prosperous district of Long Island. Although, surrounded by the revelations, he admitted to having added to some parts of his resume, he insisted on not resigning from his position as deputy and only stepped aside from the two House committees that he was assigned to sit on while the investigation lasted. Stung in his own party, he has proudly worn the insignia that identifies congressmen on his lapel and has not missed solemn visits by foreign leaders to the House.
The initial indictment by a New York court in May of a dozen charges (wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and false statements to the House) limited his movements to New York and Washington, with the obligation to request permission to move, as ordered by the judge in the case. In October he was charged with more crimes, up to a total of 23.
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