US House votes to expel George Santos from Congress: Following a scathing ethics report as well as fraud and deceit allegations about his history as a congressman, his expulsion from US House of Representatives has dismissed the congressman George Santos.
Lawmakers took a vote of 311 votes to 114 to eliminate the infamous lawmaker.
He’s had his name thrown around for using campaign funds to pay for extravagant expenses like Botox and also stealing money from charity to pay for the dying vet’s service dog.
The 35-year-old resident of Queens is just the sixth legislator in history to be ejected from Congress.
His demotion is a result of an investigation by the House ethics committee released a report which discovered that the candidate “blatantly stolen of his own campaign” and profited from “every part of his House campaign for personal gain”.
In the final report the panel said that the candidate had spent campaign funds on OnlyFans which is a platform that lets people pay users for their content which includes pornography, and for vacations in the Hamptons, a prestigious beach enclave located situated in New York state.
Expulsion votes are not common within Congress and require a majority of the House. In the House that decided to remove him the majority of them were Democrats and 105 Republicans.
Mr. Santos left quickly when the votes for him began to come in, and he jumped right into an impatient SUV without addressing any questions.
Following the decision to expel Mr. Santos was passed in the afternoon on Friday. There were a few cheers from all sides.
Four New York Republicans who were elected with him and have fought for a long time to get rid of him claimed that they have now been able to “stop speaking about his name”.
They also claim it sets a poor precedents to get rid of him.
- “The precedent established is that we are holding lawmakers in Congress to the highest standards,” said New York Republican lawmaker Anthony D’Esposito. “The residents of the third congressional district should be represented.”
Mr. D’Esposito said “it should not have been this”.
“He ought to have been held accountable. He ought to have quit,” he said.
Republican Jim Jordan, who was against the expulsion Jim Jordan, who voted against the expulsion, told BBC that he was concerned about the decision.
“Who’s next? You let due process play out. The people elected him. It is important to be cautious when you vote to expel someone from Congress who they voted for into Congress,” he said.
Mr. Santos is accused of 23 federal felony charges that include money laundering, wire fraud and theft of public funds in addition to separate accusations of violations in the field of campaign finance, but is defying the charges and is yet to appear for the trial.
The trouble for the 35-year old began just after he was elected in November 2022 to be a member of the 3rd district of New York’s congressional district. The New York Times published an investigation in December which disclosed that Mr. Santos was lying about the possibility of a Wall Street career, a university degree, and Jewish roots.
Since then, accusations against the lawmaker’s office have continued to rise. He’s was accused of variety of fraud schemes and fabrications which include scamming Amish breeders of dogs in Pennsylvania and also claiming that his mother’s death was caused by the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Mr. Santos was adamant and refused to step down despite numerous requests from both sides to resign.
“This area is run by insincerity,” he told reporters earlier in the week. “If they want me to go from Congress They’ll be forced to vote that hard decision.”
Jody Kassfinkel who voted Mr. Santos however, she has since fought to get him removed from office and has told on the BBC that his removal is “a victory to democracy”.
“We were aware that this was the only option since this man is not a person of shame and was not going to step down by himself,” she said.
The residents of his district were pleased with the news.
“He should not be involved in Congress,” Miriam Forman said to the BBC. “Even for the chance to go to master’s programs, students must demonstrate a knack for following through with what you say you’re going to accomplish. It’s not the case for Congressmen.”
Another member of the group told another “good riddance”.
What will happen the next time? US House votes to expel George Santos from Congress
A sign on the office’s doorway states “Yes! We’re open” But there was no sign of activity inside, except for one employee who walked out without a word to take an arrangement of flowers as well as a tiny potted plant that was placed at the entrance.
People stopped to snap photographs in front of the nameplate in his offices located in the Longworth building that is across to Capitol. Capitol on Friday, just before the nameplate is removed.
Mr. Santos was immediately stripped of the power for a vote in legislation. The House Clerk’s staff will continue to run the day-to-day operation for this district till Santos successor is chosen.
The former congressman will lose his health insurance coverage, the officials stated.
You can still dine but in an private House restaurant, work out in the Capitol gym, and take documents in the Library of Congress – all rights that were granted to previous members of Congress.
However, he’s not qualified for a congressional legislative pension.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has 10 days to schedule an election that is scheduled for February next year.
The ouster and the special election could further weaken Republicans their narrow 9-seat House majority. There’s no guarantee that an additional Republican can take the seat he currently holds, but it was easily taken with Joe Biden in the 2020 general election.
“In past years I believe we’ve seen members who’ve committed conduct that was less serious that the one who made Mr. Santos resign,” the Republican from Mississippi spoke to the CNN’s Manu Raju. “Most people don’t wish to put their family members, and their constituents through this procedure. We know that this wasn’t the case with Santos. Santos.”
He stated that he’s not worried that this might result in other members being removed without the proper process.
“We presented a thorough report that was more than 50 pages. I have about six binder of documents that go with it. The report was overwhelmingly and incredibly shocking. So I’m not worried that this could set a precedent where members are at will expelled from Congress due to a conduct which people don’t like,” Guest said.
“I believe that this is an one-off exception to the norm. And I think that in the past few years, this has been the biggest corruption that we’ve witnessed where one member hasn’t made the decision to resign but not to force Congress to delay decision to expel them,” he told CNN.
Guest said he doesn’t think the ethics committee will consider expulsion more frequently since Santos was removed from office. “No person on the ethics committee is on the committee that seeks to expel peers from Congress. However, this was an extreme case. And if this incident did not warrant expulsion and there was none that I have heard of that merits expulsion, minus an indictment,” he said.
“I don’t think you’ll ever see the ethics committee as a watchdog to be a part of the process and seek to take away lawmakers from Congress. However, I think considering the precedent this case sets which is so bleak on the surface, that the penalty delivered today was well-deserved,” the lawmaker said.
