House Democrats moved to force another vote in the coming days on whether to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY) following the release of a scathing House Ethics Committee report.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), joined by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) as co-lead, announced on Tuesday the introduction of an expulsion resolution in “privileged” form, compelling leadership to consider it within 48 hours.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) introduces a resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY) from Congress. pic.twitter.com/o9RBYO2dIA
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“The time has finally come to remove George Santos from Congress. If we’re going to restore faith in government, we must start with restoring integrity in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Garcia said in a statement.
“It is essential for the American people to have Representatives they can trust and who don’t build their careers on deceit and falsehoods. We have once again forced an expulsion vote on the House floor because enough is enough,” he added.
House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) has also offered an expulsion resolution against Santos but has not made it privileged — though Guest reportedly told POLITICO he plans to engage in that same process.
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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) did not immediately share how the chamber would act on either resolution, but he did state on Monday that he talked to Santos over the Thanksgiving recess about his “options.” In response, Santos declared that he would not resign and would be “standing” for an expulsion vote.
Expulsion from the House, which has only happened a handful of times throughout U.S. history, requires a two-thirds majority vote to succeed.
Voters elected Santos to his first term representing a Long Island district last year, helping Republicans win a narrow majority in the House. But controversy soon followed amid questions about Santos’ candor and finances.
Earlier this year, Santos was dealt 23 federal charges — including aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, and conspiracy — to which he has pleaded not guilty. And then, this month, the House Ethics Committee released a report laying out “substantial evidence” of multiple types of violations amid “a complex web of unlawful activity involving Representative Santos’ campaign, personal, and business finances.”
Santos criticized the congressional inquiry as a political “smear,” but announced after the House Ethics report’s release that he would not seek re-election. Though he has survived prior attempts by colleagues to expel him from the House — including a vote on a resolution brought by other New York Republicans only weeks ago — that may change with a growing number of lawmakers saying they would vote for Santos’ ouster.
During an hours-long X Spaces conversation on Friday night, Santos reportedly predicted that he would be expelled from the House with another expulsion resolution brought to a vote. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good,” he said.