There were two Dems and two Reps on the committee and they unanimously said he was a criminal, recommended that the House hold a vote and forwarded their findings to the Justice Dept. I’m not sure, given the power that they have, what else you expected them to do.
Instead a new candidate, a young go-getter named “Miguel Sanchez” will be running, who looks a lot like George Santos in a mustache.
You’re right, my cynicism caused me to jump the gun a bit there. I thought that they had basically punted any responsibility. I see now that their report is quite damning and I owe them an apology.
That said, they should have - based on their clear findings - recommended expulsion.
What a relief! I’m sure he’ll be much better. He’s got my vote!
I follow Rep Jeff Jackson on social media. He posted this soon after the report came out.
“I voted to make sure Rep. Santos received his due process.
He has now received it.
This report is fully damning. I will vote to expel him.”
:: steeples fingers ::
Excellent.
Will be interesting to see if Santos just quits or if he goes through with waiting to be expelled. There are only a handful of congresspersons that have ever been formally expelled. The last one was Jim Traficant back in 2002.
How is this different than the vote that failed two weeks ago?
There’s a report now by his peers, which lays out the case against him, which there wasn’t at the time of the first vote. Those like Rep. Jackson, cited above by Loach, now can see why he ought to be expelled.
Well, I hope he got everything he wanted with that money and enjoyed it while it lasted.
If he is expelled, the special election to replace him could possibly be won by a Democrat.
And so, if Republicans do expel him, I will award them patriotic bravery points that I previously thought they’d never earn.
Agreed; the previous vote seemed premature, it looked like a response to a request for “somebody to do something”. Now that there’s a report laying things out objectively, there might be a different result.
Eh. If he is expelled (which I expect), its simply because Republicans have determined that he’s a greater political liability than his vote is worth. Santos’ vote is unlikely to be determinative to any of the big issues that are left during the current session of Congress. The Washington Post did an analysis that showed of the 670 votes this Congress, 10 were tied or passed/failed by a margin of one vote. And they were all ultimately inconsequential. Whatever budget deal the House ultimately works out with a Democratic Senate isn’t going to come down to a single vote to pass.
Meanwhile, the other vulnerable NY Republicans are getting hammered over their association with him. Successfully expelling him is necessary to buttress these swing seats in what’s likely to be another close election.
It’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation if you’re a Democrat. His presence in office is hurting the Republicans politically. But at the same time, his presence in office makes the country look bad, and it absolutely looks bad to suggest he should stay in office.
Do bear in mind, even if the resolution is presented tomorrow, the House will not be back in until the afternoon of the 28th since Wednesday evening a large part of the House left early for Thanksgiving break in a huff over the appropriations-bills quagmire (and to force the Senate to pass the laddered CR as-is or else shutdown). So a realistic time frame for the vote would be by the 29th or 30th and Og only knows what may happen in these 12 days. Which will likely involve a lot of asking around in the district how does that look to the voters back home.
I don’t know if anyone was defending him or arguing he should stay. Many including some democrats thought that voting to expel him without any kind of due process was a bad precedent. Santos had the opportunity to defend himself during the investigation but chose not to.
Those NY Republicans were the ones that were pushing the premature ejection. If he doesn’t leave before a vote I think it will be damn near unanimous.
I’d argue that his presence in office makes the country bad, period.
Eh, I’m not sure he’d even make the top 10 list of current worst congress critters. At least he’s just a plain old fraud on his contributors, not an active menace to the nation as a whole.
Santos has said he won’t run for reelection. Why on earth does anyone believe him?