WASHINGTON — A Democratic lawmaker moved Tuesday to force a vote this week on expelling Rep. George Santos from the House of Representatives. He called it a necessary step if Republicans don’t take action in light of the recent ethics report that found Santos blatantly stole from his campaign and misled donors. .
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, brought back legislation he first introduced in February to enforce the deportation vote. Republicans succeeded in overruling Garcia’s previous efforts, but now that the Ethics Commission has released its findings on Santos from its months-long investigation, Garcia said it is time to take action.
“Whatever it takes to get that vote this week, that’s what we’ll do,” Garcia said.
Ousting Santos, a Republican from New York, would require the support of at least two-thirds of the voting members of the House of Representatives. Garcia said he expects to easily reach that number, which would make Santos only the sixth member of the House of Representatives to be impeached by his colleagues, and only the third since the Civil War.
Santos has rejected any suggestion that he would resign before an expulsion vote.
“Send me away and set a precedent so we can see who the judge, jury and executioners are in Congress,” Santos said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “The American people deserve to know!”
Santos has survived two previous expulsion votes. The first occurred in May following the Garcia resolution when the House of Representatives, at the urging of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, voted along party lines to refer the matter to the Ethics Panel. The second vote took place earlier this month when fellow New York Republicans tried to distance themselves from their scandal-plagued colleague and force a vote.
Many who voted against deportation said it was important to wait for the Ethics Panel to complete its investigation.
“In modern times, it is precedent in the House that representatives are only expelled upon conviction of a crime,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, in a prepared statement. “In the case involving Rep. Santos is involved, the Ethics Committee has now found and documented conduct as serious as that of members who have been expelled on previous occasions following felony convictions.”
Lofgren voted against deportation earlier this month. She said precedents are important to follow, but “every precedent had a first time” and that she would now vote to be expelled.
The Ethics Panel report released on November 16 was unrelenting in its criticism, concluding that Santos “attempted to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his candidacy for the House of Representatives for his own personal financial gain.”
“He has shamelessly stolen from his campaign. He deceived donors by providing them with what they thought were contributions to his campaign, but were in fact payments for his personal benefit,” the report said.
The Ethics Commission made no recommendations on how to deal with Santos, but said doing so would involve a lengthy, litigation-like process that would only give Santos more opportunity to defer responsibility for his actions.
Instead, the committee simply submitted its report to the House. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., and the panel’s chairman, then followed through on his resolution to expel Santos. Gast called the evidence uncovered during the investigation “more than sufficient to warrant punishment, and the most appropriate punishment is deportation.”
But a vote on the Host Resolution has not yet been scheduled. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday in Florida that he spoke extensively with Santos over the Thanksgiving holiday and discussed his options, but it has not yet been determined how the House will proceed.
“Whether it’s our resolution or the Republican resolution that comes forward, it’s going to be bipartisan, I think it’s going to be overwhelming,” Garcia said.
