NY House Republicans move to expel ‘fraudster’ George Santos
[ad_1]
Six freshman Republican members of Congress from New York want to disown lying Long Island Rep. George Santos.
Nassau County Rep. Anthony D’Esposito announced Wednesday that he will be “introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster, George Santos” following a superseding indictment against his fellow Republican that dropped Tuesday.
“Right now, we’re focused on removing him from Congress,” D’Esposito told reporters when asked whether Republicans would remove Santos from their conference before kicking him out of office.
Empire State GOP Reps. Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams will co-sponsor the measure, which needs a two-thirds majority to be successful.
“He has no business being in the halls of the House of Representatives. He’s an immoral person, he’s not a trustworthy person,” LaLota told reporters Wednesday.
“This is the most provable case of election fraud that we’ve had before us,” he went on. “He should be out of Congress right away.”
Democrats have repeatedly hammered the GOP over Santos, who was found to have embellished large portions of his backstory even before getting indicted in May on charges including fraud and money laundering.
Earlier this year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took out a billboard trying to tie vulnerable GOP incumbents in New York to the scandal-plagued 35-year-old.
Santos was slapped with 10 additional counts by the Eastern District of New York Tuesday, bringing the total number of charges pending against him up to 23.
The lawmaker stands accused of embezzling money from his campaign, lying to Congress, falsifying records with the Federal Election Commission, stealing the identities of campaign donors, and racking up tens of thousands of dollars on their credit cards without authorization.
“I’m going to continue to fight this … Nothing changes,” Santos told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
D’Esposito’s planned resolution comes in the midst of House GOP upheaval.
Eight renegade Republicans toppled former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Oct. 3, leaving the chamber frozen in place until a replacement can be chosen.
Democrats introduced legislation to eject Santos following his initial indictment, but Republicans intervened to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee.
Currently the House has 221 Republican members, 212 Democratic members and two vacancies, which will be filled by special elections later this year.
Assuming all members are present and voting, Republicans can only afford to lose four votes and pass legislation along party lines.
Josh Christenson contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link