House to Vote on George Santos Expulsion on Friday The New York Times

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• newsletter
• The view from California
• Guide to the 2022 Los Angeles city attorney’s primary election
• Mississippi Republican Michael Guest says ethics report 'paints a picture of fraud'
• ‘Take the Vote. I’m at Peace,’ Santos Says Ahead of Expulsion Vote
• George Santos ends long shot comeback bid for Congress after being expelled
• Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities

Prior to its release, a number of House Republicans said they’d wait until the ethics report came out before they drew definitive conclusions about Santos. These findings, however, were explosive enough that they convinced some of these Republicans to firmly state their support for expulsion and ultimately vote for it. Reps. Greg Murphy (R-NC), Stephanie Bice (R-OK), and Dusty Johnson (R-SD) were among those who changed their positions. House Republican leaders have delayed the actual vote on Santos’s expulsion until Friday, citing a pileup of legislative business.

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The delay means that the vote will take place as lawmakers leave town for the weekend, allowing them to minimize questions from reporters. As the proceedings wrapped up, Santos reiterated that he would not resign and dared his colleagues to expel him in a vote tomorrow. Hundreds of lawmakers have indicated how they will vote, but Thursday’s debate offered few clues on whether dozens of holdouts will support his ouster or save his job. But Mr. Santos’s critics, most of them members of his own party, argued that the congressman had been given ample opportunity to defend himself, including during the months in which the Ethics Committee was investigating him. Still, polls have repeatedly shown Californians strongly support more housing.

The view from California

Democrat starts official clock for Santos expulsion vote - POLITICO

Democrat starts official clock for Santos expulsion vote.

Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

The freshman lawmaker has been defiant in rejecting his colleagues' repeated calls for him to step down. Santos has said resigning would mean he's admitting to the allegations in the Ethics Committee's report. Santos, who has criticized the report's findings as "slanderous," said last Friday that he expects to be expelled from Congress. Washington — The House will try again this week to expel embattled GOP Rep. George Santos after two lawmakers moved Tuesday to force a vote on ousting him in the coming days. "I look forward to seeing the process play out," he told reporters on Capitol Hill. "And if the Ethics Committee finds a reason to remove me, that is the process."

Guide to the 2022 Los Angeles city attorney’s primary election

When the ethics chairman, Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, introduced his resolution on Nov. 17, he did so without attaching a timeline. Since then, Republicans have debated whether to shield or expel Mr. Santos, aware that either path could come with grave costs. House Democrats on Tuesday moved to force a vote this week on whether to expel Representative George Santos of New York from office, a strategic effort to prevent Republican leadership from slow-rolling any bid to push one of their own out of office. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and send pictures of your adorable furbabies to me at

“This is what I advise my colleagues on both sides of the aisle … We’re talking about the removal of a member of Congress. Are the American people to believe the opinions of congressmen is a higher standard than the delivered vote of the American people? Is a report from a committee a higher standard than the two-year election cycle as established by our founding fathers and enshrined in our constitution? Calls for Santos to resign have followed him throughout his more than 11 months in the House, starting after he admitted to embellishing parts of his resume and background in his 2022 bid for Congress.

Mississippi Republican Michael Guest says ethics report 'paints a picture of fraud'

Once again, Mr. Santos denied the allegations made in a House ethics report that contained damning evidence that he had committed crimes. But he repeatedly declined to offer any additional details that would rebut the committee’s findings. Mr. Santos is set to face his third expulsion vote this year on Friday, and he acknowledged that he expected the effort to succeed. If the House wants to start different precedent and expel me, that is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body because this will haunt them in the future, where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected. I will be filing a slew of complaints in the coming hours of today and tomorrow.

‘Take the Vote. I’m at Peace,’ Santos Says Ahead of Expulsion Vote

Being at the center of scandals of his own making may have been traumatic, but it was also exhilarating at times. Dodging cameras and walking with an attendant horde of reporters at least gave the committee-less congressman something to do over the past 10 months on Capitol Hill. Instead, he said he was introducing a motion to expel another member, Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to pulling a fire alarm in a House office building as Democrats sought to delay a congressional vote.

Though the congressman has blamed his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, for campaign finance violations, House investigators said Santos was "a knowing and active participant in the misconduct." After the Ethics Committee released its report, he announced that he would not seek to hold on to his seat, though he had signaled in March that he would mount a reelection bid. "This will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from Congress when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts," he said. But as his biography unraveled and criminal charges piled up, Mr. Santos remained securely in his seat for nearly a year thanks to the protection of two consecutive House speakers, Kevin McCarthy of California and Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Since the day he took office, Representative George Santos has been a headache for fellow Republicans.

But some Republicans, including Santos' colleagues from New York, said voters will welcome lawmakers being held to a higher standard. Santos had fought the expulsion effort, leading his own defense during House floor debate and in conducting a news conference and interviews. Lawler, one of the architects of the expulsion resolution, has argued that the House now has enough evidence to expel Santos, even if Santos’ criminal trial has not concluded. Lawler pointed to a guilty plea that the ex-treasurer for Santos made for a fraud conspiracy charge related to Santos’ campaign.

They reviewed 172,000 pages of documents and they issued a 56-page investigation report,” he said. "We're going to allow people to vote their conscience," Johnson said during the Republican leadership's weekly news conference. "I think it's the only appropriate thing we can do. We've not whipped the vote, and we wouldn't. I trust that people will make that decision thoughtfully and in good faith."

In reaction to the Santos expulsion, Mike Smith, the president of House Majority PAC, which supports Democratic congressional candidates, sent along two statements. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, a Democrat, said she was prepared to carry out her “solemn responsibility” and schedule a special election for Santos’s seat. Mr. Santos has vociferously defended himself, saying that most of the charges against him are either misunderstandings or the result of negligence by his treasurer, Nancy Marks, who he has said went “rogue.” Ms. Marks pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiracy. Mr. Santos has been charged with 23 felonies for his role in a range of schemes involving his personal and campaign finances. Many mainstream conservatives or Republicans from competitive districts outside New York voted to oust Mr. Santos. Most of the Republicans in the New York delegation voted to expel Mr. Santos, including Representatives Nick LaLota and Anthony D’Esposito, who led the charge to oust him.

We have a pretty good sense of the date because of [them] referring to Councilmember Mark Ridley Thomas’ arraignment being on Wednesday. And they’re talking about things in the redistricting process that we know happen on certain days. There was a point in the conversation where then-Council President Nury Martinez appears to answer her phone and say something like, ‘I’m at the Fed.’ The federation’s lawyers’ letters to us confirmed the conversation took place on their property. With Republicans holding a razor-thin majority that they are loath to imperil, many of them, including Speaker Mike Johnson, chose to defer judgment on Mr. Santos’s fate to the conclusion of the criminal case or a continuing House Ethics investigation.

The Justice Department eventually expanded the criminal counts against Santos to 23 charges. The first-term Republican congressman becomes just the sixth member of the House to be ousted by colleagues. Expulsion required support from two-thirds of the House, a purposefully high bar, but a blistering House Ethics Committee report released on Nov. 16 that accused Santos of breaking federal law proved decisive. Several lawmakers have introduced motions targeting the first-term lawmaker after a report by his House colleagues suggested that federal prosecutors should bring additional charges against Santos, 35, who fabricated large aspects of his life story in his election campaign. Santos survived two earlier efforts to expel him from Congress, when lawmakers voted not to punish him because of his ongoing criminal case and the Ethics Committee probe.

“I use cosmetic Botox and filler, that’s not a secret, did anybody ever doubt that? ” he said, his lips full and slightly puckered, his forehead essentially wrinkle free. At the end of the debate, he seemed to acknowledge that his remarks would have little influence on the outcome of Friday’s vote. Mr. Santos’s behavior on Thursday was in many ways a summation of his 11 months on the Hill. He vacillated between appearing calm and defiant, occasionally making jokes but rarely sounding contrite. Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, said that expelling Mr. Santos would override the will of voters.

I’m not going to stand here and use the time I have to say ill things about my colleagues. The only thing I want to make clear is if tomorrow, when this vote is on the floor, it is in the conscience of all of my colleagues that they believe that this is the correct thing to do, so be it. I have accepted that whether I get expelled or I don’t, I have accepted that I cannot control that fate, Mr. Speaker. Homelessness, housing and crime have been dominant issues in the mayor’s race as well as many down-ballot city races and council elections. In 2008, the city passed a measure that would allow for 3,500 units of affordable housing to be built in each City Council district.