A total of 31 Democrats joined 182 Republicans in voting to keep Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in Congress, killing a Republican-led effort to oust the embattled lawmaker.
The lower chamber on Wednesday voted 179-213-19 on a resolution to expel Santos, marking the second unsuccessful attempt this year to eject the first-term lawmaker from the House. A two-thirds threshold is needed to expel a member of Congress.
A total of 31 Democrats and 182 Republicans voted against the resolution, while 24 Republicans and 155 Democrats voted to expel Santos.
The effort to oust Santos was spearheaded by a group of freshman New York Republicans — led by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito — who moved last week to force a vote to expel Santos in the wake of his mounting legal battles. D’Esposito called the legislation to the floor as a privileged resolution, a procedural gambit that forces leadership to set a vote within two legislative days.
Santos faces a total of 23 federal charges ahead of his trial, slated to begin in September 2024.
He pled not guilty last week to a set of 10 new criminal charges in a superseding indictment alleging he inflated his campaign finance reports and charged his donors’ credit cards without authorization.
In May, he was charged on 13 counts of misleading donors, fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits and lying on House financial disclosures.
Santos admitted earlier this year to embellishing parts of his background while campaigning, but he has reiterated he will not resign despite his legal troubles.
Here are the 31 Democratic House members who voted to keep Santos in Congress:
Rep. Collin Allred (Texas)
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (Mass.)
Rep. Ed Case (Hawaii)
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (Mo.)
Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas)
Rep. Sharice Davids (Kan.)
Rep. Chris Deluzio (Penn.)
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (Texas)
Rep. Jared Golden (Maine)
Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.)
Rep. Steven Horsford (Nev.)
Rep. Jeff Jackson (N.C.)
Rep. Hank Johnson (Ga.)
Rep. Rick Larsen (Wash.)
Rep. Susie Lee (Nev.)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.)
Rep. Seth Magaziner (R.I.)
Rep. Morgan McGarvey (Ky.)
Rep. Rob Menendez (N.J.)
Rep. Gwen Moore (Wis.)
Rep. Marie Perez (Wash.)
Rep. Katie Porter (Calif.)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.)
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.)
Rep. Brad Schneider (Ill.)
Rep. Kim Schrier (Wash.)
Rep. Bobby Scott (Va.)
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.)
Rep. Mark Takano (Calif.)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.)
Rep. Nikema Williams (Ga.)
Mychael Schnell contributed.
I understand the electioneering argument, but anyone who would deliberately leave a terrible person in the government to win an election really isn’t putting America first. To say, “we’re going to leave things a bit fucked right now so we have a better chance of unfucking it later”? There’s no guarantee he’ll be defeated in 24 which means things could be fucked for much longer, and there’s no guarantee they’d struggle to defeat his replacement. I take think this is bad logic.
As for your first point, bad precedent is certainly a thing. But not everything is a crime. I’d vote to expel him just for lying about every damn thing that got him elected, even though lying is generally protected speech. So to continue a tradition of requiring a conviction to expel someone when the reason to expel them isn’t a crime seems to rather miss the point.
That all being said, no one seems to give a fuck about lying any more except performatively when it’s useful rhetoric, so maybe the real answer is it just doesn’t matter if he’s kicked out.
No one on that side of the aisle is deliberately leaving the prick in Congress. It wasn’t going to pass due to Republican obstruction, even if the entire Democratic conference had voted for it (and the Democrats previously initiated a measure earlier this year). The question wasn’t “Do you want this asshole out of Congress?” It was “The asshole stays. Do you want your opponent next year to get to campaign on you voting to oust him prior to a conviction, and do you want to be on record for being in favor of ousting Congress members without a conviction if the GOP takes the chamber and decides to weaponize the practice in '25?”
Conviction is the rubric because it’s a bright line with a high bar. Bad public opinion and lying on the campaign trail is just politics. This year’s egregious exception is next year’s status quo. Notice how everything is an “insurrection” for the fascists now? Same deal.
Electioneering isn’t just an argument. It’s the only rational argument.
Good points. Fair enough.