House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Nov. 29 that the House Republican Conference won’t take a tally of how many of its members are for expelling embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.).
Instead, he said, House Republicans should “vote their conscience.”
Mr. Johnson made these remarks at the weekly House GOP press conference following the conference’s weekly meeting on Capitol Hill.
“What we’ve said in the leadership team is we’re going to allow people to vote their conscience,” he said.
“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.”
The speaker said he had “real reservations” about the expulsion vote, saying it could “set a precedent.”
“I’ve spoken to Congressman Santos at some length over the holiday and talked with him about his options,” Mr. Johnson said. “But we’ll have to see. It’s not yet determined, but we’ll be talking about that when we get back [to Congress] tomorrow.”
Two resolutions were put forth on Nov. 28 to expel Mr. Santos.
One was by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and the other was by Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-N.Y.) on behalf of House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.).
Given that the resolutions are privileged, the House must hold a vote within two days. The expulsion resolution requires the support of two-thirds of the House for passage.
Voting on expulsion comes weeks after the bipartisan House Ethics Committee released a report stating that Mr. Santos “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct ... and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act.”
Additionally, according to the report, Mr. Santos “continues to flout his statutory financial disclosure [FD] obligations and has failed to correct countless errors and omissions in his past FD Statements, despite being repeatedly reminded by the ISC [Investigative Subcommittee] and the Committee of his requirement to do so.”
Even before the committee report, Mr. Santos admitted to fabricating his past, from his family history to his educational background to his employment experience.
While there are Republicans who have come out against Mr. Santos, there are some standing by his side.
Mr. Santos, who in 2022 flipped the Democrat-held seat in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, said that he won’t resign.
“Setting the record straight, my conversation with the speaker was positive and I told him I'd be standing for the expulsion vote,” Mr Santos wrote in a post on X on Nov. 27. “Expel me and set the precedent so we can see who the judge, jury, and executioners in Congress are. The American people deserve to know!”
On the House floor on Nov. 28, Mr. Santos reiterated that he won’t step down.
There were two previous attempts to expel Mr. Santos, who’s facing 23 federal charges.
The House defeated an expulsion resolution on Nov. 1, 179–213.
That measure was brought by New York GOP Reps. Marc Molinaro, Mike Lawler, Anthony D'Esposito, Brandon Williams, and Nick LaLota.
“All you have to do is look at the lies and deceptions in the resolution and details of the indictments—multiple indictments—to see that Mr. Santos is a stain on this institution and not fit to serve in the House of Representatives,” Mr. D'Esposito said ahead of the vote.
In May, the House referred an expulsion resolution to the House Ethics Committee with a vote of 221–204, thereby punting on an actual expulsion vote. The resolution was introduced by Mr. Garcia.
In the 234-year history of the House, just five members have been expelled.
The last time the House expelled a member was in 2002, when the lower congressional chamber ousted Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio) after he was convicted on federal charges including tax evasion.
