The New York Republican, fabulist and accused fraudster George Santos said he would not resign in order to avoid becoming only the sixth representative ever expelled from the US House.
“If I resign, I make it easy for this place,” Santos, 35, told reporters. “This place is run on hypocrisy. I’m done playing a part for the circus. If they want me to leave Congress, they’re going to have to take that tough vote.”
But that tough vote appeared to be near.
Earlier on Tuesday, two Democrats, Robert Garcia of California and Dan Goldman of New York, initiated proceedings to require an expulsion vote within two legislative days. Later, two Republicans, Anthony D’Esposito of New York and Michael Guest of Mississippi, did the same.
“We want to make sure that happens this week,” Garcia said. “I think whatever it takes to get that vote this week is what we’re doing. He has no place in Congress.”
The list of previous expellees includes three men who fought for the Confederacy in the civil war and two convicted of crimes. The last man forced out, James A Traficant of Ohio, a congressman with a famous “piled-high pompadour” toupée who was convicted of fraud, bribery, obstruction of justice and racketeering, was expelled in 2002.
A two-thirds majority will be required to add Santos to the list.
Santos was elected last year but quickly saw his résumé torn to pieces by investigative reporting and past actions subjected to legal scrutiny. He admitted embellishing that résumé – which included bizarre claims about his academic and professional history – but denied wrongdoing. Among more picaresque episodes, he denied having been a drag performer in Brazil – a denial now undermined by reporters including the author of a new biography.
Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal fraud charges but has not yet stood trial. Many in Congress, including senior Democrats, have cited the lack of a conviction when opposing previous attempts to expel him, saying to do so without the verdict of a court would set a dangerous precedent.
Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat in the closely divided Senate, is under indictment for alleged corruption. He denies wrongdoing.
In Santos’s case, his own party has generated a previous attempt to expel him. But it took a damning House ethics committee report, issued this month and detailing his use of campaign funds for expenses including Botox treatment and luxury purchases, to change the political equation.
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Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, must govern with a narrow and unruly majority. A Santos exit would eat into that margin but Johnson has this week attempted to persuade Santos to quit.
Digesting Santos’s refusal to do so, an unnamed Republican told the news site Axios he thought Santos wanted the “notoriety” of becoming the sixth person ever forcibly expelled.
If Santos is removed, his New York district, which covers parts of Long Island and Queens, will have a special election within 90 days.
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