George Santos: Democrat Robert Garcia moves to expel indicted Republican from Congress
A resolution has been brought forth to expel George Santos (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Democrat Robert Garcia has introduced a resolution to expel scandal-hit Republican George Santos from the House of Representatives.
The resolution reads: “That, pursuant to Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the constitution of the United States, Representative George Santos, be, and he hereby is, expelled from the House of Representatives.”
The Californian representative introduced the resolution on Tuesday (17 May) as privileged, meaning under House rules it must get a vote within two days.
Republicans in the House have until Thursday to decide whether they will vote on the resolution, with two-thirds in favour needed to pass, or table, it.
The vote is widely expected to fail but Garcia believes it would put Republican representatives on record as to whether or not they support the indicted New York politician.
“It’s very clear that he’s a liar, he’s a fraud. And besides the 13 counts that just happen to all be serious, I think it’s more important to note that he’s already admitted to actual criminal activity, to actual fraud in Brazil,” Garcia said, according to CBS News.
“Republicans now have a chance to demonstrate to Americans that an admitted criminal should not serve in the House of Representatives,” Garcia noted in a further statement on his website.
Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy, however, said he would prefer the matter be passed to the House Ethics Committee, which is a “safe bipartisan committee, equal number of Republicans and Democrats”.
ABC News quoted McCarthy as telling a White House press conference: “I think the George Santos indictment is very serious. I also know in America you’re innocent until proven guilty, but I don’t want to sit around and wait. So what I would like to do is move this to ethics.
“I don’t want to wait around for the courts to act. What I would like to do is have the House take action and have a process here.”
The resolution comes after Santos pleaded not guilty to 13 charges in New York, including wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Santos called the investigation a witch hunt and vowed to continue to serve, as well as run for re-election in 2024.
“Fortunately, justice is blind in our country, and everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” he said.
“Regrettably, representative. Garcia and the Democrats are playing the roles of bias judge and jury. Expelling me is silencing 145,000+ voters who sent me here to represent them and taking the voice away from 700,000 people.”
The controversial representative, who is the first openly gay Republican in Congress, is known to have fabricated his educational background, religion and work history during his 2022 election campaign.
In addition, Santos has claimed his mother died because of 9/11 – even though documents show she was not in the US at the time.
Santos has also voiced his opposition to drag, despite allegedly being a drag queen in Brazil in the 2000s.
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