New York Republican Rep. George Santos learned that he would be expelled from the House of Representatives after a historic vote was held on Friday where he failed to secure enough votes to be allowed to stay in his current position. The results of the vote were 311-114, which obviously surpassed the required two-thirds majority needed to boot Santos to the curb.
As you might imagine, the Democrats in the House were all about removing Santos, casting 206 votes in favor of seeing him removed from his seat. Only two Democrats, Reps. Bobby Scott, who hails from Virginia, and Nikema Williams from Georgia, voted as being present, while two others voted against the expulsion.
The Republican Party was divided over the move. A total of 105 Republicans voted in favor of the congressman being expelled, while 112 voted against the measure.
Here are more details from the Western Journal:
According to The New York Times, Santos made the wrong kind of history with this expulsion, becoming the first sitting member of the House to be expelled without being convicted of a crime or supporting the Confederacy. To many observers, that fact is ominous and raises the specter of a slippery slope.
Santos’ controversies and behavior soured him on the majority of his peers, and at first glance, it’s easy to see why.
The embattled now-former congressman was called out for a number of duplicitous statements and actions, highlighted by false claims of being connected to the Holocaust and the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. He also stands accused of several federal crimes, including inappropriate use of campaign funds. The issue for many outside observers, however, stems from the fact that Santos still just stands accused of those crimes — and nothing more.
One of the reasons folks are so torn over this situation is because Santos has only been accused of these crimes. He’s not actually been convicted of anything, despite how bad the optics are for a lot of the allegations are he’s facing. That might explain why Santos looked furious as he left the Capitol building. He was asked whether or not he would ever return to the Capitol for a visit, to which he replied, “To hell with this place.”
Understandable sentiment when you’ve experienced the kind of treatment Santos has over the course of this whole mess. The folks at the Western Journal believe the ouster of Santos from Congress is bad, news for other members of the GOP. And that’s true. It slims down the majority Republicans hold in the chamber to 221 members. There are currently 213 Democrats, which means the lead the GOP has on their political opposition is very thin and could make passing bills very difficult.
At the end of the day, it’s concerning that Santos was booted without being convicted of anything. Our justice system is corrupted to the core, a fact we’ve discovered in recent years, particularly when the left slapped former President Donald Trump with four indictments on a numerous list of charges that lack substance. Let’s hope we get a conservative president who can help root out the deep state within federal law enforcement.