The 311-114 decision thumbed its nose at years of a higher standard for House removal, but it may also force Republicans to take a look at themselves.
Santos had survived two previous attempts to chase him off, one in May and the other just weeks ago in November. This time, 105 Republicans voted in favor of expulsion.
“We set a bad precedent today," Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland) said on Washington Watch last Friday. "I’m not going to judge whether Mr. Santos is guilty or not, but the precedent has been since the Civil War that you only are expelled once you’re convicted of the crime, not just indicted, not just accused, but convicted."
Harris told show host Jody Hice the move did not adequately consider the needs of three-quarters of a million New York voters. There appeared to be a rush to toss him out, too, which is why Harris voted against it.
"I don’t think we should set a fairly dangerous precedent that an indictment is enough to override the desires of your congressional district, of those voters, because right now 750,000 voters in his district are disenfranchised as they do not have an elected representative," Harris said.
More than enough House members felt questionable decisions by Santos, followed by a string of lies in his efforts to defend himself, validated new precedent.
His trouble began shortly after his election in November of 2022 when The New York Times reported Santos had lied about a Wall Street career, obtaining college degrees, and having Jewish ancestry.
Ultimately a House ethics committee ruled that Santos had abused his position, using “every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
Santos’ ouster further reduces a slim House majority. Now there are 221 Republicans to 213 Democrats.
New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul will set a special election to fill the seat. It could be February before a replacement is seated on Capitol Hill. Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who left the seat to run for governor, has announced that he’ll try to win it back.
“He would lie to his own supporters in order to try to save his own skin and then also raise money from them, which if you follow the story you know that the money that he was raising, he would just use it on bizarre things, like tons of money spent on OnlyFans subscriptions and stuff like that,” freelance journalist Pedro Gonzalez said on American Family Radio Monday.
Santos compared to Menendez indictment
The sudden vacancy for New York’s third district does, however, create an opportunity for necessary introspection for Republicans, Gonzalez told show host Jenna Ellis.
“So what's next? I'm actually thinking that we have to take kind of a step back and think about the state of the GOP right now,” he said. “It's hard to think of anything good that type of person has done for the GOP or the conservative movement. We’ve gotten so dug in into this idea that we have to beat the Democrats by becoming like them.”
Gonzalez said Santos used Republicans’ desire to keep their majority to his advantage.
“He would play on it whenever a news scandal would rear its head, and he would say something outrageous like, ‘You know, this is proof that the Chinese Communist Party is after me.’”
Santos defenders point out that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) remains in office after being indicted on corruption charges for the second time in 10 years. Menendez, like Santos, has pleaded not guilty.
“One defense of Santos was that he's sort of just holding up a mirror to the absurdity of the regime, the establishment, because it's totally true. Bob Menendez is a great example,” Gonzalez said.
At the end of the day, it was time to move ahead, Gonzalez concluded.
“People that make the argument, ‘He was one of our own,’ I just scratch my head. What do you mean? I don’t consider Santos one of my own. I think that’s very bizarre and inappropriate," he observed.
