Rep. George Santos Thursday insisted he won’t resign even as he faces an expulsion vote that could come anytime now.
Denouncing his House colleagues as “bullies,” the scandal-tarred Republican lawmaker is facing long odds of surviving being booted from the House in a historic vote expected later Thursday or Friday.
“Congress is wasting the people’s time again,” Santos said in an early morning press conference. “That’s where we’ve stooped to.”
The Long Island lawmaker rambled about border policy, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the pro-Trump extremists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 saying they were wrongly imprisoned.
Santos also warned that he plans to dish dirt on his colleagues on the way out and lawmakers should think twice before booting him.
“That is going to be the undoing of a lot of members,” Santos said. “That is going to haunt them.”
Santos said he would be filing “a slew of complaints” against various lawmakers to retaliate against the expulsion effort.
He threatened to call for the expulsion of Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who admitted pulling a fire alarm on Capitol Hill during a debate on a stopgap spending measure last month.
Santos even suggested his political career might not be over after he leaves Congress, one way or other.
“I’m 35 years old, it doesn’t mean I’m done,” he said.
Even after months of damaging revelations, Santos may be betting his fellow Republicans will fail to pull the trigger on ousting one of their own.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said GOP leaders are not urging their members to vote one way or the other on the measure, which would require a two-thirds vote to pass and oust Santos.
The expulsion effort has been mostly spearheaded by his fellow first-term Republicans from New York, who fear being tarred by association with Santos.
But a significant number of Republicans, including many members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, plan to vote against expelling Santos.
It would likely take about 90 Republicans voting with almost all Democrats to forge a two-thirds vote to boot Santos. Some like Johnson cite the precedent of expelling a colleague who has not been convicted of any crime.
If Santos resigns or is expelled, a special election would be held to fill the seat. Democrats hope to flip the swing seat.
Santos, who won a Democratic-leaning district in a midterms upset, has been an embarrassment for months as his entire life story unraveled as a pack of lies.
He took a huge blow when the House Ethics Committee issued a scathing report this month that accused him of using his campaign as a virtual piggy bank for personal expenses like luxury goods, vacations and even the porn site OnlyFans.
The openly gay conservative son of Brazilian immigrants has been indicted on 23 federal criminal counts, including campaign finance, theft and fraud charges. He proclaims his innocence and says he’ll see the feds in court.
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Source: Orange County Register
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