New York's freshman GOP House members seek to expel Santos ahead of 2024 battles

NEW YORK — If he won’t quit, they’ll try to expel him. And aim to help themselves in the process.

Five of New York’s vulnerable first-year House Republicans sponsored a resolution Wednesday to expel colleague Rep. George Santos — five months after joining their conference in effectively voting down a measure to do so in May.

Now they say the circumstances have changed after Santos was hit with new fraud charges on Tuesday, even if the likely outcome remains the same: The resolution won’t pass the full House.

The move aims to head off expected Democratic attacks next year that will try to use Santos’ troubles as an albatross in critical House seats in the state.

“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster, George Santos,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. D’Esposito, who represents a Long Island district neighboring Santos, said Reps. Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Brandon Williams and Nick Langworthy, would be co-sponsoring.

With the exception of Langworthy, who represents a deep red district in western New York, they’re all facing difficult reelection battles in 2024.

The effort is a way to defend against criticism that they’re protecting Santos, who represents Long island and a part of Queens and was hit with 10 more federal charges, including conspiracy, in a superseding indictment. His campaign treasurer also pleaded guilty last week to filing false campaign finance reports for Santos. Santos pleaded not guilty in May to charges including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.

Santos suggested he would plead not guilty to the new charges too, telling reporters Wednesday, “I can prove my innocence.”

And he dismissed attempts to oust him from Congress, which would further shrink the GOP's four-seat majority.

“They can try to expel me, but I pity the fools that go ahead and do that and think that that's the smartest idea,” Santos said. “They're in tough elections next year, but they're setting precedent for the future.”

The resolution to expel wouldn’t be able to be taken up quickly. Legislation can’t move, currently, since there’s no speaker of the House, after the House passed a motion to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the role.

And if it were to come to a vote, the resolution would need a two-thirds majority to pass.

When Democrats pushed a similar measure in May, after the initial charges were filed against Santos, the Republican majority instead moved to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, which hasn’t publicly taken any further action.

McCarthy, at the time, told New York Republicans he was worried about setting the precedent of expelling members before an ethics report was completed, or a conviction reached in court. In a closely divided House, it also helped to have Santos’ reliably Republican vote.

Beyond the legal charges, the Santos saga of lies has become a spectacle, and political opponents have been eager to project his unpopularity onto fellow Republicans.

Democratic activists rallied outside of Molinaro’s office in Binghamton in August, urging him to expel Santos. Molinaro, and other members of New York’s Republican delegation, have publicly criticized Santos and called on him to resign. But McCarthy and other Republican leaders, like Rep. Elise Stefanik, have not, instead saying they prefer to let the process play out.

D’Esposito’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Lawler said on CNN that the new charges were the final straw.

“Myself and my New York colleagues wanted to allow the time for the investigation to be handled. But with the guilty plea of his treasurer admitting to the very scheme that he has been now twice indicted on with 23 felony counts, he cannot serve,” he said Wednesday.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is flooding resources into New York swing seats, said that's too little, too late.

“Is your increasing vulnerability the reason that you’ve changed your tune since first having the opportunity to expel criminally-indicted George Santos back in May?” DCCC spokesperson Ellie Dougherty said in a statement.

Santos himself may no longer have an ally leading the House, either. While House Republicans announced that Rep. Steve Scalise won a secret ballot Wednesday to be their next choice for speaker, Santos had publicly thrown his support behind Rep. Jim Jordan instead.

Democrats are already making moves, in anticipation of a potential special election if Santos were to resign, or be forced out of office. Former Rep. Tom Suozzi filed Tuesday to run for his old 3rd Congressional District seat, now held by Santos.