Rep. George Santos says he expects to be kicked from Congress as expulsion vote looms

NEW YORK - Republican Congressman George Santos could face a House expulsion vote this week, but remained defiant on Tuesday, saying he doesn't care about the procedural move and that he would "not resign."

Democratic lawmakers moved Tuesday to force a vote this week on expelling Santos from the House, calling it a necessary step if Republicans fail to take action in light of the recent ethics report that found Santos blatantly stole from his campaign and deceived donors.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, brought back to the floor legislation first introduced in February to force the expulsion vote. Republicans were successful in turning aside the earlier effort, but now that the Ethics Committee has released its findings about Santos from its monthslong investigation, Garcia said it's time to act.

GOP Rep. Anthony D'Esposito of New York also made a motion on the House floor to force a vote on House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest's resolution filed one week ago to expel Santos from Congress.

Now that Chairman Guest's resolution is privileged, the House will have until Thursday or two legislative days to vote on expelling Santos.

Expelling Santos, a Republican from New York, would require support from at least two-thirds of House members voting. Garcia said he expects to reach that number easily, which would make Santos just the sixth member of the House to be removed by his colleagues, and only the third since the Civil War.

House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with Santos on the phone urging him to resign, but Santos has rejected any suggestion he step down before an expulsion vote. Santos spoke on the House floor Tuesday night, reiterating that he will not resign.

"To set the record straight and put this in the record, I will not be resigning," he said.

He started his speech off by discussing constituents in his district but then quickly turned to discussing the upcoming expulsion vote.

"We are now going down a third attempt for a privileged resolution to expel me from the House of Representatives this week," he said. "Here's the case in point in history. Five members of Congress have been expelled. All five had suffered convictions in a court. All five had due process."

He called the Ethics Committee report irresponsible and filled with "bias opinions."

While Santos has survived two expulsion votes, many of his colleagues who formerly opposed the effort now say they support it, citing the findings of the committee's investigation into a wide range of alleged misconduct by Santos.

Congressman Andrew Garbarino of New York is a member of the House Ethics Committee.

"I think a lot people who were hesitant and didn't vote for it last time and either voted present or no have signaled that they will switch their vote now that ethics has finished its investigation," Garbarino said.

Staten Island Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is now making it clear she will vote to remove Santos from office.

"He should not be sitting in Congress while he awaits this trial," Malliotakis said.

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The report found Santos used campaign funds for personal purposes, such as purchases at luxury retailers and adult content websites, then caused the campaign to file false or incomplete reports.

"Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit," investigators wrote. They noted that he did not cooperate with the report and repeatedly "evaded" straightforward requests for information.

On Friday, Santos said he did not want to address the specifics of the report, which he claimed were "slanderous" and "designed to force me out of my seat." Any defense of his conduct, he said, could be used against him in the ongoing criminal case brought by federal prosecutors.

Instead, Santos struck a contemplative tone during the three-hour livestream, tracing his trajectory from Republican "it girl" to "the Mary Magdalene of the United States Congress." And he lashed out at his congressional colleagues, accusing them of misconduct - such as voting while drunk - that he said was far worse than anything he'd done.

"They all act like they're in ivory towers with white pointy hats and they're untouchable," he said. "Within the ranks of United States Congress there's felons galore, there's people with all sorts of shystie backgrounds."

His decision not to seek reelection, he said, was not because of external pressure, but due to his frustration with the "sheer arrogance" of his colleagues.

"These people need to understand it's done when I say it's done, when I want it to be done, not when they want it to be done," he added. "That's kind of where we are there."

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