Republicans Expel George Santos Despite His Conservative Voting Record in NY
You don’t have to approve of George Santos to understand it should have been left to his constituents in Long Island and Queens to decide on his suitability to remain in Congress.
Nonetheless, despite a slim majority in the House and crucial votes looming as they head into an election year, 105 Republicans were suckered by moral vanity into expelling one of their own Friday.
The 35-year-old gay son of Brazilian immigrants, Santos had the most conservative voting record of the entire New York delegation, and now he is gone, taking his vote with him.
“To hell with this place,” he said as he exited the US Capitol after the vote, vowing revenge on the former colleagues who had turned on him.
Perfect. Just what Republicans need: more friendly fire.
Who knows who will fill his place in the Democratic district he miraculously flipped last year?
Gov. Hochul has to hold a special election in the next couple of months, and you can bet that Democrats will use all their wiles to regain a seat that they used to take for granted.
Republicans’ own goal
Santos is facing multiple criminal charges for wire fraud, stealing public funds and lying on federal disclosure forms, and he already had declared he wouldn’t run for re-election, so there was no need for his colleagues to intervene and break precedent.
They simply could have declared that he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, like all Americans, and quietly groomed his replacement.
That would have been the right thing to do, and it had the added advantage of being self-serving, because they could have hung on to their nine-seat majority until the election.
