Sashay away, George Santos!
The Representative for New York’s 3rd District was FINALLY expelled from office on Friday morning in the third House vote on the matter.
We don’t know if this man is the most corrupt person to ever get elected to US Congress, but there’ll be a case to be made when all the dust settles! Shortly after he was elected, it came out he’d lied about almost everything in his campaign. His mother hadn’t died in 9/11, he didn’t have the high finance job he claimed, he didn’t go to college where he said, he wasn’t really Jewish. Then more allegations came out, including stealing from a poor pup owner with a fake dog charity scam. Eventually a bipartisan Ethics Committee investigation found Santos had spent campaign money on Botox and OnlyFans subscriptions. Wild!
There were even claims he was a drag performer — along with really convincing photos. There’s nothing wrong with that one as far as we’re concerned, but obviously Republicans are vilifying drag every single day. So for them that should have been the last straw, right?
Nope! Through months and two other votes, Santos got to keep his job. This despite his constituents who voted for him crying out for his expulsion, believing (rightly) that they’d been lied to. They thought the face he won his election fraudulently should nullify it. Republicans disagreed.
Twice Santos’ party members voted to protect him. So what finally changed things?
Well, it seems that for the GOP, the line was Santos scamming them! As in taking money from them personally! You cannot make this crap up! Ohio rep Max Miller (Mr. Showtunes himself) sent out a memo to his fellow Republicans explaining (in a very apologetic tone) why he personally would be voting to expel. He explained that Santos had
“Earlier this year I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card — and the personal card of my Mother — for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits. Neither my Mother nor I approved these charges or were aware of them.”
First off, this lines up with the superseding indictment filed against Santos in October — federal prosecutors say one of his alleged grifts was charging donors far more than they offered once he had their credit card info. Stealing, in other words. He was allegedly stealing from his fellow Republicans in Congress! And their moms! Miller said he’d “seen a list of roughly 400 other people to whom the Santos campaign allegedly did this” — including “other members of this conference”! If this is true, he was literally stealing from the pockets of the people who were circling the wagons to protect him! And not just a little!
Miller said “contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits” — that limit is $3,300 per person! That means he took THOUSANDS! And probably far more than that, considering Miller adds that he and his mom “have spent tens of thousands” in legal fees trying to get their money back!
Maybe Santos thought Republicans would keep protecting him even if he took thousands from their personal bank accounts. And he was close to being right! Miller even said IN THAT SAME MEMO that he understood and respected the decision to vote to keep Santos. The final vote was 311-114. That means over HALF of the Republicans in the House voted to protect Santos, even in light of the new allegations. Wow. That includes the GOP’s new House Speaker Mike Johnson btw. Guess he’s super Christian except for the commandments about lying and stealing?
Santos is now only the sixth member of Congress ever to be expelled this way, the first in over 20 years. As he was leaving, he angrily said to reporters:
“Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place.”
Over a hundred voted to keep him in office. Wow.
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