Is the third time the charm?
After a damning report found “substantial evidence” of lawbreaking by Rep. George Santos, setting the stage for a third attempt at expulsion by the U.S. House of Representatives, the embattled Republican dropped another bombshell. He fully expects to be kicked out of Congress and will wear the expulsion “like a badge of honor.”
The GOP-led House Ethics Committee determined that Santos “blatantly stole from his campaign” and “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
The committee's findings were referred to prosecutors. Santos faces 23 criminal charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He has a 7% approval rating in his district.
Santos' prediction came during an interview with conservative commentator Monica Matthews. During a diatribe, Santos called Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) a p*ssy, mocked Guest's home state of Mississippi and accused his Republican colleagues of having sex with lobbyists every night.
Business Insider reports:
That was just one part of Santos's lengthy and angry diatribe against his colleagues, during which the indicted congressman made a series of statements and claims that are unlikely to endear him to any colleagues who may still remain on the fence about expelling him.
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Spokespeople for Rep. Guest did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment sent outside of regular business hours.
And in a moment reminiscent of former Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn — whose wild claims of cocaine-laden orgies among his colleagues spurred GOP leaders to plot his ouster last year — Santos claimed his colleagues were “hypocrites” who were regularly cheating on their spouses and barely doing their job.
“I have colleagues who are more worried about getting drunk every night with the next lobbyist that they're gonna screw and pretend like none of us know what's going on, and sell off the American people, not show up to vote because they're too hungover or whatever the reason is, or not show up to vote at all and just give their card out like f*cking candy for someone else to vote for them,” Santos said.
“This sh*t happens every single week,” he continued. “Where are the ethics investigations?”
Santos' ethics investigation accused the congressman of defrauding donors, using their money on designer clothes, skincare and internet pornography subscriptions.
It take a two-thirds majority to expel a Member of Congress. The last time a U.S. representative was expelled was in 2002 when Ohio Democrat James Traficant was thrown out after a jury convicted him on 10 felony counts, including bribery and racketeering.
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