George Santos says he expects he'll be expelled from Congress
Washington — Embattled Rep. George Santos said he expects to be expelled from Congress in the coming days and will "wear it like a badge of honor."
"I know I'm going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor," the New York Republican said Friday on an X Space hosted by conservative media personality Monica Matthews.
"I have done the math over and over," he said, laughing, "and it doesn't look really good."
The Ethics Committee released a 56-page report earlier this month that said there was "substantial evidence" that Santos violated federal law. The report alleged Santos funneled large sums of money through his campaign and businesses to pay for his personal expenses, including on cosmetic procedures such as Botox, at luxury stores Hermès and Ferragamo, on smaller purchases at OnlyFans, a website containing adult content, meals, parking, travel and rent.
After the report's release, Rep. Michael Guest, the chairman of the Ethics Committee, introduced a resolution to expel Santos. Guest, a Mississippi Republican, said the findings were "more than sufficient to warrant punishment and the most appropriate punishment is expulsion."
Calling his colleague an obscenity, Santos dared Guest to introduce his resolution as "privileged," meaning the House would be required to consider the measure within two legislative days.
"He thought that he was going to bully me out of Congress," Santos said, adding that he would not resign and calling the report "a political opposition hit piece at best."
"I want to see them set this precedent," he said. "Because this precedent sets a new era of due process, which means you are guilty until proven innocent, we will take your accusations and use it to smear, to mangle, to destroy you and remove you from society. That is what they are doing with this."
Santos declined to address the specific allegations in the report, claiming they were "slanderous." He said defending himself against the allegations could be used against him in the federal case. Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges.
Santos also lashed out at his colleagues, accusing them of adultery, voting hungover and handing out their voting cards like "candy for someone else to vote for them."
"There's felons galore," he said. "There's people with all sorts of sheisty backgrounds. And all of a sudden, George Santos is the Mary Magdalene of United States Congress."
During the hourslong discussion, Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, logged onto the X Space and pressed Santos on why he wouldn't resign.
"Why not just do the right thing and resign?" Garcia said. "We're going to vote to expel you, George."
Santos said he hasn't been found guilty of anything.
"George, we're going to expel you," Garcia repeated.
"And that's fine," Santos said. "You're saying it like I'm scared of it, Robert. I'm not scared of it. … I resign, I admit everything that's in that report, which most of it is some of the craziest s—t I've ever read in my life."
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Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
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