House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said embattled New York Republican George Santos deserves to remain in Congress despite local GOP officials’ demands that he resign after winning election on “deceit, lies and fabrications.”
(Bloomberg) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said embattled New York Republican George Santos deserves to remain in Congress despite local GOP officials’ demands that he resign after winning election on “deceit, lies and fabrications.”
“It’s the voters who made that decision, and he has to answer to the voters,” McCarthy said Wednesday, hours after Nassau County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr. said Santos “disgraced the House of Representatives.”
Santos has been under fire for making up major parts of his background, including his education, work record and family history. When asked about Santos having admitted to fabricating parts of his resume, McCarthy said: “So did a lot of people here.”
Santos’s fate is a crucial matter for Republicans, who won control of the House by a slim majority and struggled last week to get McCarthy elected speaker because of that. Santos cast his support for the California Republican in multiple rounds of voting for speaker.
Santos, however, was not granted the spot on the House Financial Services Committee he was seeking, when selections were announced Wednesday.
The GOP has few votes to spare as the chamber takes up contentious issues in the months ahead, including on spending, abortion and the debt limit. If Santos resigns, a special election would be held in a district that historically has favored Democrats.
Santos told reporters at the Capitol he wouldn’t leave Congress and later tweeted that he would “remain committed” to representing the people of the district.
That came after an unusual and dramatic rebuke from GOP officials in his district.
“George Santos’s campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrications,” Cairo said at a press conference Wednesday with local GOP elected officials in Westbury, New York. “His lies were not mere fibs. He disgraced the House of Representatives.”
Representative Anthony D’Esposito, a fellow freshman who represents a neighboring district, appeared virtually at the Long Island meeting and became the first GOP member of Congress to urge Santos to resign: “I join with you and I join with my colleagues in saying that George Santos does not have the ability to serve here in the House of Representatives and should resign.”
If Santos were to step aside, Governor Kathy Hochul would have to call a special election to fill the vacancy. His 3rd Congressional District is one of the wealthiest in the nation, comprising the “Gold Coast” of northern Nassau County and parts of Queens in New York City.
“They can make another decision in two years,” McCarthy said of voters in the district.
McCarthy said Santos will have to “build trust” in Congress, but unless he is charged with a crime “he has a right to serve.”
“If there is something that rises to the occasion that he did something wrong, we will deal with it at that time,” McCarthy said. The House can expel him only with a two-thirds vote.
The relatively unknown 34-year-old won election in November with the support of McCarthy, local Republicans and some major party donors in a surprisingly strong showing fueled by fears of crime.
Santos so far has dug in.
He plans to finish his two-year term, despite reports of fabrications about his heritage and work experience — including false claims that he worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. He’s also wanted in Brazil on fraud charges, and hasn’t fully explained the source of a net worth of as much as $11 million after having no assets as recently as 2020.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, said Wednesday he’s instructed county offices not to deal with Santos on county issues or constituent services requests. Those issues will be referred to D’Esposito instead. “He cannot serve anymore. He does not deserve that right. He is a stain on the House of Representatives,” he said.
Two New York Democrats, Representatives Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman, have asked the Ethics Committee to investigate whether the New York congressman broke the law by omitting crucial details on his financial disclosures.
Santos faces a separate Federal Election Commission complaint by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center probing the source of the funding for his campaign.
–With assistance from Billy House.
(Adds remarks by McCcarthy, local officials, background beginning in sixth paragraph)
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