Rep. Byron Donalds, other members of the Freedom Caucus and Rep. George Santos (lower right), watch the expulsion vote on the House floor. (Image: NBC)
Dec. 1, 2023 by David Silverberg
The United States House of Representatives voted this morning to expel Rep. George Santos (R-3-NY) from the body for a wide variety of ethical lapses and alleged crimes.
The vote on House Resolution 878 was 311 to 114 with 206 Democrats and 105 Republicans voting to expel and 112 Republicans and 2 Democrats voting to keep Santos in office. Two members voted “present” and eight did not vote.
Southwest Florida Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) voted against expulsion.
However, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.) voted for expulsion.
As of this writing, none of the members explained their votes on social media platforms, although they actively made statements on a variety of other topics.
The motion to expel Santos was made by Rep. Michael Guest (R-3-Miss.), chair of the House Ethics Committee. It followed the Nov. 16 release of a Committee report, In the Matter of Allegations Relating to Representative George Santos.
The report stated that:
“Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.
“He blatantly stole from his campaign.
“He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit.
“He reported fictitious loans to his political committees to induce donors and party committees to make further contributions to his campaign – and then diverted more campaign money to himself as purported ‘repayments’ of those fictitious loans.
“He used his connections to high value donors and other political campaigns to obtain additional funds for himself through fraudulent or otherwise questionable business dealings.
“And he sustained all of this through a constant series of lies to his constituents, donors, and staff about his background and experience.”
Liberty lives in light
© 2023 by David Silverberg