Early this week, Rep. George Santos looked overwhelmingly likely to be expelled from the House of Representatives, as he himself acknowledged. But with the actual vote looming, Republicans started wavering. They’d be sacrificing an important vote in their narrow majority, after all, and while Santos faces 23 federal criminal charges, their party’s likely presidential nominee faces 44 federal and 47 state criminal charges. They have a strong incentive to extend “innocent until proven guilty” from the criminal justice system to qualification for the country’s top offices.
The House is voting, and it will take a two-thirds majority vote to expel Santos. Will Republicans boot someone who was elected based on a series of lies about his own biography and who allegedly engaged in massive campaign finance violations and outright fraud through his campaign? Or will they decide he is still a welcome member of the House Republican conference?
