George Santos Out For Good!

Packed it up. George Santos is forced out of Congress.

The U.S. House of Representatives expelled Republican lawmaker. He will be permanently barred from running for federal office. He will not seek revenge on a fellow lawmaker who pulled the fire alarm. He will be forced to leave with the possibility of losing his pension and be sanctioned.

Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is the first openly gay Republican lawmaker and the latest in a generation to be removed from Congress.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a special election will be held to replace the disgraced Republican.

Lawmakers voted 311-114 to oust the New York Republican. The measure required the support of two-thirds of the chamber to pass. Two members voted present.

Santos is the sixth House member in U.S. history to be booted from Congress, and the third since the Civil War.

The removal of Santos lowers the number of House Republicans to 221, with 213 Democrats. This makes it even more difficult for the majority to pass legislation without Democratic support.

Democrats see his seat as a prime pickup opportunity. New York law gives Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul 10 days to announce a special election to fill his seat, with a vote coming sometime in late February.

Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who left the seat in New York’s 3rd congressional district to run for governor, has already launched a campaign to take it back.

House Republican leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, were wary of ousting one of their colleagues and had opposed the expulsion resolution.

The resolution, brought by Santos’ fellow New York Republicans, was just the latest effort to boot the embattled 35-year-old freshman lawmaker. So far, none of the motions passed.

But the calculus for Republicans changed following the release of a scathing House Ethics report in mid-November about Santos.

The GOP-led panel concluded that Santos “blatantly stole from his campaign” and spent the donors’ money shopping at places like Ferragamo and Hermes, getting Botox and visiting the adult website OnlyFans.com.

Scandals have defined the New York Republican’s brief time in office. Shortly after winning the seat in 2022, Santos admitted lying about his professional and educational background. But he denied committing any crimes.

Santos has since been charged with nearly two dozen counts of crimes including identity theft, submitting false campaign finance reports and stealing unemployment money.

He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

The suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.