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Santos Announces Plan To Oust Democratic Lawmaker Despite Facing Expulsion


Freshman congressman George Santos’ time in Congress looks to be coming to an end. But the Republican lawmaker from New York doesn’t plan on going down alone.

On Thursday, Santos announced that he will move to force a vote on expelling Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) from the House.

The move comes less than a month after the New York Democrat was charged with a misdemeanor for falsely pulling a fire alarm in a House office building ahead of a key vote.

Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay a fine and write an apology to the Capitol Police.

From The Hill:

Santos — who faces 23 federal criminal counts — unveiled his plans during a farewell tour-esque press conference outside the Capitol on Thursday, one day before the House is poised to hold a vote on expelling him after the House Ethics Committee released a damning report on the congressman.

During the early-morning media availability, Santos declined to unpack the allegations against him but lashed out at the Ethics Committee, labeling the panel’s final report “slanderous” and “unprecedented.”

“They go ahead and release this report littered, littered in hyperbole, littered in opinion, that would have — no decent cop would bring this to a prosecutor or a [district attorney] and says here’s our report, go ahead and charge.”

“This is what the Ethics Committee put out,” he continued. “God bless them and what they think they’re doing and what their work is. You know, I believe they do good work when it’s relevant, but this ain’t it.”

Santos said he will call his measure to expel Bowman to the floor as a privileged resolution when the House opens for legislative business at noon, a maneuver that forces the chamber to act on the measure within two legislative days. Leadership, however, will likely hold a procedural vote instead of a referendum on the actual legislation, shielding the chamber from having to weigh in on expelling Bowman directly.

“I think that that’s consistency,” Santos said Thursday morning. “Let’s hold our own accountable, but let’s make sure that we do it with the precedent of the House.”

Bowman, who for months has called on Santos to resign, was charged with a misdemeanor last month after he pulled the fire alarm during a vote to fund the government.

He called Santos’s expulsion effort “meaningless.”

“No one in Congress, or anywhere in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos seriously. This is just another meaningless stunt in his long history of cons, antics, and outright fraud,” he said in a statement.



 

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