George Santos became the sixth person to be expelled from the House on Friday after the New York Republican’s fellow lawmakers successfully voted him out.
The first-term congressmember had been embroiled in controversy before he even set foot in the U.S. Capitol. Last month, the House Ethics Committee released a report stating they’d found “substantial evidence” supporting federal prosecutors’ charges against him, which include allegations of identity theft, making charges on donors’ credit cards without their authorization and submitting false campaign reports.
Santos continued to publicly defend himself up until just hours before the vote. Here’s a look at how he spent his last (approximately) 24 hours in Congress:
Santos refuses to resign in Thursday morning press conference
Early Thursday morning, Santos held a press conference in front of the Capitol and remained defiant that he would not resign from Congress.
Santos declined to comment on the allegations against him, which also include that he used campaign funds for Botox, lavish trips to Atlantic City and OnlyFans. At the press conference, Santos said House members were “bullying” him by trying to expel him from Congress.
“The reality of it is it’s all theater. It’s theater for the cameras, it’s theater for the microphones, it’s theater for the American people at the expense of the American people because no real work’s getting done,” Santos said.
At the press conference, Santos told reporters that he planned to introduce a resolution to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman because the New York Democrat pulled a fire alarm in a congressional office building in September during government funding bill talks. Bowman has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
“No one in Congress, or anywhere in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos seriously,” Bowman responded in a statement.
Santos argues with Miller on the House floor
Ahead of the House debate Thursday on the resolution to expel Santos, the New York Republican told his colleagues that he supported the move to hold the vote.
Later on, Santos got into a heated floor discussion with Rep. Max Miller, who called Santos a “crook.” Santos referenced past allegations of alleged abuse in a relationship by Miller, calling the Ohio lawmaker a “woman beater.” Miller has forcefully denied those allegations, suing the woman for defamation but voluntarily dropping the lawsuit earlier this year.
On the floor, Santos followed up on his word and introduced a resolution to expel Bowman from Congress.
Santos on Fox Friday morning: ‘I’ve accepted the fate’
Hours before the Friday morning vote, Santos said in a Fox News appearance that he believes the House has the votes to expel him and that he’s “accepted the fate.”
“I believe that if God’s will to keep me, I will stay, if it is his will to leave, and I will leave and do so graciously,” Santos said.
Santos also said the vote to expel him “sets a dangerous new precedent for the future and it’s the demise of this body eventually.”
Santos ahead of vote: ‘If I knew the future, I’d play the lotto’
Following his Fox appearance, Santos was confronted in a House building hallway by a reporter who asked him if Friday would be his last day in Congress.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. If I knew, I’d play the lotto. If I knew the future, I’d play the lotto today. I’d be a lot more productive,” Santos said.
Santos didn’t have a message to his fellow New York Republicans who have called him a “liar” or “fraudster” but suggested that reporters should look into those lawmakers’ pasts instead.
Santos quickly exits the Hill after expulsion vote
Santos was voted out of the House with 311 members voting yes, 114 members voting no and two members voting present. 105 Republicans voted to expel the New York Republican.
“As unofficially already no longer a member of Congress, I no longer have to answer a single question,” Santos said as reporters followed him out of the building after the vote. “That is the one thing that I’m going to take forever.”
Santos then jumped into a Jaguar SUV that headed off Capitol grounds.
