Openly gay New York Republican George Santos, who served as the US Representative for New York’s third congressional district, has been officially expelled from Congress. The action leaves Santos with the dubious distinction of being the sixth member of the House of Representatives to be removed from office in United States history.
An attempt to remove him from office once before was unsuccessful. The final decision came as no surprise, especially to residents of the district on Long Island, which includes such towns as Great Neck, Mineola, Bethpage, Syosset, Oyster Bay and Glen Cove, among others.
“Couldn’t come soon enough,” Jill Krieger, a voter in the district, told the news department of New York CW affiliate WPIX. “I would have liked this to happen the first time there was a vote but I’m just happy it finally happened. He needs to be out. It’s just not good for anyone.”
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul now has just under 10 days to schedule a special election, expected to occur in mid to late February. Nominees will then be chosen to run for office from the Democratic and Republican parties.
Although Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal fraud charges that he has not gone to court for yet, the final tally on December 1 was 311 members voting to expel and 114 voting against. A total of 105 Republicans voted to remove Santos from office, while 112 voted against expulsion. Among Democrats 206 voted in favor of removal while only two voted against. Five Republicans and three Democrats abstained from voting entirely, with another two Democrats voting only as present.
In an odd move, house Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) voted against the resolution, saying earlier in the week that he had “real reservations” about removing Santos.
Santos got where he is today by concocting a confusing web of lies that even he couldn’t keep up with.
Among them, he denied ever appearing in drag, even though a rather fetching photograph of him in stylized makeup, a long black wig and a red dress from a festival in Brazil emerged, contradicting his statement.
The list continues: he claimed to be a Broadway stage producer, a volleyball star and insisted that he was not paid rent during the COVID-19 pandemic on property that he owned, which he did not. He claimed to have attended Baruch University and New York University, although no records of his presence at either school exists.
He has made claims of being a Wall Street financier and investor and working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, though both companies beg to differ.
He has claimed his grandparents were Jewish and fled Nazi Germany but documents confirmed they were born in Brazil and that four employees of an unspecified company that he owned died in the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, although a report from the New York Times could find no evidence that any of the 49 victims of the shooting had ever worked for any of the purported companies Santos claimed as his own.
Of all the lies he told, the assertion that his mother was working in an office in the World Trade Center during the attacks of 9/11, and that eventually led to her death from cancer is perhaps the most outrageous. Especially when evidence proves that she was not in the United States at all in 2001.
There’s more, of course, but let’s take a quick look at the financial misdeeds that led to the felony fraud charges: after a single $50,000 payment from the campaign to elect Santos, NBC News reported that the “funds were used to, among other things, pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchased at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at OnlyFans, Sephora and for meals and for parking.”
Santos had reportedly told a former roommate named Gregory Morey that his motivation for running for office was to capture a lifetime pension and insurance that reportedly came with holding the job for at least a single term. As of December 1, his plan failed.
At the age of 35, he was one of the younger members of the House of Representatives. As a gay Republican with a propensity for ubiquitous falsities and a self-loathing habit of supporting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, it is unlikely he will ever be embraced by any political organizations in the queer community, and it’s a given he has burned all bridges with conservative Republicans.
As of this writing he faces the aforementioned felony charges, which range from identity theft to wire fraud. If convicted he could spend 22 years in Federal prison.
While former members of congress, even those that have been expelled are allowed the lifetime privilege of walking on the secured floor of the house, Santos said he sees no reason to take advantage of that.
“Why would I want to stay here?” He was quoted as saying in an article carried by the New York Times. “To hell with this place.”
While his life does indeed look quite bleak at the moment, there are already murmurs of an appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” and a possible reality show in his future.
When questioned about future plans during a press conference the day before he was expelled, Santos was noncommittal.
“Look, I don’t know,” he said. “The future is endless. I mean, you just never know. You can do whatever you want next, and I’m just going to do whatever I want.”
His statement does beg the question: why does Santos think the future has no end date?
