Santos Removal from Congress Constitutional Rarity

 

 

Before the removal of George Santos in a vote that included both Democrats and Republicans this morning, the successful move of expelling a member from the House of Representatives had only happened five times before.  With the removal of Santos, it moves the needle to only half a dozen over the last two-hundred and thirty-four years (since the Constitution went into effect in 1789), and Santos is the first in over twenty years.

The action, needing a two thirds vote to accomplish it, has been in the working for over six months, but the vote was not ensured as being enough until Friday, December 1, 2023.

The final tally Friday Morning was 311-114-2, with 105 Republicans joining almost all of the Democrats. 

Santos’ scandals began early, with him lying about his resume in order to get elected.  Santos took his seat eleven months ago, and even back then the rumors were flying that expelling him from office was on the horizon.  With a slim majority, the GOP takes a risk losing a Republican in a district held by the Democrats since 2013, before Santos pulled off his win.  The Republican Party is also suffering from internal fighting between establishment Republicans who tend to spend time in the laps of the Democrats and drinking from the same trough as the lefties, and the Patriots in Congress who still believe the Republican Platform and the United States Constitution is something that should be defended.  

Nonetheless, 112 Republicans refused to vote to expel Santos during Friday’s vote, despite the controversies he has been a subject of.  Their warning was that it was a dangerous precedent to remove an elected Congressman from office without a criminal conviction.  The fear is that such a move might become easily abused in light of the current stark division between the political parties, and even within the parties.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, still relatively new in his role as the gavel-wielder in the House of Representatives, made clear that he had “real reservations” with the effort to remove Santos before his criminal cases and due process had properly run their course.

The charges against Santos are non-starters and minor hiccups, to be honest, when compared to the criminal activities of many Democrats that includes bribes, targeting opposition with false criminal cases, and worse; meanwhile, they are expelling a guy who is accused of stealing puppies from the Amish and spending campaign funds on botox…

What about the Democrat senator who was chair of the Foreign Relations Committee (!!) and was charged with taking bribes (including gold) from foreign governments?