George Santos expelled from House in historic vote: Live updates

After less than two years in Congress, his list of lies and scandals finally caught up with him, as he was ousted from Congress following the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report.

Though the entire GOP leadership opposed his removal, 105 Republicans joined with Democrats in pushing him out.

The committee report appeared to be the final nail in the coffin, finding “substantial evidence” that Mr Santos had broken federal laws after finding “additional uncharged and unlawful conduct,” which included using campaign funds to make purchases at Hermes, Sephora and OnlyFans.

Bevan Hurley tracked one of the shortest and most colourful careers in congressional history.

Less than half of a majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to expel former congressman George Santos, but the ones who did so came mostly from endangered districts, swing states or were his fellow New Yorkers.

Mr Santos was one of 18 Republicans who in 2022 won in a district that had voted for President Joe Biden. All 17 of his fellow Biden-district Republicans–including his five fellow freshman Republicans in New York who won seats last year–voted to expel Mr Santos.

Other freshmen who flipped seats such as Reps Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon’s 5th district, Jen Kiggans of Virginia’s 2nd also voted to boot the 35-year-old. Many of them know that Mr Santos is a drag on their brand and needed to kick him out. For instance, Rep John Duarte of California’s 13th district, who also voted to expel, only won his district by 564 votes.

In addition, other Republicans such as Reps Don Bacon of Nebraska and Brian Fitzpatrick, who are considered more moderate Republicans who voted to certify the 2020 presidential election results, also voted to kick him out.

At the same time, House Republican leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson; House Majority Leader Steve Scalise; fellow New Yorker and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer all voted to keep him in Congress.

Similarly, many archconservative Republicans such as Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry, and Tim Burchett of Tennessee voted to keep him in office.

Several other Republicans from swing districts voted to keep him in office. Rep Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who only won her re-election in Colorado’s 3rd district by 546 votes last year, voted against expulsion.

Rep Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who had called for his resignation, also voted against expulsion.

Unrepentant disgraced ex-Republican representative George Santos has decided that in filing all of these ethics reports against his former colleagues he is assuming a new role to sweep clean the halls of the US Capitol of corruption.

Check out his new bio on X:

Three other tri-state area representatives are also in Mr Santos’s sights as his revenge tour gets underway.

Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of upstate New York:

Republican Congressman Nick LaLota of Long Island:

And Democratic Congressman Rob Menendez of New Jersey, son of Senator Bob Menendez (currently under investigation regarding overseas dealings):

After making the allegations against the four New York area reps, Mr Santos signed off for the night at 12.42am.

George Santos is not going quietly.

After his exit from the Capitol on Friday afternoon there was silence from the disgraced former Republican congressman. That is, until 11.35pm that night when he took aim at his first target, fellow New York Republican Rep Nicole Malliotakis.

He not only accused her of insider trading but also made claims about her personal life.

Mr Santos then said he would be filing an ethics complaint against the Staten Island rep.

An Ohio Republican who got into a contentious exchange with now-former New York congressman George Santos said he called himself a “victim” of the expelled Empire State representative because Mr Santos’s campaign ran up massive fake tabs on credit cards belonging to him and his mother.

In a letter distributed to fellow House members ahead of the historic vote to expel Mr Santos, Representative Max Miller said the ex-freshman representative’s 2022 campaign “had charged my personal credit card — and the personal card of my Mother — for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits”.

“Neither my Mother nor I approved these charges or were aware of them,” he continued, adding that he has expended “tens of thousands of dollars” in legal fees while trying to resolve the situation.

Andrew Feinberg has the full story.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to expel now-former congressman George Santos of New York, with 105 of his Republicans joining every Democrat to remove the embattled member from office.

Mr Santos joined the ranks of five other members of Congress–all of them Democrats and three of whom were members of the Confederacy–to be expelled, which he said he considered a badge of honor.

Votes to expel members of Congress are extraordinarily rare and require a two-thirds majority of the House of Representatives. The vote came after Speaker Mike Johnson and most of House Republican leadership voted to keep him in the House of Representatives.

The vote bookends Mr Santos’s spectacularly bizarre jaunt as a candidate and elected official. After initially losing his race in a district in Long Island in 2020, Mr Santos and a handful of Republicans flipped seats that had voted for President Joe Biden in 2022 when Democrats in New York underperformed amid concerns about crime. Mr Santos seemed to represent a new type of Republican as a gay Latino man with Brazilian heritage.