For months, rank-and-file Republicans have been at odds with GOP leadership over Rep. George Santos (R-NY).
A small but loud crop of House Republicans have called for his resignation over alleged campaign finance violations and revelations he fabricated large parts of his personal backstory. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), meanwhile, has urged restraint.
SENATE LEADERS PLAY DEBT CEILING BLAME GAME WHILE AIDES NEGOTIATE BEHIND THE SCENES
The speaker maintained that Santos is innocent until proven guilty as his scandals piled up, yet the defense may say more about his fragile House majority than his desire to uphold the rule of law.
Washington acted out a familiar scene on Wednesday, even as Santos’s conduct took on a new level of seriousness. Republicans, particularly his New York colleagues, renewed their calls for his ouster following his indictment and arrest on federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and lying to Congress.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) called for his expulsion.
McCarthy, along with the rest of House GOP leadership, has declined to do the same, with the California Republican saying he would only call for Santos to step down if a federal court or separate House Ethics investigation found wrongdoing.
“He will go through his time in trial, and let's find out how the outcome is," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Santos winning his New York House seat in November was both a headache and an opportunity for McCarthy. Santos was one of four Republicans to flip seats in New York, handing the speaker, as luck would have it, what turned out to be a four-seat majority.
But his victory brought with it a stream of bad headlines weeks before McCarthy had even secured the gavel. Starting in December, stories began to break about how Santos apparently lied about where he went to college and his “Jew-ish” heritage. It came to light he was being investigated in Brazil for check fraud.
Santos has acknowledged fabricating parts of his resume on the campaign trail but pleaded “not guilty” on Wednesday to the charges before him. He stands accused of embezzling campaign funds for personal use, illegally claiming thousands in unemployment benefits during the pandemic, and lying to Congress about his finances.
McCarthy wants nothing to do with his reelection bid — he told CNN on Wednesday that he won’t be supporting him in 2024 — but for now, McCarthy may feel he is stuck with Santos as he navigates an unruly and narrow majority in the House.
He could take a risk and move to expel Santos today — the decision is a political one, not a legal one — but winning his district last year was an upset in and of itself, and a special election would be no easier.
Ultimately, the decision to hold off shows a pragmatic streak in McCarthy, who, not unlike in the case of Santos, has stood by former President Donald Trump despite his own litany of scandals. Trump was found liable for battery and defamation in the sexual assault case of author E. Jean Carroll on the same day news broke that prosecutors had filed charges against Santos.
Santos emerged as an early ally of McCarthy — he supported him through all 15 rounds of voting as McCarthy struggled to lock down the support of a dozen or so conservative holdouts.
McCarthy, for his part, allowed Santos to hold committee assignments despite protests from his fellow New York colleagues, though he subsequently stepped down from those posts.
Santos has since proven, however, to be a thorn in McCarthy’s side.
The speaker has had to endure House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) lecturing him to “clean up your House,” not to mention the complaints that lawmakers such as Santos and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are harming the GOP brand.
Yet it’s Santos’s vote on the recent debt limit bill that illustrates the biggest liability he poses for McCarthy — his ability to derail GOP leadership’s legislative agenda.
The stakes couldn’t be higher as McCarthy negotiates a budget deal with President Joe Biden ahead of a summer deadline to raise the debt ceiling.
McCarthy spent weeks trying to get the president to the negotiating table after a fruitless meeting at the White House on Feb. 1. He finally got a second meeting five days after the House passed a debt ceiling bill viewed as an opening offer in negotiations with Biden.
Yet House passage was far from certain. The usual GOP hard-liners in the chamber were balking at raising the federal borrowing limit despite the bill proposing trillions in spending cuts over the next decade.
Adding to McCarthy’s troubles, Midwestern lawmakers were objecting to the bill’s repeal of ethanol tax credits. Santos only compounded those troubles when he came out against the legislation unless it included stricter work requirements for entitlement programs.
Santos, voicing a complaint also made by other conservative lawmakers, finally got his way on the work requirements, as did the Midwestern Republicans. However, he left leadership guessing until the last moment. Santos was the final lawmaker to cast his vote, as if to underscore how important it was to McCarthy.
The bill passed with no room to spare, a surprise victory for McCarthy that, at the same time, underscored a political reality for him — every member holds outsize sway with a majority so small.
Santos has refused to resign in the wake of his arrest, prompting outrage from his GOP colleagues.
“The man is delusional,” Rep. Marc Molinaro, one of the New York Republicans who flipped a seat red in November, told the Washington Examiner.
“I said it in December. I said it in January. I'll say it again. He should not be a member of Congress,” he added.
But Santos’s defiance helps McCarthy. He narrowly won New York’s 3rd Congressional District last year by 4 points, all before any of his fabrications came to light.
Were Santos to step down, it would set off a fierce special election that could lose Republicans one of their four critical seats. The Cook Political Report lists the district’s partisan voting index as D+2.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
For now, most Republicans are waiting on the findings of the House Ethics Committee's investigation into Santos, opened to probe whether he engaged in, among other things, “unlawful activity” surrounding his 2022 campaign and sexual misconduct.
A single member could force a vote to expel Santos under a "privileged" resolution, though that step is unlikely to be taken by members of either party without the blessing of leadership.
And right now, they don't have it.