If you have been hearing or reading about recent political news, you are most likely aware of the harsh opinions surrounding Congressman George Santos from his own party and the opposing party alike. Santos is not new to making history, as he is the son of two immigrants and is the first openly LGBTQIA+ member elected to Congress as a Republican. He has a different lifestyle and background than many of his fellow Republicans. However, this different upbringing and lifestyle is not the reason for all the backlash he has received lately.
Santos has been charged with 23 felonies and has a rap sheet of pages in the double digits. His charges include conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud. More specifically, he has spent his campaign money on a private getaway for him and his husband, an 18+ website, and other things completely inappropriate and irrelevant to his campaign. Now this specific charge is what has brought specific press to him as of the moment, as now he has been caught via an ethics report by the House of stealing from his campaign.
Knowing that their representatives, who have a significant influence on our legislation, have received such charges is not something people approve of, generally speaking. Many are shocked that he is still in office, as his some of his fellow representatives have been pushing to have him removed. But just earlier this month, Santos survived a vote for his expulsion by a landslide. This has many people wondering how could people vote to keep him in office.
Now the reasoning behind the politicians voting against his ousting stemmed from a couple basic principles:
- They wanted to maintain the precedent that you can’t just oust someone of your own party and that once someone is sworn in, they are there for life.
- He hasn’t actually been convicted of these crimes and the simple fact that only 5 people have ever been expelled.
- Out of those 5 people who were actually, 3 of them were expelled for joining the confederacy in the Civil War, and the remaining 2 were expelled for being formally convicted of their criminal charges.
Now the common denominator here is that getting expelled takes a lot; it is not a simple process and is absolutely not taken lightly. But on top of all of his many different criminal charges, he has been caught not being honest in many situations that weren’t legally public, including his job history, where he went to school, his volunteer history, his grandmother being in the Holocaust, and even why his mother died. These things, which may seem politically insignificant to some, are just the opposite of that. If, on top of all of his criminal charges, he has demonstrated a lack of integrity, that alone shows his pleading “not guilty” should be only be taken with a grain of salt.
Although earlier this month, he had survived the vote about his expulsion, that might change. Multiple politicians have come out publicly saying that they changed their mind about keeping him in office. Representatives Jamie Raskin, Jeff Jackson, Ken Buck, Deborah Ross, and Andrea Mitchel have all come out saying that they changed their mind, and now they would vote to expel Santos. The rule for expulsion of a member of Congress is you have to have ⅔ of the vote in favor of the members expulsion, which was not reached in the vote earlier this month. But now, since so many have come out in announcement that they would switch sides, I would argue that it is only a matter of time before the vote goes around again, and he does get expelled.
In my opinion, I don’t think it is logical to keep somebody who has been proven as not only a fraud but also a liar in office. Twenty three felony charges is an incredible number to reach, and there is only so much remorse somebody can have for violating the people if they proceed to repeat their law breaking actions 22 more times. With the results of his ethics report being public, I don’t think anybody feels settled knowing that somebody who has likely committed more than double the amount of felonies I can count on my fingers is still in office. In mine and many others opinions, the benefit of the doubt only goes so far, and that is not a principle that should be abused as Santos abused and continues to abuse it.
