House GOP won’t expel George Santos because their beloved Trump has done far worse
GOP is the party of criminality
UPDATE: Obviously George Santos was expelled on Friday when a little less than half of the House GOP (105 of 222) joined with almost all Democrats voting to expel Santos. As I noted in my article below, if House Republicans did vote to expel Santo then comes the question for them: You voted to expel Santos who is charged with 23 felonies. Well, Donald Trump is charged with 91 FELONIES- that is four times that number of crimes Santos was charged with. So how can you still support Trump?!! I know, hypocrisy means nothing to the GOP but we must still call it out to keep our sanity!!
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The House is currently scheduled to vote this Friday on expelling GOP Rep. George Santos (or whatever his real name is). Before you think this is a done deal, think again. This is the GOP which is led by Donald Trump, a man charged with 91 felonies and who attempted a coup and incited the Jan 6 terrorist attack.
After the bipartisan House ethics report released their damning report on November 16 which documented Santos’ crimes and misconduct, media reports swirled that a large swath of the House GOP was set to join with Democrats to reach the two thirds needed to expel him. After all, the House ethics report detailed that Santos used campaign funds to pay for Botox, trips to Atlantic City, adult websites and far worse. The report also documented how Santos asked donors for money and then immediately transferred the funds to his personal account. As the report bluntly noted, “Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
And even before that report was released, Santos was charged by federal authorities with 23 felonies including fraud, money laundering, falsifying records and aggravated identity theft. For example, the indictments detail how Santos stole the identities and financial information of contributors to his campaign and charged their credit cards repeatedly without authorization. Some of the felonies Santos is charged include two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
To expel Santos, it would take nearly 80 House Republicans of the 222 to join with the 213 Democrats to reach the two thirds to expel a member of Congress required by Article 1, Section 5 of the US Constitution. How hard can it be to get about a third of the House GOP to vote to expel Santos?!
Harder than many in the corporate media grasp. Today’s GOP is not motivated by sending a message that a person like Santos has no place in Congress. This is a party motivated by one thing: What is good for their beloved FASCIST leader Donald Trump. And that is where the problem lies for them.
If House Republicans vote in mass to expel Santos, then the next question they will get from the media—and even a few on Fox News—is: how can you vote to end Santos’ time in Congress while still supporting Donald Trump who is facing four times as many felony charges?!
And Trump’s crimes are far more serious—and dangerous to our nation—than Santos’ run of the mill criminal activity. For starters, Trump’s 91 felonies include charges in connection with his attempted coup. For example, in the Jan 6 case before Judge Chutkan in Washington DC, the indictment states point blank about Trump: “Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power.” From there, as detailed in the indictment, Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”
As a result, Trump is charged with four very serious felonies including “Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding” and “Conspiracy to defraud the United States”. These four crimes alone carry prison sentences that total up to 55 years in jail.
In the Fulton County, Georgia case, Trump is again charged with crimes for his attempted coup to overturn the 2020 election to remain in power despite losing. In that case, Trump faces 13 felony charges including one count of violating Georgia’s RICO law (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer for Trump’s attempts to convince Georgia officials to overturn the results and more. In Georgia, Trump is facing up to 60 years in jail.
Then there is Trump’s espionage case—which again is far, far more serious and dangerous than anything Santos is alleged to have done. Trump’s actions were a threat to national security. In this case, Trump is charged with 40 felonies including 32 counts of violating the Espionage Act for his “willful retention of national defense information.” Trump is also charged with Conspiracy to obstruct justice and other obstruction charges for directing his attorneys to lie about returning all the classified documents in his possession, hiding documents from a grand jury and attempting to delete security footage requested by a grand jury subpoena.
On each of the 32 Espionage counts, Trump is facing up to 10 years in prison. On each of the four obstruction charges Trump faces up to 20 years in prison. All in, Trump is facing a potential of literally hundreds of years in prison for this case alone.
And finally, there’s Trump’s “hush money” case in New York which is more akin to what Santos is charged with. However, while Santos is facing a total of 23 felonies, in this case alone Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts. These crimes center on Trump falsifying business records to cover up the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to prevent voters in the 2016 election from knowing that Trump had an affair with Daniels shortly just months after wife had their only child. On each count, Trump faces up to four years in prison.
If Santos is viewed for his misconduct as worthy of expulsion, how can House Republicans and the GOP continue to stand with Trump given the serious crimes he’s facing? This explains why House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson stated Wednesday that he has “real reservations” about expelling Santos. Why would Johnson suddenly have “real reservations”? Could it be because just last Monday, Johnson visited Trump at his crime lair (aka Mar-a-Lago) where this issue was raised?!
Perhaps concerns about how does the GOP defend Trump if they expel Santos is the why behind Wednesday’s letter by Trump firster GOP Rep. Clay Higgins to his GOP colleagues calling the expulsion of Santos a “public crucifixion.” Higgins then went after his fellow Republicans supporting expulsion writing, “I’m stunned that Members would cheer for this public shaming and expulsion,” adding, “It’s like witnessing an otherwise fair and compassionate village gather to celebrate the burning of an alleged witch.” (The GOP is really obsessed with witches from witch hunts to burning them!)
We can expect some House Republicans to say they won’t vote to expel Santos until his convicted of a crime. Of course, when Trump is convicted of crimes in his Jan 6 case scheduled to begin trial in March, expect them to still support Trump. Hypocrisy to the GOP means nothing because you can’t shame the shameless.
In the end, 80 House Republicans may vote to expel Santos—not because of Santos’ misconduct—but because they believe it helps them keep their slim majority come the 2024 election.
If they do expel Santos, we have a great issue to press Republicans on why expel Santos while supporting Trump? If they don’t, then this helps make the argument we have long made that today’s GOP is a lawless, fascist movement motivated by protecting Trump at any cost. In either case, come 2024, we must win control of the House. The GOP should not be permitted to govern any chamber of Congress.
Well, Trump may have been president but former (original) lead guitarist of The Grateful Dead and certified veterinary neurosurgeon George Santos invented the Lithium-ion battery, Cubism, and the chimichanga. What has Trump ever done?
Great read, hadn’t thought about the implications of a Santos expulsion on the view of Trump’s crimes. I do think that there are about 90 GOP members who have said they’ll vote to expel Santos at this point, so it seems like a pretty done deal. They just have Trump on such a pedestal though that maybe he’s the only one allowed to commit such an overwhelming amount of crime. Maybe this expulsion, however, will bring some to understand how embarrassing it would be to have someone with such a terrible track record in a high position of power.