A new piece in Vanity Fair calls out increasingly vulnerable New York Republicans Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, and Brandon Williams for failing to live up to their own calls for accountability as soon as MAGA GOP leadership told them to protect their criminal colleague.
D’Esposito defended their vote to protect George Santos as “the quickest way” to get rid of their federally-indicted campaign donor, while LaLota even went as far as to claim that Santos would be gone “before August recess.”
News flash – it’s been more than 60 days and we’re halfway through August recess. Rep. Santos is still a member of Congress thanks to House Republicans.
After he was elected, America soon learned George Santos was at best a serial fabulist—and at worst a criminal fraudster and con man… In May, he was criminally charged on 13 counts; the federal indictment included charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making false statements (Santos pleaded not guilty to all charges).
A week after Santos was charged, a Democratic effort to expel him from the House faltered. Instead, Republicans punted to the House Ethics Committee, where they claimed Santos would be dealt with swiftly.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—a man who went down to Mar-a-Lago a mere 22 days after Trump tried to prevent the certification of the 2020 election—said “we can look at this very quickly and come to a conclusion on what George Santos did and did not do through ethics, a safe bipartisan committee. I would like the Ethics Committee to move rapidly on this.”
New York Republicans, many of whom supported expelling Santos outright, assured the same. “I firmly believe this is the quickest way of ridding the House of Representatives of this scourge on government,” Representative Anthony D’Esposito said at the time. “While I would have preferred there to be enough votes to expel the sociopath scam artist, Congressman D’Esposito has spearheaded the next best option: To refer this matter to the Ethics Committee where we expect a result within 60 days and for the terrible liar to be gone, by resignation or expulsion, before August recess,” fellow New York Republican representative Nick LaLota said.
But unfortunately for Republicans, Santos staying in the seat in the short term could very well bite them in a year’s time. New York Republicans nearly swept the tossup races in the 2022 midterms, playing a major role in clinching the House majority. But that also means five other Republican congressmen from the New York delegation now occupy swingy purple seats in districts that Joe Biden won or nearly won. Covering for Santos won’t do them any good.
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