(RightWing.org) – New York’s junior Republican representative, George Santos, has been a polarizing figure since he first assumed office in early January. Reports quickly emerged after his surprise election victory that he had campaigned on a series of lies about his family background and experience.
Making matters worse, on May 10, he surrendered to federal law enforcement officials after prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York indicted him on 13 felony counts, including theft of public funds, money laundering, wire fraud, and making false statements to the US House. In October, they filed a superseding indictment, adding 10 additional charges.
Most recently, the House Ethics Committee released its long-awaited report on Santos’ conduct on November 16. The bipartisan panel unanimously called for his ouster from the US House — the sooner, the better. Apparently hellbent on leaving office in a blaze of glory, the embattled New York lawmaker recently went on an out-of-control tirade about his anticipated removal from office.
George Santos Rages Against His Foes
On November 24, Santos sat down for a live interview on X Spaces/Twitter Spaces with Grammy-nominated vocal artist, conservative radio host, and podcaster Monica Matthews. The wildly popular influencer billed the conversation as Santos’ “first public response” to the findings of the House Ethics Committee. However, Santos quickly turned it into a lengthy tirade against his perceived enemies — real and imagined.
Anticipating his December 1 expulsion from the House, Santos launched, arguably, his most heated and unhinged rant to date. He began by telling Matthews that he wasn’t concerned about being removed from office. “I don’t care,” he declared, adding that he would wear his dismissal “like a badge of honor.”
Appearing to brag, Santos told Matthews that if his fellow lawmakers tossed him, he would make history as the “sixth” member of Congress to meet that fate. “Guess what?” he asked before explaining that he would be the first US representative removed “without a conviction.”
Although he gets an “A for effort,” Santos was a bit liberal with the truth when he made that claim. Three Democrats were expelled from office in 1861 for displaying disloyalty to the Union during the Civil War. John Clark served as a brigadier general for Missouri Confederate troops; John Reid served as an aide to Confederate General Sterling Price; and Henry Burnett held the rank of colonel in Kentucky’s Confederate Infantry.
Santos did hit the mark on the other two expelled congressmen. Lawmakers removed Pennsylvania Democrat Michael Myers in October 1980, shortly after his bribery conviction as part of a 1970s-era sting operation. Ohio Democrat James Traficant was tossed from office in July 2002 by a vote of 420 to 1 following his conviction for fraud, racketeering, and bribery.
Santos spent the remainder of the interview hurling threats and insults at fellow House members. For instance, he targeted Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), calling him a series of names too crude to publish here.
The enraged congressman also lashed out at Republican lawmakers as a whole, calling them “hypocrites” who routinely cheat on their spouses. He also accused them of being “more worried about getting drunk… with the next lobbyist they are going to s**w” than doing their job as lawmakers.
As anticipated, on December 1, with the yes vote of 105 of his fellow Republicans, the House voted 311-114 to remove Santos from the chamber.
Copyright 2023, RightWing.org
