There are currently 11 Republicans in the New York congressional delegation. That number, somehow, still includes Rep. George Santos, first indicted five months ago on 13 charges, including fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. This week, federal prosecutors released a superseding indictment with another 10 charges against Santos, including allegedly stealing donors’ identities and making charges on their credit cards.
That was the last straw for several of Santos’ fellow New York Republicans. Despite the ongoing chaos in the House, six of them have introduced a resolution to expel the alleged fraudster from his seat. But there’s a notable name missing from their ranks: Rep. Elise Stefanik, currently the fourth-ranking member of the GOP caucus.
That was the last straw for several of Santos’ fellow New York Republicans.
Given Stefanik's leadership position, it feels extremely unlikely that the push to remove Santos will succeed without her support. But she hasn’t spoken in public about Santos since May, soon after his indictment first dropped. “As I’ve said, from the very beginning on questions on this subject, this legal process is going to play itself out,” she said at the time. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time a member of Congress from either party has been indicted.”
You may recall that this isn’t the first time that Santos has faced expulsion. Earlier this year, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., introduced a resolution to at least get Republicans on the record about where they stand on the alleged huckster remaining in Congress. Instead, GOP leadership punted, engineering a vote to refer the resolution to the ethics committee, which has been investigating him since March.
Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reportedly had to lobby the New York delegation members to convince them that an ethics committee referral was the right call, despite the unease they felt toward their colleague. Santos hasn’t softened their views of him since then. “George Santos’ many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long-held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who hails from the Long Island district next door to Santos’, said in a statement released Wednesday announcing the new expulsion attempt.
Tellingly, the resolution’s listed co-sponsors represent districts that Joe Biden won in 2020. (Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., whose seat the Cook Partisan Voting Index rates as favoring Republicans by 12 points, reportedly supports for the resolution, but was not listed as an official co-sponsor as of Friday morning.) They clearly know that any association with Santos makes them that much more vulnerable to being bumped off in 2024. Whether or not the resolution succeeds, supporting a declaration that Santos is unfit for office somewhat inoculates these representatives against the taint of association with him in their re-election bids.
The chaos works out perfectly for Santos though.
But Santos is benefiting from the extremely narrow majority that Republicans hold in the House. The fact that every single vote is crucial for the GOP leadership to get anything done is surely a calculation that Stefanik has made in her strategic silence about Santos.
Her silence also tracks with her record of putting ambition above ethics. She’s transformed herself over the years from a relatively moderate Republican into one of the most loyal soldiers defending former President Donald Trump. That shift helped her become the chair of the House Republican Conference, a position formerly held by the vanquished Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. Framing Santos’ alleged crimes as disqualifying would potentially undercut her claims that prosecutions against Trump are mere partisan witch hunts, a framing that Santos has readily appropriated for himself.
Stefanik also reportedly wanted to move up in the ranks after McCarthy’s ouster last week. When Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., seemed on track to becoming the next speaker, Stefanik was considering trying to take his place as the GOP floor leader, according to The Washington Times. That would have meant leapfrogging over Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., already a potentially fraught move considering Emmer’s popularity in the caucus.
That possibility was upended Thursday night with Scalise’s surprise announcement that he was withdrawing from the speaker's race entirely. The chaos works out perfectly for Santos though. The lack of speaker means that there’s no way for D’Esposito’s resolution to actually make it to the floor for a vote. The jockeying for power among the GOP leadership means that they know that any path to 217 votes, a majority of the House, will likely require his support in the face of Democratic opposition. And with Stefanik effectively running defense for him, he knows that there’s no way that any vote on kicking him to the curb will garner support from the necessary two-thirds of the House to succeed. As far as hustles go, given the petty and sloppy nature of his alleged crimes, this may be Santos’ most effective con yet.
