Santos and aides in his congressional office also did not reply to requests for comment on the imminent charges, first reported by CNN. But some of Santos’ already fierce critics in the New York GOP took the fresh opportunity to reiterate their insistence that he isn’t welcome in their ranks.
“These charges bring us one step closer to never having to talk about this lying loser ever again,” first-term Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said when asked about the Santos charges.
“Resign,” fellow New York Republican first-term Rep. Mike Lawler simply said.
Rep. Marc Molinaro (R), another first-term New Yorker, echoed Lawler: “He should have resigned in January. He should resign now.”
Lawler, LaLota and Molinaro are among the handful of House Republicans — mostly those who helped the party cruise in Empire State swing districts last fall — who have called for Santos to resign. Those fellow Republicans began turning against him after an avalanche of reports showed he had lied about his background and resume, both on the campaign trail and before his run.
While Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) has not called for him to resign, she said she was “not surprised” by the news and she looks forward to someone new filling Santos’ seat.
“I figured this was where it was headed,” Malliotakis said Tuesday. “I would love to see someone new run because I could tell you that we will hold that seat. The sooner George Santos leaves, the sooner we can get someone in there that’s not a liar.”
In fact, Republicans beyond New York were openly stunned by his willingness to hang onto his battleground seat.
“I’m surprised he made it as long as he did,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.).
In New York, the GOP and the conservative parties don’t expect him to resign, according to a Republican familiar with their thinking who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. Instead, this person said they expect Santos to try and use resignation as a bargaining chip, as they presume he is guilty of the charges set to be filed.
But Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been far more quiet, particularly given that Santos’ vote is integral to his four-seat majority as he wages a major fight with the Biden administration over the debt ceiling.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday night, the California Republican declined to put pressure on Santos. McCarthy noted that the New Yorker has already ceded his committees, adding that in past cases he has waited until a guilty verdict before calling on a member to resign.
Oddly enough, Santos became House Republicans’ deciding vote as the party Republicans moved to pass their debt ceiling plan. That vote saw four defections, but absences helped push them to victory.
Jordain Carney contributed.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is a notable omission from Protect the House New York 2024, a joint fundraising committee formed to corral money for vulnerable House Republicans in the state. | Bryan Anselm for POLITICO
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) may be running for reelection but the embattled congressman, under fire for fabricating portions of his resume, isn’t likely to get much fundraising help from his party, a new fundraising vehicle indicates.
Santos’ seat is one of Democrats’ top targets in next year’s elections, but the freshman lawmaker is a notable omission from Protect the House New York 2024, a joint fundraising committee formed to corral money for vulnerable House Republicans in the state.
The committee includes both House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his leadership PAC, as well as the NRCC, the House Republicans’ campaign arm, and the New York State Republicans’ federal PAC. It will raise money for frontline New York Reps. Mike Lawler, Brandon Williams, Marc Molinaro, Anthony D’Esposito, Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota, according to organization paperwork filed Monday with the FEC.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), flanked by aides, walks to his office on Capitol Hill on Jan. 25, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Rep. George Santos is running for reelection in 2024, the embattled freshman announced on Monday — despite recent filings showing his congressional campaign lost money during the first quarter of 2023.
“I am proudly announcing my bid for re-election for #NY03. This is about TAKING BACK our country and restoring greatness back to New York,” the New York Republican wrote on Twitter, linking to his campaign donation website.
“Good isn’t good enough, and I’m not shy about doing what it takes to get the job done,” Santos said in a statement. “I’m proud to announce my candidacy to run for re-election and continue to serve the people of NY-3.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Rep George Santos had just $25,000 cash on hand at the end of the quarter. That figure came despite having made not a single reported campaign expense during the quarter. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) congressional campaign officially lost money during the first quarter of 2023 after it reported having to issue refunds in excess of the contributions it received.
The New York Republican, who has been beleaguered from before he was sworn in after it was revealed he’d fabricated major portions of his biography, raised a scant $5,333.26 during the first three months of the year. But his campaign also refunded $8,352; meaning that he actually took in less than $3,000 than he paid out.
Only one person gave enough to Santos to require that their name be listed on his FEC form. That individual, Sacha Basin, gave $245.95. There was no clear online history for an individual with that name nor is there a record of them previously giving more than $200 to any candidate in the FEC database.
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“I’m here to protest and use my voice to take a stand. Every American should take a stand,” Greene said.
While Greene was only present at the protest for about 10 minutes, conservative members swarmed around Greene, shoving and elbowing to get a glimpse at the congressmember. NYPD escorted her out.
Greene has been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, defending him since the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Greene recently appeared with Trump at his Waco, Texas rally.
New York Rep. George Santos quickly walked by the courthouse earlier Tuesday, not stopping to protest or answer questions.
“I wanted to support the president because this is unprecedented, and this is a bad day for democracy,” Santos told reporters. “This starts a precedent of what’s to stop the next prosecutor in two years to do the same thing to Joe Biden and moving on every four years.”
“This cheapens the judicial system, not good for America.”
Santos, who is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, did not answer multiple questions about his own legal troubles. Santos has been tied to multiple controversies since his election, including fabricating major portions of his biography, accusations of stealing money from veterans, alleged involvement in a credit card scam, and falsely claiming to be Jewish.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) made an appearance after the rally and told Greene to “go back to your district.”
“Do your freaking job, Marjorie Taylor Green. You don’t need to be in New York City talking that nonsense. Go back to your district,” Bowman said.
Earlier on Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams had a message for Greene and protesters: “Control yourselves.”
“People like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, while you’re in town, be on your best behavior,” Adams said at a City Hall press conference about security preparations.
At the protest, Greene responded to Adams’ comments.
“Also, to the Mayor Adams, as you can see, I am here peacefully protesting. He called me out by name,” Greene said.
Trump is set to be arraigned Tuesday following his indictment over alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
A Trump supporter, Alann Gotlieb, 62, who showed up at the protest with his dog Anarchy, said that the counter-protest organized by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was an attack on conservatives hoping to make their voices heard in the blue city.
“I don’t know what Jumaane Williams is standing up for,” Gotlieb said. “No, I don’t think [he’s here in good faith] because he’s counter-protesting the First Amendment, he’s counter-protesting freedom of speech, and he supports locking somebody up who allegedly gave money to Stormy Daniels when Michael Cohen was dealing with the whole thing.”
Meanwhile, Karen Irwan, 47, of Hell’s Kitchen said they showed up to celebrate Trump’s indictment.
“Watch out, we have fascism over there,” Irwan said of the pro-Trump rally, adding, “We are celebrating the very first moment in my lifetime that it appears our justice system is attempting to apply equally to people, even people with power. It means that we can pretend now that we have a democracy and can start to act like it now.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
A financial disclosure form that now-Rep. George Santos was supposed to file in 2021 might have offered key insight into the embattled congressman’s finances at a pivotal point in his campaign. The problem: he didn’t file it.
The missing financial disclosure is the subject of an ethics complaint two New York Democrats filed against Santos earlier this year and part of a bipartisan House panel’s investigation into him. Though it was obvious at the time Santos had missed the deadline in 2021, the issue did not attract much attention until after he had been elected to Congress and a series of resume fabrications and paper filing snafus began to surface.
Still, Santos was far from the only one to not submit the filing. Dozens of candidates who should have filed financial disclosures over the past two election cycles avoided doing so, or filed the forms late without asking for an extension, according to a POLITICO review of House ethics disclosures and Federal Election Commission filings. In many cases, candidates did not file the forms until after advancing from competitive primary elections, meaning voters did not have access to information about their finances before casting their ballots.
The vast majority of candidates who failed to file the financial disclosures on time have not otherwise been accused of wrongdoing. In many cases, they are first-time candidates who may be inexperienced with the federal system. But the fact that such violations are rarely even flagged and penalties are essentially non-existent makes it easy for candidates like Santos to avoid disclosing key financial information, ethics experts say.
“The failure to have some appropriate but robust enforcement of these rules is really inviting them to be ignored,” said Meredith McGehee, a longtime ethics expert and veteran of several Washington nonprofits.
Following the allegations against Santos, other House members have introduced bills aimed at preventing him from profiting off his campaign lies and requiring future candidates to provide accurate information about their work histories. But there has been little reckoning over the lax enforcement of existing laws that aim to give voters transparency.
Santos, who recently filed paperwork to run again for reelection in 2024, is facing investigations from local and federal prosecutors but has denied that he broke any laws and has not been charged with a crime. Asked about the financial disclosures, Santos’ congressional office said it couldn’t legally comment on campaign matters. His personal lawyer, Joe Murray, said it would be “inappropriate to comment on an open investigation.”
Missing deadlines and missing forms
Congressional candidates are required under federal law to file a personal financial disclosure once they raise or spend more than $5,000 for a House election. In odd-numbered years, the form is due by May 15, or within 30 days of the candidate raising that amount, whichever comes second, although there is also a 30-day grace period before a candidate would be subject to a fine. In election years, the filing is due by May 15 or 30 days before a primary. (Late filings are subject to a $200 fine, with further penalties possible but rare.)
The requirement that candidates file financial disclosures dates back to a 1978 law that aimed to identify conflicts of interest and prevent members from using congressional office for personal gain.
Santos, who began raising money for a potential 2022 campaign in the immediate aftermath of his 2020 loss to then-Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), should have filed a financial disclosure in May 2021. That form might have provided information as to how the eventual congressman went from saying he had no assets in 2020 to reporting being worth millions of dollars in 2022, assuming he filed it accurately.
But Santos did not file a 2021 financial disclosure, according to the U.S. House clerk’s office. His 2022 disclosure was also not filed until September, after New York’s primary election and several months after the deadline, although Santos had not drawn a GOP opponent.
“George Santos is an easy scapegoat for larger institutional problems that Congress has neglected to deal with for many, many years,” said Donald Sherman, senior vice president and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit watchdog that has raised concerns about Santos’ access to classified information. “The only question that remains is are they going to deal with him?”
The late 2022 disclosure and the lack of one in 2021 are now subject of an ethics complaint that Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres, both of New York, filed against Santos in January. They are among a number of allegations under review by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, which voted unanimously to investigate Santos last month.
Under federal law, candidates can face a civil penalty or criminal charges over personal financial disclosures if they “knowingly and willfully” fail to file on time or file a false report. Such enforcement generally has happened only in the context of larger corruption probes.
‘They’re not going to deal with losers’
There are a host of reasons candidates may file forms late. The chief one cited by candidates is that they were unaware of the requirement. Campaign fundraising, which triggers the requirement to file a personal financial disclosure, is reported to the FEC, which is distinct from the congressional office where financial forms must be filed. Navigating the barrage of forms needed to run for Congress can be difficult for first-time candidates who may not have experienced staff, ethics experts acknowledged.
Many of the candidates who have failed to file financial disclosures are political longshots who do not make it near election. Of the more than three dozen candidates POLITICO identified who missed financial disclosure deadlines in either 2021 or 2022, the majority either lost primaries or were in general elections that would be decided by more than 20 points.
“The Ethics Committee tends to take the position that they’re not going to deal with losers because their jurisdiction is over members of Congress,” McGehee said.
But a few first-time candidates have been elected to Congress despite missing financial disclosures, including Santos and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), whose failure to file was first reported by Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 in January. Ogles ultimately filed the form a few days after the local news report, more than eight months after the deadline. Ogles also faces questions about the money he raised through a 2014 GoFundMe. His office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Ogles is not the only candidate to have filed the required forms after attracting scrutiny from their opponents or local media. For example, the Dallas Morning News reported last October that now-Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and her Republican opponent had both missed financial disclosure deadlines. Crockett, who would go on to win the election by more than 50 points in a heavily Democratic district, filed the forms in October after the newspaper inquired, and noted at the time that she had filed state financial disclosures that were more comprehensive than the congressional requirement. Texas’s early congressional primaries also complicate the deadlines for candidates in the state.
When candidates fail to file the disclosures, voters lose out on the ability to make the best informed decision, said Danielle Caputo, legal counsel for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog group.
“It kind of defeats the purpose of being able to choose your representation if you don’t actually know who they truly are,” she said. “And financial disclosure reports are certainly part of the picture of who a person is.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Tuesday’s filing permits Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) to fundraise and spend money on campaign-related expenses. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
New York Rep. George Santos, the embattled freshman Republican who has faced a slew of scandals following his election, has filed paperwork to run again in 2024.
The statement of candidacy filed to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday — turned in on the final day allowed — keeps the door open for Santos to seek another term but does not guarantee he’ll run. The controversy-stricken lawmaker has yet to officially say whether he’ll try for reelection but has indicated he is open to such a run. The paperwork comes as lawmakers from his own party call for his resignation.
Tuesday’s filing does permit Santos to fundraise and spend money on campaign-related expenses. That could include some $700,000 he lent to his campaign, or legal expenses he could be facing from numerous lawsuits.
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Rep. George Santos has admitted to embellishing his resume but has denied any wrongdoing. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
Rep. George Santos said he is “innocent” in response to questions about his alleged involvement in a 2017 credit card skimming operation, CNN reported on Friday.
Santos, who also goes by Anthony Devolder, told reporters on Capitol Hill he “never did anything of criminal activity” and that he had “no mastermind event,” CNN reports.
Santos’ comments come after POLITICO exclusively reported that his former roommate, Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, claimed Santos oversaw the credit card operation. Trelha, who was convicted of the 2017 crime and was deported to Brazil, sent a sworn declaration to federal authorities on Wednesday detailing Santos’ alleged role.
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Santos, whose full name is George Anthony Devolder Santos, often went by Anthony Devolder before his first congressional bid in 2020. The New York Republican won a Long Island swing district last November after lying on the campaign trail about his education, work experience and supposed Jewish ancestry. The House ethics panel initiated an investigation into Santos last week to explore possible “unlawful activity” related to his run. State, federal and Brazilian authorities are also probing Santos related to a string of potential financial crimes. Santos has admitted to “embellishing” parts of his background, but said he never broke any laws.
He was previously questioned about the Seattle scheme by investigators for the U.S. Secret Service, CBS News has reported. He was never charged, but the investigation remains open. Santos also told an attorney friend he was “an informant” in the fraud case. Trelha insists he was its mastermind.
“Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines,” Trelha said in the declaration that was submitted to authorities by his New York attorney, Mark Demetropoulos. POLITICO obtained a copy of the declaration.
Spokespeople for the FBI did not return messages. Representatives for the Secret Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
A lawyer for Santos also did not respond to emails and text messages for comment.
Trelha and Santos met in the fall of 2016 on a Facebook group for Brazilians living in Orlando, Fla., he said in the declaration and in an interview with POLITICO. By November, Trelha had rented a room in Santos’ Winter Park, Fla., apartment, according to a copy of the lease viewed by POLITICO.
“That is when and where I learned from him how to clone ATM and credit cards,” Trelha wrote in the declaration that was translated from his native Portuguese.
Santos kept a warehouse on Kirkman Road in Orlando to store the skimming equipment, according to the declaration.
“He had a lot of material — parts, printers, blank ATM and credit cards to be painted and engraved with stolen account and personal information.
“Santos gave me at his warehouse, some of the parts to illegally skim credit card information. Right after he gave me the card skimming and cloning machines, he taught me how to use them,” Trelha wrote.
Trelha then flew out to Seattle where he was caught on a security camera removing a skimming device from a Chase ATM on Pike Street, according to law enforcement records. He was arrested on April 27.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle previously told POLITICO it’s not unusual for credit card thieves to go far from home to nab numbers so there’s less chance of the stolen numbers being traced back to the perpetrators. That spokesperson, Emily Langlie, said she didn’t have any information about Santos’ involvement in the Trelha case.
At the time of his arrest, Trelha had a fake Brazilian ID card and 10 suspected fraudulent cards in his hotel room, according to police documents. An empty FedEx package police found in his rental car was sent from the Winter Park unit he shared with Santos.
Trelha told federal authorities in the declaration Wednesday that his “deal with Santos was 50% for him and 50% for me.”
“We used a computer to be able to download the information on the pieces. We also used an external hard drive to save the filming, because the skimmer took the information from the card, and the camera took the password,” he wrote.
“It didn’t work out so well, because I was arrested,” he admitted.
Trelha said Santos visited him in jail in Seattle, but told him not to implicate him in the scheme.
“Santos threatened my friends in Florida that I must not say that he was my boss,” he wrote.
Trelha agreed to say he was working for someone in Brazil and not with Santos, because he was worried Santos would have his friends in Orlando deported, he said in a telephone interview last month. Trelha recalled Santos warning he could “make things worse for him” since he was already in jail and Santos was a U.S. citizen.
In an audio recording of Trelha’s May 15, 2017 arraignment in King County Superior Court, Santos tells the judge he’s a “family friend” who was there to secure a local Airbnb if the defendant was released on bail.
Santos also claimed to the judge he worked for Goldman Sachs in New York, a key part of his campaign biography he later admitted wasn’t true.
Trehla was unable to post the $75,000 bail. He pleaded guilty to felony access device fraud, served seven months in jail and was deported to Brazil in early 2018.
“Santos did not help me to get out of jail. He also stole the money that I had collected for my bail,” Trelha told federal investigators in the declaration.
Trelha told POLITICO that before flying to Seattle, Santos had traveled to Orlando to pick up $20,000 in cash he instructed Leide Oliveira Santos, another roommate, to give him from a safe. Santos had promised to hire El Chapo’s lawyer for Trelha, he said. A third roommate in the Winter Park apartment told POLITICO in a phone interview that Oliveira Santos told him Santos had come to get money for Trelha. The third roommate spoke on condition of anonymity because he was in the country as an undocumented immigrant.
But Trelha never heard from Santos after Santos visited him in Seattle, the third roommate said. He later learned from Oliveira Santos that her attempts to contact Santos over the next few months were futile.
Trelha realized he had been conned, he said, when no lawyer appeared — let alone El Chapo’s.
But he still didn’t want to name Santos as a co-conspirator, fearing retaliation against Oliveira Santos, who was also an undocumented immigrant, he said.
Trelha told the federal authorities in the declaration that he had witnesses to support his statements. Oliveira Santos declined to discuss the matter with POLITICO.
“I am available to speak with any American government investigator,” Trelha wrote before providing his email address and cellular phone number and attesting that he signed the declaration “willingly and truthfully.”
A federal prosecutor who handled Trelha’s case described the scheme as “sophisticated,” adding that the Seattle portion was only “the tip of the iceberg,” according to court records reported by CBS News. But a person close to the investigation who is not authorized to speak publicly said they saw no evidence that prosecutors did forensic reports on Trelha’s phone or seemed motivated to pursue international co-conspirators.
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But their public criticisms haven’t insulated them from daily questions about his record, particularly as Democrats look to tie them to him. Their frustration, simmering for two months as negative Santos headlines build up, is close to boiling over.
“He is a bludgeoning tool the Democrats are using without regard for truth. They’re lying about us in relationship to him,” Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said in an interview. “And he’s caused us every day to have to respond to his very existence in the House of Representatives, instead of giving 100 percent of our time to the important issues that Americans and the people who sent us to Washington care about.”
“Every time that we’re having a conversation we seem to be talking about George Santos,” echoed Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.).
The anti-Santos Republicans’ stand is a lonely one. Most others in their conference prefer to spurn Santos in more subtle ways that don’t call for forcing him out, which would tee up a special election in a battleground district that could chip at their four-vote majority. But New York’s newest House Republicans assumed war footing for a reason: Mere months after the Empire State gave the GOP its fattest gains of an otherwise lackluster midterms, they say Santos is making their own donors squeamish and their voters suspicious.
“At a minimum, donors who gave to him want to spend time on the phone speaking about what’s the latest and how can we hold him accountable. And then others are scared off,” said first-term Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.).
“I guess some of them are embarrassed that they are now associated with this scam,” LaLota added. “And they’re not so eager to pick up the phone when a politician is asking for their support again — because the last time they did it, their name lined up in a paper associated with probably the most terrible person in Long Island politics.”
Santos, who’s now formally under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, has faced harsh scrutiny after revelations he lied about core components of his educational and professional background. In a Monday interview, he dismissed the idea that his problems might affect his colleagues.
“I don’t believe it. I think that’s just platitudes. And they’re making stuff up as they go just to find excuses to do what they’re doing,” Santos said of his fellow New York Republicans’ attacks. “The reality is simple: I was never a part of the little boys’ club, and they hated me from the moment I got the nomination to the moment I got elected.”
Adding to the House GOP’s woeful New York state of mind, House Democrats’ largest super PAC announced last month a $45 million program designed to claw back an advantage there next fall. The PAC is likely to spend part of that cash trying to link Santos to New York’s four most electorally vulnerable new House Republicans: Reps. Mike Lawler, Brandon Williams, D’Esposito and Molinaro.
If that quartet is hoping Santos might embrace the standard practice for scandal-plagued members, avoiding the media and keeping his head down, they’re going to be disappointed.
“They can’t control me,” Santos said of his fellow in-state Republicans. “So the party bosses stick their loyalists on me, and that’s what you’re seeing. And the problem is that the ones at the top of the mountain screaming for … righteousness and ethical morality are amongst some of the most corrupt people in politics.”
After D’Esposito spearheaded a bill clearly aimed at Santos, designed to prevent members convicted of certain offenses from then profiting off their story in the form of book deals, paid speeches, or movie and TV contracts, the Long Islander pushed back on Twitter.
“Coming from a man who lost his NYPD issued GUN while he was DJ’ing at a party! Then assaulted a 72 year old senior WOMEN,” Santos wrote last week about D’Esposito, before deleting his post. “You sir are the example of a bad cop who give cops a bad name. Spare me.”
Santos appeared to be citing, in part, a New York Daily News report that found D’Esposito had been docked vacation days on two separate occasions, including once in 2015 for having his firearm stolen out of his vehicle and another time in 2007 after working as a DJ and serving alcohol “without authority or permission to do so.” Santos in his tweet conflated the two. Democrats also sought to use that story against D’Esposito during last year’s midterms.
Asked if he saw any dramatic irony in the corruption allegations he shared, given his own record, Santos replied that he hasn’t been convicted of any offenses and has “never been punished or censured.” While he has admitted to lying about his education as well as other fabrications, Santos has danced around other questions about his past.
What Santos has managed to do: generate more camaraderie among his fellow New York Republicans, particularly the first-term ones. LaLota quipped that that the group now operates like “NATO members” who make joint decisions.
And Santos’ decision to punch back at D’Esposito sparked a fresh wave of backlash.
“Anthony risked everything to serve the people of New York with honor and courage. He has more integrity in his pinky than George Santo has in his entire body,” Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) said in a statement to POLITICO last week. “George disgraces the halls of Congress and is stain on the soul of our nation.”
D’Esposito plans to hold a press conference about his anti-Santos bill on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, as Santos vows to be “100 percent compliant, to clear my name” with the ethics committee, he’s also asking that “the same scrutiny” fall on his fellow Republicans — and clearly wants to use the media attention he’s getting to further that cause.
But his GOP colleagues say that the more he talks, the bigger problems he generates.
“He should focus on the investigations that are underway and at least show some remorse. And he’s not, and that is what is so troubling,” Molinaro said.
As far as GOP leadership is concerned, New York infighting isn’t helping alleviate the constant headache that Santos has become.
When House Republican leaders started whipping support in January to boot Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, a key promise of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the four first-term New York Republicans warned leadership that if Democrats proposed an amendment that stripped Santos from his committees, they would support it — likely giving the idea enough votes to pass, according to a Republican with knowledge of the discussion, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive conversations.
Santos and McCarthy ultimately resolved the issue in private, meeting the day before the Omar vote. Hours later, Santos informed his colleagues he’d be stepping down from his committees while he faced investigations, making the Omar vote an easier lift.
The New York tumult only compounds a disappointing start to this Congress for the state’s Republicans, who’d hoped to celebrate their success in helping deliver the GOP majority from a blue stronghold. And it’s clear that they blame Santos for dimming their shine.
Constituents “want answers to troubling questions about why he is still in Congress,” LaLota added. “They deserve those answers.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
