While House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is still defending Representative George Santos, whose web of biographical lies continues to unravel as we speak, the last Republican to wield the gavel is siding with the handful of Republicans who want Santos out. “This isn’t an embellished candidacy, it’s a fraudulent candidacy,” former House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a Thursday interview. “He hoaxed his voters. So, of course, he should step down.”
“I can’t imagine the guy is going to stay very long,” he added, apparently not accounting for the current Speaker’s desperation for every Republican vote he can get a hold of.
McCarthy, who is leading the smallest Republican majority since 2001, has not called for the resignation of Santos, the freshman lawmaker from New York whose life story has proven to be a Mr. Ripley–esque fabrication. Instead, he’s argued that––barring criminal charges––Santos still “has a right to serve.”
“The one thing I do know is you apply the Constitution equal to all Americans,” McCarthy told reporters on Thursday. “The voters of his district have elected him. He is seated. He is part of the Republican conference. There are concerns with him, so he will go before [the House Ethics Committee]. If anything is found to be wrong, he will be held accountable exactly as anyone else in this body would be.” (Earlier this week, Representatives Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, both New York Democrats, filed a House Ethics complaint against Santos.)
McCarthy’s comments are in line with those from other top Republicans, including House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik. “It will play itself out,” the New York lawmaker told CNN’s Melanie Zanona on Thursday. “He’s a duly-elected member of Congress. There have been members of Congress on the Democrat side who have faced investigations before.” (In contrast, five other New York Republicans have demanded that Santos step down, despite the problems it could cause for their party.)
The GOP leadership’s current calculus could change if criminal charges are leveled against Santos, who is under investigation by New York prosecutors and faces a separate campaign finance complaint. Additionally, prosecutors in Brazil, where his family emigrated from, said last week they intend to revive years-old fraud charges against Santos after he popped back on their radar this month.
Since winning a Long Island congressional seat last year, a trickle of recent reporting has exposed Santos as a serial liar who embellished or fabricated a shockingly large part of his life story during his congressional campaign. He wildly inflated his professional and academic record; deceptively described his ethnic and religious background; suggested that his mother both died in and survived the September 11 terrorist attacks; and made up a host of other personal details. When confronted with this ballooning scandal, Santos has repeatedly said he has no interest in leaving Washington.
Caleb Ecarma
Source link
