George Santos is an embarrassment to his constituents, to the Republican Party and to the U.S. Congress and should resign if he had any shame. But he is shameless. As lie after lie after lie after lie has been exposed, it’s become clear that the man who won election in November isn’t the one who now serves. He conned Nassau and Queens voters. He may have broken laws; the courts will determine that. He may have broken congressional rules; the Ethics Committee will figure that out.
But should he be expelled from the House by his colleagues, as now urged by fellow representatives, including Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman? Here, we draw a line and say no.
Expulsion — overriding the will of citizens to choose who represents them — is reserved for the most extreme cases. Only five members have been kicked out of the House in its 234 years. Three of them were Confederate traitors. The fourth and fifth were convicted of federal corruption charges, and removed only after the felony verdicts came in.
Liars on the Santos scale are rare. So many and so brazen are his falsehoods, he’s probably a category of one. But precedents matter, and if the disqualifier is making things up, it’s devilishly difficult to set a standard. Indeed, The Washington Post has an expose that raises serious questions about Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
We supported the New York Senate expelling Hiram Monserrate in 2010 after he was convicted of domestic assault. And we backed the New York City Council dumping Andy King in 2020 after he provably committed numerous violations in office. But they had due process and were only tossed after they were found guilty.
This year, we blasted the New York Assembly for contemplating removing Lester Chang on a residency dispute that should have been handled before the election. And in 2020, we urged a formal apology for the 1920 red scare-driven expulsion from the Assembly of five duly elected Socialists.
Kick out convicted crooks and proven abusers. Let voters deal with the liars.
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