Rep. George Santos has been dealt with

The GOP’s House of Representative embarrassment George Santos (R-NY) has become the first House lawmaker to be expelled in over two decades as a hush floated across the House chamber when Speaker Johnson formalized the result of the vote.

The former congressman left the House chamber before all the votes were cast and didn't answer reporter's questions.

The last time a member of Congress was expelled was in 2002 when Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH) got the boot. It takes a two-thirds majority so expelling someone isn't easy in spite of members who deserve that fate, such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). 

In Traficant's case, he was convicted on 10 felony counts, including racketeering and accepting bribes. In Santos' case, it includes allegedly using campaign funds to buy himself designer clothing and other personal expenses like botox treatment, credit card fraud, 23 counts related to wire fraud, identity theft, falsification of records, and other illegal activities. 

Santos will go to trial early next year, and if somehow divine intervention finds him not guilty of all the charges against him, this will make for an interesting development since he was ousted before having gone to trial. He has pleaded not guilty.

The 311 to 114 vote was largely bipartisan, although a few more Republicans voted to keep the liar in office than to throw him out.

Speaker Johnson would not answer reporters' questions on the expulsion when leaving the House chamber after the vote.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, (D-MD) told Fox News Digital after the vote, "This was not a partisan effort. It was a reflection that, I think, House members came to a conclusion that, given the facts surrounding Santos, election and post-election, that he defamed the House of Representatives…and was not an appropriate person to represent people in the United States Congress."

Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-CA) said that expelling Santos now would take away the presumption of innocence he is entitled to and mentioned that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) who was accused of taking bribes and working in the interest of Egyptian officials, was not removed from the Senate.

But Menendez should have been, this writer believes.

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