An expulsion couldn’t stop George Santos from attending the State of the Union
When former Rep. George Santos, the serial fabulist, was expelled from Congress by his colleagues in December, he left in a huff and declared, “to hell with this place.”
On Thursday night, Congress’s Tom Ripley was back.
Dressed in a crystal-encrusted collar, Mr. Santos took his place on the House floor in a surprise appearance ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address, taking advantage of the lifetime floor privileges granted to former House members were granted – even those who are expelled.
There he was greeted more warmly than ever before when his colleagues wanted nothing to do with him.
On Thursday night, he was chuckling with Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia greeted him with a warm hug. Even members who had been publicly critical of him in the past, such as Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, stopped to take his photo, while others lined up to greet him.
It’s fair to say that the disgraced former congressman, who is due to go on trial in September on federal fraud charges, including allegations of stealing money from campaign donors for personal expenses, did something akin to keeping a court.
Since leaving Congress, Mr. Santos has tried to build a career on the video app Cameo, cashing in on his odd bit of fame by charging hundreds of dollars apiece for his short, personalized videos. But the interest in microcelebrities may be fleeting.
And he had carefully prepared his spectacular return. Mr. Santos told some members of the press corps that he planned to return Thursday evening to reclaim the spotlight, but he swore them to secrecy.
It wasn’t clear what pranks he was planning, other than the fact that he was alone there. At least a year into his State of the Union address, Mr. Santos had a confrontation with Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican of Utah, who told him bluntly: “You don’t belong here.” Mr. Santos had placed himself close enough to the action to extend a presidential handshake.
Speaker Mike Johnson tried to encourage members to show decorum during Mr. Biden’s speech earlier Thursday.
Not everyone was willing to make that promise.
Mr. Santos appeared to stake out a chair near the hallway where Mr. Biden would enter the room, along with some far-right members of the Republican conference, such as Ms. Boebert.
“Oh, you think I plan things like that?” Ms. Boebert said, when asked how she planned to conduct herself during the speech. “I’m more spontaneous than you think.”
But minutes before the speech, with no seat vacant, Mr. Santos moved to the back of the room.