Santos hit back at his critics during a defiant press conference.
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Santos threatens retaliation over expulsion vote
Representative George Santos, Republican of New York, who has been charged with 23 federal crimes, will face his third vote on his removal from office this year.
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If the House wants to set a different precedent and expel me, it will be the downfall of many members of this body as it will haunt them in the future where mere accusations are enough to get members removed from office when they go to have been duly elected. . I will be filing a slew of complaints over the next few hours today and tomorrow.
On what could be his penultimate day in Congress, Rep. George Santos of New York went on the offensive during a news conference Thursday, attacking fellow members he believed had betrayed him and threatening retaliation.
“If the House wants to set other precedents and expel me, it will be the downfall of many members of this body,” warned Mr. Santos, a Republican who has been charged with 23 federal crimes.
Santos will be deported for the third time this year on Friday, and he acknowledged he expected the effort to succeed.
He said he would be filing “a whole series” of complaints against fellow members in the coming hours. It is not the first time that Santos has accused his colleagues and promised evidence that he has not provided.
Earlier this year, Mr. Santos, who is gay, targeted local Republicans in New York, saying the party was “filled with closeted gays playing a tough game.”
And in a nearly three-hour tirade streamed live on social media over the Thanksgiving holiday, Mr. Santos said the room was filled with “thugs galore,” accusing his colleagues of corruption, adultery and drunkenness.
He repeated some of those claims Thursday but declined to name any of his colleagues other than Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to setting off a fire alarm in a House office building . The party tried to postpone a vote in Congress.
Mr. Santos said he would file a motion to deport Mr. Bowman, which he did later on Thursday. “That is consistency,” he said during the press conference. “Let’s take our own responsibility, but let’s make sure we do it with House precedent.”
Once again, Mr. Santos denied the allegations in a House ethics report that contained damning evidence that he had committed crimes. But he repeatedly declined to provide additional details that would refute the commission’s findings.
And while he seemed to accept the reality that he could leave Congress before the week was out, he set a hopeful tone about the future.
“The future is endless,” Mr. Santos said with a smile. “You can do whatever you want after this. I’m just going to do what I want.”