Expelled former Rep George Santos ends his independent bid for Congress

Table Of Content

• Police officer hiring in U.S. increased in 2023 after years of decline, survey shows
• Your guide to the 2022 L.A. City Council District 13 primary election
• Arizona indicts 18 in case over 2020 election in Arizona, including Giuliani and Meadows
• The Ethics Committee's report
• NJ congressman Donald Payne Jr. dies following hospitalization earlier in April

LaLota played a key role in the bipartisan effort to force Santos from office. Another chapter in the scandal-plagued career of New York Republican George Santos sputtered to an end this week as he abandoned his independent bid for a U.S. "I have decided to withdraw from my independent run for #NY1," Santos said in a statement on X, adding he was concerned that his candidacy could split the vote with GOP Rep. Nick LaLota and deliver the seat to Democrats. "The future holds countless possibilities and I am ready willing and able to step up to the plate and go fight for my country at anytime," he said. "I will continue to participate in the public policy discussion and will do my part… I will always strive to stand on the right side of history. It's only goodbye for now, I'll be back." LaLota has been dismissive of Santos but not of Santos' challenge itself, previously calling his former colleague an "embarrassment" and "one of the most bizarre people I have ever met" but saying he would take the race "seriously."

Police officer hiring in U.S. increased in 2023 after years of decline, survey shows

She was one of the three final candidates and the only woman left before dropping out in March 2020 and announcing she would back Biden. Earlier this week, The Times published an audio recording where the then-City Council President made racist remarks during an October 2021 meeting about redistricting. The conversation among Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo has shocked much of the city and led to calls for their resignations. Mayor Eric Garcetti, California Sen. Alex Padilla, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) and mayoral candidates Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) and billionaire developer Rick Caruso have all said the council members should resign.

Your guide to the 2022 L.A. City Council District 13 primary election

In Northern California, voters in Emeryville, Walnut Creek, East Palo Alto and Vallejo all supported tax hikes to fund affordable housing and homelessness services, according to KQED. Likewise, El Cajon and Solana Beach in San Diego County were on their way to passing sales tax increases that would, in part, fund homelessness intervention and assistance. Up and down the state, voters largely backed pro-housing ballot measures, including taxes and bonds to build affordable housing, and rejected several measures aimed at making it harder to build.

Arizona indicts 18 in case over 2020 election in Arizona, including Giuliani and Meadows

New York Republican George Santos expelled by U.S. House in bipartisan vote • Nebraska Examiner - Nebraska Examiner

New York Republican George Santos expelled by U.S. House in bipartisan vote • Nebraska Examiner.

Posted: Fri, 01 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she hasn't decided how she would vote on the resolution. While the Ethics Committee does have a Republican chairman, its membership is evenly divided. Rep. Susan Wild, the ranking Democrat on the committee, reminded members that the decision approving the investigators' findings was unanimous. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

The Ethics Committee's report

Republican George Santos becomes first House member expelled in more than 20 years - ABC News

Republican George Santos becomes first House member expelled in more than 20 years.

Posted: Fri, 01 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

If George Santos is expelled tomorrow, the special election will be right around the corner. I am battle tested, and I am ready to flip New York's 3rd Congressional District blue. Trump’s latest attacks of Dawn Engoron comes after a gag order against Trump was reinstated on Thursday.

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Under a soon-to-be-replaced awning bearing the name of Congressman George Santos, the former representative’s district office in the Douglaston neighborhood of Queens attracted several people eager to say goodbye on Friday. Ms. Marks pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in October and admitted to her role in fraudulently reporting the fictitious loan and donations. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York will have 10 days to announce the date of a special election to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Santos’s departure. The election must take place between 70 and 80 days after she sets the date. Local party leaders generally pick their nominees in special elections.

Rep. George Santos easily survived a vote Wednesday to expel him from the House as most Republicans and 31 Democrats opted to withhold punishment while both his criminal trial and a House Ethics Committee investigation proceed. The Constitution requires a two-thirds majority of House lawmakers to oust a member. Guest, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, did not initially bring up his resolution as privileged.

NJ congressman Donald Payne Jr. dies following hospitalization earlier in April

Mr. D’Esposito even introduced a resolution to expel Mr. Santos, using a technical congressional maneuver to override Republican leadership and ensure that it was called to a vote. It’s worth noting how unusual it is for the chairman of the House Ethics Committee to give a speech like this on the floor. Representative Michael Guest, in his personal capacity, is calling for the expulsion of Santos based on the committee’s work but without a criminal conviction. That is unprecedented, and speaks to the deep shame he believes Santos has brought against the institution of the House. Santos has argued repeatedly that a vote to expel him would violate his right to due process. But Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican from Long Island, noted that the Constitution allows the House to set its own terms to expel its members by a two-thirds vote, and that it has different standards and procedures than criminal courts.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation and former head of the AFL-CIO’s San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, confirmed to The Times that Herrera offered his resignation to the board. “We are focused on rebuilding solidarity and trust in the worker movement,” she said. California is a two-party consent state, which means that it’s illegal to record a conversation unless everyone consents.

Republicans could still move to table or postpone the vote, moves that would each require the support of a majority of the House. Those maneuvers would not rule out a vote on Mr. Guest’s resolution, however, if Republican leadership chooses to act on its own party’s motion to lessen the appearance of Democrats forcing the Republicans’ hand. Gabbard was elected to Congress in 2012 and sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.

But a damning report from the House Ethics Committee has complicated Mr. Santos’s defense, offering evidence that he reviewed weekly finance reports and approved invoices. After his expulsion from the House on Friday, George Santos faces an even more daunting and precarious challenge in a federal court on Long Island. Representative Nikema Williams said in a statement that she did not think Santos belonged in the House but did not wish to override the voters who elected him to office.

And in a nearly three-hour rant streamed live on social media over the Thanksgiving holiday, Mr. Santos said that the chamber was full of “felons galore,” accusing his colleagues of corruption, adultery and drunkenness. Santos is a stain on this institution and not fit to serve his constituents in the House of Representatives,” Representative Anthony D’Esposito declared on the floor of the House earlier this month. Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana is now appealing to fellow Republicans to lay off the expulsion vote. “Some of my brothers here who I love and respect, they’re making a mistake,” he said. LaLota and Santos have a long history of animosity, dating back to Santos’s endorsement of an opposing Republican candidate in the 2022 congressional primary. The only allegation he directly denied — that he had sexually harassed a prospective staffer — was not actually substantiated as a finding in the report.

Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Santos again falsified loans in 2022 in order to make his campaign look more financially robust, reporting a $500,000 donation to his campaign in March that he did not actually make. They also detailed how Mr. Santos used money from donors to perpetuate a fabulous and fraudulent lifestyle, documenting campaign spending on designer clothes, luxury hotels, Botox and OnlyFans. His decision cleared the way for Mr. Santos’s election last year, one of several Republican victories that flipped Democratic districts in New York, helping his party clinch control of the House. Mr. Santos’s forced departure will leave a fractious Republican conference with an even thinner majority in Congress, exacerbating the challenges the party will face to achieve its legislative agenda.

Pressure for him to step down grew after he was indicted by the Justice Department on nearly two dozen federal charges, and reached a fever pitch after the Ethics panel released its report. After months of congressional hand-wringing, Mr. Santos finally met his demise on Friday, after Republicans and Democrats each offered separate expulsion resolutions. We’ve never seen that before,” Guest, who had also voted against Santos’s expulsion prior to the report, told SuperTalk Mississippi Radio.

The race in New York is expected to be one of the most high-profile and expensive off-year House contests in decades. It has the potential to further shrink Republicans’ paper-thin majority and offer a preview of the broader battle for House control next November. The door to Santos’ office in the Longworth Building is locked and Santos has left the building. He then slammed the door when asked what the plan and timeline was for packing up the office. Moments after the vote to expel George Santos, House Republicans immediately grappled with the wisdom and gravity of removing one of their own. Much of the speculation surrounding him has been tied to the source of the more than $700,000 he claimed to have lent his political campaign in 2022.