Why expelling Santos made sense

The House of Representatives did something almost unprecedented a few days ago when it voted to expel one of its members, George Santos, of New York. Representative Santos became just the sixth person in the history of the United States to be expelled from the House and so in Feburary the state of New York will hold a special election to determine who will hold that seat for the remainder of the term. The Santos saga has been fun and goofy but it has also inspired some questions from my friends and students so I thought it would be helpful to discuss those here.

The first question is why was Santos not impeached? Congress is given the power of impeachment in the Constitution and they can use it to remove any elected or appointed individual. Congress has not impeached a fellow congressman since William Blount was impeached in 1797. The reason that impeachment rarely happens to Congresspeople is that expelling is so much easier. Congress is not required to seat the people who are elected, so the chamber has a vote to say that this specific person is not a member of the legislative body anymore and tells the state to send them a new representative. The outcome is exactly the same, Santos is no longer a Representative, but this way was so much easier. In an impeachment Santos’ case would now be in the United States Senate where the Senate would debate if his lies and crimes rise to the level of impeachment. Expelling simply skips a step.

The next question is what does this do for the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives. It makes things harder to be sure. Prior to Santos’ removal, the Republican Party had a nine-vote majority, 222-213. That meant that if we assume that both parties mostly vote together the Republicans could “lose” four votes and still pass bills in the House by a 218-217 margin. Losing that one seat changes that math. With only an eight-vote majority if the Republicans “lose” four votes you end up with a 217-217 split. In the House, a tie means that nothing passes. The House Republican margin just got tighter. If, like me, you watched some of the Kevin McCarthy votes, then you will remember that the magic number was five. If five Republicans voted for someone else then they were going to have another Speaker vote. Now the magic number is four.

Another thing students have asked me is if the House should have left this alone. “Elections have consequences,” one student said to me, “should Santos have been left alone until November when he was voted out?” While I understand the logic of that statement I will acknowledge my personal bias here — I disagree. The voters of George Santos’ district did not elect George Santos. The voters of Santos’ district elected a fictional character invented by George Santos. They never had a fair choice in that election. Santos’ lies were not even defensible.

This is not a case of a politician overstating their involvement in a piece of legislation. George Santos claimed that his mother was in the South Tower on Sept. 11 when in actuality she was living in Brazil at the time. Particularly in New York there is no defense of that. Those lies do not even take into account the financial fraud he engaged with the money given to him by donors. Max Miller, a fellow Republican member in Congress from Ohio, recently revealed that Santos stole money from him AND Rep. Miller’s mother. Those are crimes that Rep. Santos will stand trial for, but in the interim there was no place in government for Rep. Santos.

In the end the House of Representatives voted 311-114 to expel Santos. Among that 311 there were 105 Republicans who voted to expel a member of their own party. One hundred two Republicans voted to allow Santos to remain in his seat along with two Democrats. I want to note that both Frank Lucas (OK-3) and Tom Cole (OK-4) voted for expulsion.

The Santos saga was a fun distraction from the divisive world of politics but its time is now over. He was, as Stephanie Bice (R-OK) said in a statement, “Unfit to serve.”

Good riddance, George. We expel you to the world of weird, “did that actually happen” moments in American politics. Take up a seat next to Jesse “The Body” Ventura in the Four Seasons Landscaping Company lounge and pop open a cold can of Billy Beer. We have some binders full of women for you to peruse while you await the evenings’ entertainment, an Al Franken stand-up routine. It isn’t great but if you will “please clap” at the end anyway it will make him feel better.

David Searcy holds a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University and a PhD in political science from Southern Illinois University.