Santos Remains Defiant As Expulsion Vote Looms

WASHINGTON, DC — The tenure of Congressman George Santos may be drawing to an end, but New York's 3rd District representative remains defiant.

Santos, in an 18-minute news conference outside Capitol Hill on Thursday morning, reiterated he will not resign as a vote to expel him is expected on Friday.

"This is not how, at least, I thought this last year would go," Santos said. "It's an unfortunate circumstance that I have to sit here and watch American people waste, Congress waste the American people's time over and over again on something that is the power of the people not the power of Congress, which is to elect and remove members of Congress."

Santos pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges, which would make him the first member of Congress to get expelled without being convicted of a crime or as a Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War.

Seeking a level playing field for all, Santos announced he'll seek an expulsion vote for fellow New York congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-Westchester), who pleaded guilty to setting off a fire alarm at the Capitol last month.

"That's consistency. Let's hold our own accountable but let's make sure we do it with the precedent of the House," Santos said.

"No one in Congress, or anywhere in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos seriously. This is just another meaningless stunt in his long history of cons, antics, and outright fraud," Rep. Bowman replied in a statement.

Santos, was elected in Nov. 2022, with lies emerging shortly thereafter into his family life and much of his resume.

He said representatives who choose to vote for his expulsion will have to live with that decision.

"That is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body because this will haunt them in the future," Santos said.