House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar laid the responsibility for addressing how the House should handle now-indicted GOP Rep. George Santos at the feet of one person: speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“I know that there have been items that have been offered by legislators on our side in the past,” he said, referring to Democratic bills that would expel Santos from Congress. “We’re going to wait to see how this plays out. But there is there is one person who can make this change: Speaker McCarthy. And I think that’s going to be an interesting point here.”
Aguilar mentioned the debt ceiling bill that was voted on last week in the House, where Santos cast the last Republican vote that gave McCarthy the decisive 217 votes for passage.
“George Santos was the deciding vote on the default on America Act,” Aguilar said. “And he loved the drama behind it, he loved walking down the middle of the aisle, holding his card up and being vote number 217 to seven team to deliver that piece of legislation that would cut veterans and cut and so many important programs.”
“That is the Kevin McCarthy coalition. George Santos speaks to the Kevin McCarthy coalition. So I don’t know what Speaker McCarthy is going to do, or what House Republicans are going to do,” Aguilar said. “It’s just an unfortunate thing that that we’re all colleagues together, and this level of fraud that’s been perpetrated on the people of New York. But this is in the hands of Kevin McCarthy, but we’re going to keep our options open and see where we go from here.”
McCarthy told CNN Wednesday morning that he is standing by Santos and not calling on him to resign even after being informed of the 13-count indictment against him.
The caucus vice chairman, Rep. Ted Lieu of California, said that if the speaker put forward a bill to expel Santos, it would have his vote.
“The Republican member of Congress purportedly known as George Santos is entitled to the presumption of innocence, just like anyone else in America in a criminal court of law. The House is not a criminal court of law. The House has its own rules — the House can choose to expel a member. [California Rep.] Robert Garcia has put forward a bill to do that. If Speaker McCarthy would put that bill on the floor, I would vote yes,” he said.
Source: www.cnn.com