George Santos: Embattled congressman's expulsion leaves Republicans vulnerable

On the third strike, George Santos was out. In the end, it wasn't even close.

By a 311-114 vote, the House of Representatives ousted the New York congressman, well over the two-thirds mark such a move requires.

The difference between the first two unsuccessful expulsion attempts and this one was the release of a damning ethics committee report that provided extensive details of alleged misconduct by Mr Santos.

"Damning" may be an understatement, in fact. The 56-page report detailed "substantial evidence" of corruption, fraud and misuse of campaign funds that included personal expenditures on clothing, Botox treatments and OnlyFans, a platform where s pay for content, including pornography.

When combined with Mr Santos's well-established lying about his personal history during his 2022 congressional campaign and his multi-count federal indictment for money laundering, fraud, identity theft and falsifying documents, a near majority of House Republicans had more than enough cover to finally abandon their colleague.

They did so despite the chamber's top Republicans voting to save him. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his colleagues said they were concerned about the precedent being set by removing a congressman prior to a criminal conviction for the first time in modern US history.

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