'This is a cop out!' Dem Rep. says House GOP is siding with Santos

Republicans are choosing to side with "serial fraudster" George Santos by deciding not to expel him, according to New York Rep. Daniel Goldman (D).

Goldman appeared on MSNBC's "Deadline White House" with Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday, and the host asked him if he thought enough Republicans would join Democrats in their proposal to expel George Santos. Santos was recently indicted on various charges, including unemployment fraud and lying on disclosure forms.

"Congressman, before we let you go, I would love to know the status of work that you have been involved in for many months now, and that's George Santos," Wallace asked. "Do you think there's any chance that Republicans will join Democrats or enough of them or in enough numbers to expel him from the House?"

Goldman responded, saying he doesn't expect that to be the case.

"Well, we are anticipating, Nicolle, that in a few minutes the Republicans will move to refer the expulsion resolution to the ethics committee. There is already an ongoing investigation in the ethics committee based on a complaint that congressman Ritchie Torres and I served on Mr. Santos and provided to the ethics committee, but, of course, the ethics committee is also going to pause and defer to the department of justice. This is a cop out," Goldman said. "This is a way for the Republicans to side with George Santos and to avoid having an up-or-down vote on whether or not he belongs in Congress. George Santos should, of course, get his due process rights in a court of law, but being a -- being a criminal or not is not the defining characteristic of whether someone deserves to be a member of Congress. For someone like George Santos, who has admitted lying to his voters and who has essentially been a serial fraudster in gaining his seat in congress, he no longer belongs here. That's why we ultimately moved to have an up-or-down vote on whether or not he should be expelled from Congress for all of his lies and deceit and trickery in order to get a seat here."

He added that "the Republicans are going to move to avoid that up-or-down vote."

"Certainly I will be interested to see what the Republicans from New York in particular are going to do because several of them have called for George Santos's expulsion," he said. "Well, they now have an opportunity to vote and to walk the talk, but it appears as if they are going to support this effort to continue to protect Mr. Santos and keep him in Congress."

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