Santos is staying put.
A second try to give Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) the boot from office tanked on Wednesday, allowing the embattled GOP lawmaker facing legal and political headwinds to remain in the House.
The chamber voted 179-213-19 on the Republican-led resolution to expel the congressman — falling below the two-thirds needed.
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Soon after the expulsion effort fell short, Santos took a victory lap.
"Tonight was a victory for due process not me," he wrote in a tweet. "This was never about me, and I’ll never let it become about me.
"We all have rights under this great Constitutional Republic and I’ll fight for our right to uphold them till my last dying breath."
The first attempt to rid the House of the scandal-plagued Santos took place over the summer.
Democrats brought the resolution to the floor against Santos, but Republican counterparts voted along party lines 221 to 204 to deliver the matter to the House Ethics Committee.
Since then, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it had amassed a mountain of evidence in its investigation into the politician and it expected to announce its next steps on or before Nov. 17.
It boasted having reached about 40 witnesses, reviewed more than 170,000 pages of documents, and authorized 37 subpoenas.
Santos has been clouded by an indictment, including charges of wire fraud and money laundering. This month, a superseding indictment tacked on 10 more counts, including identity theft and credit card fraud.
On all charges Santos has pleaded not guilty.
Ironically, Rep. Dan Goldman (R-NY) was able to bring the measure to give Santos the boot because of Santos deciding to yield his half-hour time to speak to him.
“Mr. Chair, I yield five minutes to my colleague from New York, Mr. Goldman,” Santos said on the House floor Wednesday.
The gesture then let Goldman get free rein to tear into Santos.
He said: “I rise today in support of this resolution to expel George Santos from Congress, as I did in May, when I co-sponsored a similar expulsion resolution that the sponsors of today’s resolution, my colleagues — my Republican colleagues from New York, did not support."
