House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has made no transfer to penalize or marginalize Representative George Santos even within the face of mounting allegations of misconduct and lies through the first-term New York Republican, has signaled that Mr. Santos might be allowed to proceed to serve in Congress even after being indicted on federal fees.
“I’ll look at the charges,” Mr. McCarthy informed journalists on Tuesday, sooner than an indictment charging Mr. Santos with cord fraud, cash laundering, robbery of public budget and mendacity to Congress used to be unsealed. “If a person is indicted, they’re not on committees. They have the right to vote, but they have to go to trial.”
Mr. McCarthy mentioned his calculation may exchange if Mr. Santos had been discovered to blame, consistent with different most sensible Republicans within the House who mentioned Wednesday that they had been targeted as a substitute on rooting out unemployment fraud right through the pandemic.
“He was already removed from all his committees,” Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana and majority chief, mentioned right through a morning news convention. “In America, there is a presumption of innocence but they’re serious charges. He’s going to have to go through the legal process.”
Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York and convention chair, mentioned that the felony procedure would “play itself out,” a significantly other place from the rank-and-file New York Republicans who’ve lengthy known as for Mr. Santos to renounce.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time a member of Congress from either party has been indicted,” Ms. Stefanik mentioned. She mentioned Republicans had been extra all for rooting out “any fraud when it comes to unemployment pandemic assistance.”
Mr. McCarthy and House G.O.P. leaders to this point have made no transfer to punish Mr. Santos or nudge him towards the exits, even within the face of a litany of revelations about his habits that he has refused to handle.
Mr. McCarthy allowed Mr. Santos to be put on two congressional committees in January, and when he quickly stepped apart from them weeks later, Mr. McCarthy mentioned it have been Mr. Santos’s choice to take action — regardless that the speaker known as it the “appropriate decision” for now, “until he could clear everything up.”
With a narrow majority within the House and a battle over the debt ceiling looming, Mr. McCarthy can not come up with the money for to lose Mr. Santos’s vote. Mr. McCarthy handiest narrowly handed a invoice closing month to boost the debt ceiling in trade for spending cuts, with out a Republican votes to spare and Mr. Santos within the “yes” column.
As negotiations with the White House proceed, Mr. McCarthy should stay Republicans at the proper flank of his celebration glad as he seeks to barter a take care of President Biden that may virtually unquestionably be a long way much less conservative than the invoice the House handed.