I must warn my colleagues that voting for exposure at this point, would circumvent the judicial system's right to due process that I'm entitled to. And desanctify the long-held premise that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. [00:00:16] >> Speaker 2: Representative George Santos took the glasses off for this one and said, basically, due process, which actually was an argument that might have worked on his fellow Congress people. Because George Santos survived a vote to expel him from Congress, [00:00:32] that's right, Santos is in. It was an expulsion resolution that was led by fellow New York Republicans of all people, saying that Santos is not fit to serve. And it needed a supermajority or at least two thirds of voting lawmakers, and [00:00:48] it did not pass the final tally, didn't even crest a majority threshold. Was 179 voting in favor of expulsion, 213 against, 19 voting present. Thirty one Democrats voted with 182 Republicans against expulsion, while 24 Republicans voted with 155 Democrats to remove Santos. [00:01:07] Kind of split there on Democrats, which I think is pretty fascinating. Here's another freshman Representative Anthony D'Esposito, who is Republican from New York, and this is why he authored this resolution for expulsion. [00:01:26] >> Speaker 3: I first wanna point out that constitutional due process doesn't apply here. We have the facts, they've been outlined over the last 10 months, and the facts are, that Mr. Santos actually admitted to those lies and deceptions. [00:01:44] He references the concern of this body, and the fact that we quote, may be losing trust. I wanna let everyone in on a stark reminder. Coming from New York, New Yorkers don't agree on much of anything, [00:02:03] but 78% of the individuals who live in the 3rd Congressional District do not want George Santos as their representative. >> Speaker 4: Hmm interesting, however, Republicans might need [00:02:20] George Santos as their representative because it means they will be able to maintain their very slim majority in Congress. That might not be the reason why they're openly claiming. Newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson expressed concerns on Fox News that [00:02:39] the GOP's he is admitting it, minuscule four-seat majority could be further eroded with Santos's expulsion and that the New York fabulous deserved due process. First of all, George Santos would absolutely love that characterization NBC News, but I don't know he's going to put that in his LinkedIn bio right now. [00:02:58] So this is part of the reason other Republicans said that they want to first see how the House Ethics Committee handles its case before they decide Santos's fate. The bipartisan panel said Tuesday it's gonna announce next steps in its investigation by November 17th. The committee has contacted roughly 40 witnesses, [00:03:14] reviewed more than 170,000 pages of documents, and authorized 37 subpoenas. I mean, they know what good content George Santos is, they're not trying to expel him before we get to the bottom of this. But interestingly Ray, the person who [00:03:32] representing I believe 31 Democrats who did vote with Republicans to not expel him, Jamie Raskin said this. He said, Santos has not been criminally convicted yet [00:03:49] of the offenses cited in the resolution, nor has he been found guilty of ethics offenses in the House internal process. This would be a terrible precedent to set, expelling people have not been convicted of a crime and without internal due process. If and when Santos is convicted of these serious criminal offenses or [00:04:05] ethics charges, I will certainly vote to expel. That I think is really important, I hate when Democrats say they don't wanna do things cuz they're afraid of what the other side will do. I.e., not get rid of the filibuster, which, of course, [00:04:22] Kyrsten Sinema just says cuz she likes power. But in this case, I might agree with Jamie Raskin. I would have probably voted against expelling him without just seeing the Ethics Committee investigation to its conclusion. >> Speaker 4: So I totally agree with you, but [00:04:38] I wanna say anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love George Santos. >> Speaker 4: [LAUGH]. >> He's my favorite person to have ever been born, and I'm obsessed with him, and I hope that someday he will listen to my pleas to adult adopt me, preferably before he ends up in jail. That being said, I totally agree with what Jamie Raskin is saying, [00:04:56] but I also think that there's a political front and a political reasoning behind voting not to expel him from Congress. And that is, that it gives a Republican time to establish themselves as the front runner to replace him, right? [00:05:13] And that is an issue because this is a very vulnerable district the Democrats could easily take back. And if they're forced to have George Santos, who's gonna continue to run, right? He's gonna run for re-election, [LAUGH] he is the most delusional person ever to walk the earth, he probably thinks he can win re-election. [00:05:32] And it's better for the Democratic Party if they're running a candidate against him, and then potentially another Republican who's running against him, versus not having him in the race. I think that maybe there is political consideration going into that as well. [00:05:48] Also, on the Republican side of things, of course, there's a political consideration. They have a very slim majority, and they need him to do votes, they do, they need him to do votes. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I would have said this to you before, but if George Santos does adopt you, [00:06:05] he will ruin your line of credit like any usually negligent parent does [LAUGH]. The guy's not done, you know what I'm saying? >> Right. >> Speaker 2: In or out of office, he's continuing the grift for a very long time. I think we need George Santo's predictions, [00:06:21] like what does he go when he leaves Congress? Cuz he's gonna leave Congress at some point. What will he do? I call a return to drag, I think it is time. >> I agree, and I hope that when he does go to jail, they give him a phone so that we can continue to get his unmitigated thoughts on every topic [LAUGH]. [00:06:40] >> Speaker 2: He's gonna have a Substack at least. [MUSIC]