(The Center Square) – Two Republicans from North Carolina’s 14 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against expelling New York Republican Rep. George Santos in Friday’s historic vote.
Reps. Patrick McHenry and Dan Bishop were among the 114 casting a nay vote on House Resolution 878. The expulsion of Santos needed two-thirds majority, and passed with 311 voting in favor. Two lawmakers voted present, and eight did not vote.
The expulsion is only the sixth in the chamber’s history, and precedent-setting in manner. The other five included three for disloyalty to the Union during the Civil War, and two after convictions in federal court. Santos has not been tried in court; information obtained in the House probe was being forwarded to prosecutors.
Republicans Chuck Edwards, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson and Greg Murphy joined all seven Democrats – Alma Adams, Don Davis, Valerie Foushee, Jeff Jackson, Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel and Deborah Ross – in voting to oust the embattled Santos. His undoing was a Nov. 16 report from an investigative subcommittee of the Committee on Ethics.
Bishop, on social media, said of his vote, “What about Santos warranted departing from 234 years of the precedent that expulsion from Congress for alleged criminal acts follows conviction? I couldn’t identify anything.”
McHenry, at time of this publication, did not post to social media and has not had a release on Santos since the committee report in mid-November.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., is chairman of the committee and Ross is one of five Democrats on the panel. Guest and Susan Wild, D-Pa., gave a report – Matter of Allegations Relating to Representative George Santos – representing the full committee to the House.
The 10-member committee was unanimous in forwarding evidence to the Department of Justice for further action, and agreed “Santos’ conduct warrants public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit upon the House.”
The four-member investigative subcommittee was chaired by David P. Joyce, R-Ohio; and included Wild; Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla.; and Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md.
