Is The Tawdry George Santos Saga Part Of Republican Party Dysfunction And Chaos?

Yesterday, Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan reported that right now the GOP is “as discombobulated and disorganized [as it] has been for more than two decades. They’re leaderless, angry and upset over how they got here and worried about what’s next. There’s backstabbing, bad blood and mistrust. And late Tuesday there was an unwelcome escalation of the George Santos scandal— just as he was endorsing Gym Jordan for speaker. You would think Jordan would tell him to take his endorsement and shove it— but then you wouldn’t understand the GOP conference.

Max Cohen and Heather Caygle wrote that some members of the New York GOP delegation— most of the vulnerable ones— have reiterated their call for Santos to resign or be expelled. This follows the 23-count superseding indictment. How serious are these calls? Nick LaLota is probably the least vulnerable of the New York GOP freshmen. A fellow Long Islander, he said that Santos is “a terrible human being. He does not deserve to be in the House of Representatives. He deserves to be in a federal prison. And I think the issue of expulsion is going to be something that a lot of my colleagues are going to talk about. New York GOP Reps. Marc Molinaro, Mike Lawler and Anthony D’Esposito also told reporters they’re still calling on Santos to resign.” Conspicuously missing: Brandon Williams from the Syracuse area, who has moved in a more MAGA direction in the last few months.

Cohen and Caygle reported that the new indictment includes charges that “Santos stole the identities of his campaign donors and charged thousands of dollars to their credit cards.” None of the Republicans who have called on Santos to resign or be expelled backed “a resolution by House Democrats seeking to expel Santos in May. Instead, Republicans voted to refer the resolution to the House Ethics Committee. The phony-baloney ethics committee, which doesn’t ever do anything is still “conducting its investigation…The political reality here is obviously complicated. Republicans currently only have a four-seat majority. GOP leaders have previously resisted calls to boot Santos and give Democrats a real chance at winning back the seat this Congress.”

Late yesterday, another Long Island Republican tweeted, "Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos. He also told reporters he considers Santos "a stain" on the House and on New York state. "It's time that we move on from George Santos."

In response Rep. Kitara had a message for the House Republican Conference this morning:

Like Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Santos is using his seat as a bargaining chip with the feds. He says he’ll never resign and plans to run for reelection. He has virtually no support in his district and is expected to resign if he can cut a good deal— minimum prison time and the ability to collect payment for a book and movie about his life. Both parties are desperate for him to resign so that they can avoid messy primaries. (If he resigns the political establishments can just pick whomever they want to run.)