Michael Gold

It's kind of known by lawmakers that when something gets kicked over to the House Ethics Committee, it's going to take a while for it to be resolved, and it's kind of a way for everyone to get some cover and say, well, we're investigating this, but we need to give this investigation time to play out, and there needs to be some due process, and then we'll deal with the issue.

But in Santos' case...

It took less than a year for the Ethics Committee to come back and release this report that found substantial evidence of campaign finance fraud, of violating House ethics rules.

There are a lot of damning details about him spending the money on things like Botox and OnlyFans subscription.

And basically, a bunch of Republicans and Democrats come together and say enough is enough.

We're going to vote to expel him.

A vote takes a two-thirds majority of the House.

They clear that bar easily, and George Santos is removed from office.

Yeah, it was a big deal.

They kicked him out.

Before Santos, only five people in the history of the House had been expelled.

Three of them were kicked out because they fought for the Confederacy against the United States, which was basically seen as an act of treason.

And two of them had been convicted of felony charges, and their trials had gone through the whole process, and they had been convicted.

That's right.

When the House is pressed and when it feels like there's urgency, Santos' expulsion shows it will find a way to get rid of people who it thinks should not be in its midst.

And this was kind of a sign that the House was capable of policing itself when it saw misconduct that it thought was so beyond the pale that it had violated the oath that lawmakers took, that it had violated the public trust that members are supposed to have with the American people.

They said, enough is enough.

We need to kick this guy out.

We don't want him here.

And this was something they had really been reluctant to do because representatives see themselves as being elected by their constituents.