Scalise says George Santos controversy ‘being handled internally’
Samantha-Jo Roth
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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) sidestepped a question from a reporter as to whether Rep. George Santos should be a member of Congress after the New York Republican lied about his background.
“When you saw him seated last week, there were no challenges to that. That’s something that’s being handled internally,” Scalise said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Santos, 34, was sworn into office early Saturday morning following scrutiny after the New York Times uncovered inconsistencies in his background and falsehoods about his personal background and career.
“Obviously, there were some concerns about what we had heard, and so, we are going to have to sit down and talk to him about it. That’s something we are going to deal with, just like there are a lot of other things we are going to deal with,” Scalise said.
Reps. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) filed a complaint Tuesday asking the House Committee on Ethics to investigate Santos amid claims he may have broken the law. Democrats in leadership say Republicans turned a blind eye to the controversy in order to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the House speaker.
Tuesday’s complaint followed one filed Monday by the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group that asked that the Federal Election Commission “thoroughly investigate what appear to be equally brazen lies about how his campaign raised and spent money.”
NEW YORK CONGRESSMEN FILE ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST REP. GEORGE SANTOS
“Kevin McCarthy owns George Santos — lock, stock, and barrel. If George Santos wasn’t seated, what would the math have been for Speaker McCarthy?” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the House Democratic Caucus chairman. “He would have had to flip another vote or get two people to vote present. I mean, this is — he owns George Santos. That’s the only reason why he was seated, in order to give George Santos that ability to vote for Kevin McCarthy.”
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Democrats said there should be repercussions for the fact that Santos embellished his resume and lied about his experience and background.
“The state and federal government and the law enforcement agencies, the FEC should look into this, I know there might be an Ethics complaint that is filed as well. This is an incredibly serious issue from someone who clearly is divorced from reality and sanity. But this is at the feet of Kevin McCarthy and not just George Santos alone,” Aguilar added.
If the House committee chooses to begin an investigation and finds that Santos is guilty, it has a range of disciplinary options.