Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican whose numerous deceptions have landed him in sizzling water with colleagues and the Justice Division, remained defiant throughout a three-hour-long look on a dwell audio program Friday.
“You need to expel me? I’ll put on it like a badge of honor,” Santos declared, including: “I’ll be the one one expelled as a result of individuals didn’t like me.”
Santos spoke with conservative host Monica Matthews on X Areas, previously often called Twitter Areas, round two weeks after a damning Home ethics report discovered that he spent hundreds of marketing campaign {dollars} on Botox and different luxuries for himself.
“I’ll defend myself to the tip of time,” Santos mentioned.
Even earlier than he took the oath of workplace in January, Santos has been tormented by allegations starting from the foolish to severe. He beforehand admitted to mendacity about sure components of his background, together with claiming that he was Jewish and had labored for elite monetary firms. Federal prosecutors charging him with almost two dozen felony counts say he used marketing campaign funds as his private checking account; Santos pleaded not responsible.
Whereas the embattled congressman survived an expulsion vote in early November, the ethics committee report appears to have now laid the groundwork for his ejection.
The Republican chairman of the Home ethics committee, Rep. Michael Visitor (Miss.), has already filed a decision for his expulsion that can possible be put to a vote subsequent week.
Santos initially lashed out at Visitor, calling him a “pussy,” the report a “vacuous political hit piece,” and the committee “a fucking weaponization of who they don’t like.”
“It ain’t gonna be the dude from Mississippi that’s gonna kick me, a New Yorker, out of Congress,” Santos mentioned, including, “No offense to individuals from Mississippi.”
He additionally steadfastly refused to think about stepping down, saying, “I’m not going to resign. I haven’t been discovered responsible of something.”
He repeatedly asserted that “it’s not over till I say it’s over.”
However Santos later acknowledged that he would in all probability be out of a job quickly.
“I do know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion decision goes to the ground as a result of individuals are so fast to evaluate and ask and demand for political expediency,” he mentioned.
“Have at it! It’s a badge of honor for me,” he mentioned once more.
All through the interview, which included an change with fellow Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Santos portrayed himself as a sufferer of chilly political calculations. Pressed by Garcia to do “the correct factor” and resign, Santos likened resignation to admitting guilt.
As a substitute, he framed his inevitable departure from Congress as his personal alternative.
“I’m not working for re-election as a result of I don’t need to work with a bunch of hypocrites. It’s gross,” Santos mentioned.
“I’ve colleagues who’re extra frightened about getting drunk each night time with the following lobbyists that they’re going to screw and fake like none of us know what’s occurring, and dump the American individuals. Not present as much as vote as a result of they’re too hungover, or no matter the reason being,” he went on, with out naming names.
Concerning his fellow New York Republicans — a delegation that has helped lead the cost in expelling him — Santos in contrast them to excessive schoolers in a clique.
“I don’t care to be a part of their boys’ membership,” Santos mentioned. He added: “In my delegation, there are perhaps two members that I might go to bat for. The remainder of them can go pound sand. … The opposite 23, they will go blow up for all I care.”