Kevin McCarthy is Not Calling on George Santos to Resign
Since the day he set foot in Washington, Representative George Santos of New York has been shunned by some of his fellow Republicans and protected by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has consistently defended his right to serve in Congress despite the fictional persona he created and the geyser of falsehoods he told to win election.
His wide-ranging indictment on Wednesday, in which Mr. Santos was charged with wire fraud, money laundering, stealing public funds and lying to Congress in federal disclosure forms, did nothing to change that dynamic. Some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers intensified their calls for his resignation, but Mr. McCarthy and other House G.O.P. leaders, operating with a slim and fractious majority, said Mr. Santos should be allowed to continue to serve in Congress.
“If a person is indicted, they’re not on committees,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday before the charges were unsealed. “They have a right to vote, but they have to go to trial.” It was in line with the position Mr. McCarthy has taken since January, when the speaker made no move to penalize or marginalize Mr. Santos, even in the face of mounting allegations of misconduct and lies by him.
Mr. McCarthy allowed Mr. Santos, who is in his first term, to be placed on two congressional committees. When he temporarily stepped aside from them weeks after his appointments, Mr. McCarthy said it had been Mr. Santos’s choice — though the speaker called it the “appropriate decision” for now, “until he could clear everything up.”
Source: The New York Times
