There has been no shortage of criticism leveled at George Santos, the Republican Congressman whose entire backstory appears to be a lie.
There has also been plenty of criticism leveled at the Republican Party for not tossing him out on his ear. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has pushed back on the idea that Santos needs to be stripped of committee assignments while punishing Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Ilhan Omar of theirs.
But, while McCarthy has not tossed him out, Santos appears to be removing himself from that particular equation, according to a report from POLITICO’s Olivia Beavers.
NEW: sources tells me Rep. Santos informed conference that he is stepping off his committees
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) January 31, 2023
Multiple outlets are confirming that Santos did indeed tell his Republican colleagues of this decision in a closed-door meeting of the caucus.
Rep. George Santos is stepping down from committees amid fabrications about his biography https://t.co/CNxF8NgpUW
— Post Politics (@postpolitics) January 31, 2023
This also comes at a time when Santos’ own district appears to be extremely upset at just how much they were lied to about Santos’ background.
… as Siena poll comes out in his district showing 71% of voters disapprove of McCarthy seating him on committees — including 59% of Republicans. https://t.co/P23dlr0BjE
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) January 31, 2023
The poll Josh Kraushaar is referring to shows that they don’t want their own representative to be, er, representing them at all, much less on any committees.
The same poll shows that 71 percent of voters in Santos’ district – including 59 percent of Republicans – think McCarthy was wrong to seat him. That’s a pretty healthy margin and a clear sign Santos is probably not destined for re-election… even if he makes it all the way to 2024.
If Santos is stepping down from his committee assignments (whether or not McCarthy encouraged him to is beside the point) however, that takes the Santos situation off the table in McCarthy’s fight to strip Omar and the others of their committees. It gives the GOP a bit of the moral high ground here.
But regardless of Santos, those three should absolutely be stripped of committee assignments. The case against Omar is probably the weakest of the three, and there are a handful of Republicans who oppose it, but it’s nonetheless a worthy attempt to take the fight directly to the Democrats for a change.
