RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Virginia’s congressional delegation had two outliers in the historic vote to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) was one of two Democrats in the U.S. House to vote to keep Santos, and Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R-Va.) was the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation — one of 105 GOP House lawmakers — to vote him out Friday.
The vote on the resolution to expel Santos, which needed a two-thirds majority, passed 311-114. Santos is the sixth member to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives and the first since the Civil War not convicted of a federal crime.
Santos was expelled after a tumultuous time in Congress marred by federal charges against him — including allegedly stealing family members’ identities and illegally using donors’ credit cards — and reports that he fabricated several key parts of his resume and life during his campaign.
After surviving previous expulsion attempts, bombshells in a House Ethics Committee report, which accused Santos of “blatantly” stealing from his campaign, drove enough Congress members on the fence to vote to expel him.
Rep. Scott, who voted against expelling Santos before, said in a statement Friday that Santos “should have had the common decency to resign.”
But he noted that the House’s investigative subcommittee did not recommend removing Santos, adding that expelling a U.S. House member “is one of the most serious and solemn actions Members can take” and warning that a precedent would be set.
“Unlike both prior cases of expulsion since the Civil War, Mr. Santos has not been convicted of a crime, and few of the allegations involve conduct that occurred during his service as a Member of Congress,” Scott said.
Virginia U.S. House members who voted to expel:
- Rep. Don Beyer (D)
- Rep. Gerald Connolly (D)
- Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R)
- Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D)
- Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D)
- Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D)
Virginia U.S. House members who voted not to expel:
- Rep. Ben Cline (R)
- Rep. Bob Good (R)
- Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R)
- Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D)
- Rep. Robert J. Wittman (R)
Scott did not, however, absolve Santos, slamming him for his “disgraceful behavior” and saying the findings by the investigative subcommittee show the “ways he has disgraced himself and his office.”
Rep. Kiggans said in a statement Friday that she voted not to expel Santos before to give him “due process” amid the House’s investigation, but that the report led her to believe he was unfit for congressional office.
“We must have the highest standards of behavior and ethics in the U.S House of Representatives and hold people to them,” Kiggans said. “Unfortunately, Congressman Santos has not met those standards.”
A special election in New York’s third congressional district will determine who will fill the vacancy left by Santos’ expulsion.
