U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks to members of the news media outside of a Steering Committee meeting at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, U.S., January 11, 2023.
Leah Millis | Reuters
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday said he would not urge embattled Republican Rep. George Santos to resign from Congress, hours after local GOP officials tore into the New York congressman and pushed him to step down.
“Look, the voters decide,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters on Capitol Hill when asked whether he would welcome Santos’ resignation if it was offered, according to NBC News.
“That’s what his decision is to make,” McCarthy said, adding, “The voters elected him to serve. If there is a concern, he has to go through the Ethics [Committee], let him move through that.”
McCarthy also signaled that Santos, who admitted to fabricating critical pieces of his resume in his run for office and is now facing multiple investigations, is still eligible to serve on House committees. He said that the congressman would not serve on any of the most prestigious House panels.
Santos declared Wednesday that he “will not” resign from Congress as a growing bipartisan group pushes him to leave an office he was sworn into only on Saturday. The GOP lawmaker has apologized for embellishing pieces of his resume but has said he did not commit any crimes.
Santos’ turned defiant on social media Wednesday, as he swung back at the New York Republicans who had called on him to resign and lashed out at former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who had tweeted at him to “resign now.”
“Go on @CNN and cry about it,” Santos’ official account tweeted in response to Kinzinger, who recently joined that network as a political commentator.
Congressman George Santos (R-NY), who is facing a scandal over his resume and claims he made on the campaign trail, sits alone inside the crowded House Chamber during votes for the new Speaker of the House on the first day of the 118th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 3, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Top Republicans from Nassau County, where Santos’ congressional district is located, called on him to resign Wednesday after what one official called a campaign run on “deceit, lies and fabrication.” They were later joined by New York State Republican Party Chair Nick Langworthy, who is now also a freshman House Republican, who said “it’s clear” that Santos “cannot be an effective representative.”
Unlike New York Republicans, McCarthy needs Santos to preserve his paper-thin GOP majority in the House. Right now, McCarthy can afford to lose four members of his caucus per vote and still pass bills without Democratic support.
If Santos were to resign or get expelled from Congress, it would trigger a special election to fill his seat in New York’s 3rd District. An open race to succeed Santos would likely be competitive, raising the prospect that Republicans could lose a seat.
McCarthy’s slim margin was on public view…
Read More: Kevin McCarthy won’t push George Santos to resign