Expelling Rep. George Santos from the U.S. House would take a big chunk of GOP votes along with all the Democrats, but a California congressman is betting colleagues on both sides of the aisle have had their fill of the scandal-plagued New York Republican.
Rep. Robert Garcia raised a privileged resolution Tuesday calling for a vote on the expulsion of Mr. Santos, who was indicted in New York last week on fraud and money-laundering charges related to alleged misuse of campaign donations.
House rules allow a member to bring a privileged resolution for expulsion of a member, which forces a vote in the chamber over the objections of the majority leadership.
With unanimous support from his fellow Democrats, Mr. Garcia would need at least 77 Republican votes to pass his resolution — a high bar considering the expulsion of Mr. Santos would cut into an already razor-thin GOP majority in the House.
The House has expelled just two members in recent decades — Rep. Michael J. “Ozzie” Myers, Pennsylvania Democrat, in 1980 and Rep. James Traficant, Ohio Democrat, in 2002 — and both votes occurred after the lawmaker had been convicted on federal charges.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said a decision on Mr. Santos should wait until after a verdict in the criminal case.
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