Rep. George Santos’ career in Congress may have been brief, but his colleagues in the House had no shortage of words about the New York Republican after voting to oust him on Friday over findings that he spent thousands of dollars in campaign funds for personal treats, including Botox, designer duds and spas.
“Of course I voted to expel [Santos] from Congress. He’s a con artist and a fraudster and has no place in office,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Good riddance,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote on the platform.
“Goodbye George,” Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) said in his salute to Santos, adding his expulsion was “long overdue.”
In a particularly colorful reaction, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) wrote on X: “George Santos is a symptom of a disease festering within his party.”
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), meanwhile, likened Santos’ removal to getting a “sideshow out of the way.”
Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) said it was obvious to him that there was something deeply wrong with Santos.
″[W]e need to stop putting taxpayer dollars into the pockets of a troubled man who needs to deal with his very serious problems outside the halls of Congress,” Rose said.
Even House members who opposed Santos’ ouster couldn’t help but insult him in their statements Friday.
“George Santos is an ass,” Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said in her statement before saying the decision to remove him should have been “in the hands of the courts and the people of NY-03,” the district Santos was elected to represent last year.
Others who voted to oust Santos took the opportunity Friday to remind their constituents of all the things Santos spent thousands of dollars in campaign donations on, according to an unsparing report by the House Ethics Committee: Botox treatments; shopping sprees at luxury retailers Hermés and Ferragamo; payments on OnlyFans, a site known for its adult content; rent and Airbnbs.
“He blatantly stole from his campaign to enrich himself, spending thousands of dollars on Botox, OnlyFans, and Hermes, among other things,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) wrote as he slammed Santos on X.
“George Santos misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign money, stole donor identities to fund his extravagant lifestyle, and has been indicted for fraud and financial crimes,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said.
“Of all the terrible things that have been revealed, what is most upsetting is his blatant deception of his constituents and all of the harm that has come from it. That is a breach of trust and it is simply unacceptable,” wrote Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.).
Others reminded their social media followers that Santos is accused of “fabricating nearly his entire life biography,” as Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) put it Friday. Santos has admitted to “embellishing” parts of the résumé he touted on the campaign trail.
The list of Santos’ alleged inventions about himself is nearly too long to enumerate. As HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery outlined Friday: “He’s misled people about his name, his Jewish heritage, being a descendant of Holocaust survivors from Ukraine, his mother being in the Twin Towers during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and his mother being the first female executive at a major financial institution.”
Though Santos had survived two previous attempts to oust him from Congress ― a maneuver that requires a two-thirds vote in the House ― the Ethics Committee’s report last month was apparently damning enough to flip a number of his one-time supporters. He was removed on a 311-114 vote.
“To hell with this place,” Santos told reporters following his expulsion.