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George Santos, the Long Island Republican congressman who stands accused of lying about his education, employment history, charitable work and Jewish heritage, is currently facing few public consequences from newly installed Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for doing so.
"This is something that's being handled internally," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters at a news conference earlier this week. "Obviously, there were concerns about what we had heard, and so we're going to have to sit down and talk to him about it."
The concerns are severe ones. CNBC reported on Monday that Santos campaign aide Sam Miele allegedly impersonated McCarthy's chief of staff, Dan Meyer, in a number of phone calls and emails to donors during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, seemingly confirming less-detailed reports recently published in The Washington Times.
On Tuesday, two New York Democratic congressmen hand-delivered a House Ethics Committee complaint against him, claiming Santos potentially violated the federal Ethics in Government Act after some raised questions about Santos' ability to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own funds to his campaign despite a reported income of just $55,000 a year.
Even his own party is poised against him. On Wednesday morning, the Nassau County Republican Party sent out a press release teasing a major announcement regarding the "disgraced" congressman, presumably setting the stage for a public appeal for Santos' resignation. The lack of support is already public: Nassau Republican Party Chair Joe Cairo said the party would not support Santos running in 2024.
For McCarthy and the rest of House leadership, the dynamic is a fragile one.
Throughout McCarthy's arduous path to the speakership, Santos was a reliable vote in the California congressman's corner. McCarthy did not immediately rule out placing Santos on committees, even as a number of his Republican colleagues—South Dakota's Dusty Johnson, South Carolina's Nancy Mace, and others—expressed apprehension about having him serve anywhere that would give him access to sensitive information.
But either scenario—backing Santos, or backing away from him—comes with its own pitfalls.
McCarthy can choose to back Santos, allowing him to keep his 222-vote majority intact against a vocal minority in the Republican conference that has already shown a willingness to flex its muscle against him.
During a 15-round vote for speaker, members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus extracted numerous concessions from McCarthy to guarantee their vote, reducing his power and giving them an expanded voice on key committees in Congress that will allow them to have greater sway over the party's legislative agenda over the next two years.
One top priority for that group could include possible brinkmanship over the debt ceiling, potentially causing the government to default on its credit and leaving McCarthy on the hook for the catastrophic economic effects that would follow.
But backing Santos could also lose McCarthy credibility with some of his loyalists, who have already expressed apprehension over the New Yorker's continued presence in Congress.
"I don't have any historical precedent about what's appropriate here. And I do think that matters," Dusty Johnson told Politico earlier this week. "In my mind, I wouldn't seat the guy until we have an investigation done. I think there are enough legitimate concerns out there about his behavior."
The risk of denying Santos credibility could be high as well.
New York, like several other blue states, was critical to Republicans' ability to retake the majority this past election cycle. Santos was notably a key part of that story, flipping a Long Island-area district President Joe Biden previously carried by double-digits in a year Republicans outran New York-area Democrats on issues like crime.
A do-over could be risky, especially given the mark Santos has left on the district.
"The political reality is Santos will not only have the Democratic Party lined up against him, in what is shaping up to be a good Democratic year, but he will also have his own party against him—one that is particularly powerful when it comes to special elections and primaries," Larry Levy, executive dean of suburban studies at Hofstra University, told New York-based magazine City & State earlier this week.
Newsweek reached out to Santos and McCarthy for comment.
About the writer
Nick Reynolds is a senior politics reporter at Newsweek. A native of Central New York, he previously worked as a ... Read more