US Rep. George Santos leaves the Capitol Hill Club as members of the press follow him on January 31, 2023 in Washington, DC. Amid ongoing investigations into his finances, campaign spending and false statements on the campaign trail, Santos is reportedly recusing himself from his House committee assignments. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
Washington: New York Representative George Santos is giving up his seats on the two committees he was assigned less than a month into a controversial term that has been punctuated by a relentless string of revelations of both personal and professional fabrications.
Santos has resisted calls from other New York Republicans to resign his seat, but on Tuesday said he would revoke - at least for now - his committee membership as the turmoil plays out. He had yet to attend his first hearing.
Fellow New York Republican Elise Stefanik, chair of the House GOP caucus, said Santos "voluntarily removed himself from committees as he goes through this process.” In a statement, Santos spokeswoman Naysa Woomer characterized the move as "reserving his seats on his assigned committees until he has been properly cleared of both campaign and personal financial investigations.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a GOP gadfly who is now in Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s inner circle, called the decision a "pretty bold move.”
Santos said "there was so much drama over the situation,” she said, adding that he has spoken with McCarthy but made the decision on his own.
Santos declined to speak on what he told members in the meeting or his conversations with McCarthy. He told reporters he addressed the controversy on Monday and to "look out for the interview.”
He was placed on the House Small Business Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Roger Williams, the chair of the Small Business Committee, said Santos left the door open to returning to the committees "when there comes a point he is not an issue anymore.”
"He kind of set the rules in there. I mean, we were all listening,” Williams said after the GOP meeting.
Santos has been under fire at home, with Republicans in New York calling for his resignation. Almost eight in 10 voters in Santos’s district, which covers northern Nassau County and parts of Queens in New York City, want him to resign, according to a Newsday/Sienna College poll conducted January 23-26. Only 7% of his constituents view him favorably.
So far he’s maintained a crucial lifeline with McCarthy, who needs every vote he can get in the closely divided House, both to pass legislation and to keep his job. McCarthy has set a high bar for policing lawmakers, suggesting at a news conference last week that Santos would keep his seat in Congress unless he was found to have broken the law. Lying wouldn’t be grounds for expulsion.
Santos has acknowledged inventing significant details about his religion, education and career, including that he graduated from college and worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. He has also previously suggested that he was Jewish.
Santos has also dismissed an allegation he pocketed $3,000 from a GoFundMe campaign in 2016 for a homeless veteran’s dying dog. "The reports that I would let a dog die is shocking & insane,” he tweeted.
His campaign paperwork, meanwhile, has spurred a Federal Election Commission query into who ran his campaign. The Federal Election Commission specifically is asking a man who says he’s not responsible for handling Representative George Santos’s campaign funds why the agency has received paperwork saying otherwise.
