周二下午，加州民主党众议员罗伯特·加西亚在众议院提出了一项决议驱逐共和党众议员乔治·桑托斯。
“我起来通知我的意图提出一个问题的特权的房子。...众议员乔治·桑托斯被驱逐出众议院，”他说。
众议院共和党人可以在两个立法日内安排这次投票，需要三分之二的多数票才能通过;然而，众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡表示，他将把该决议提交给众议院道德委员会。
麦卡锡周二在白宫与乔·拜登总统会晤后举行的新闻发布会上说:“我认为我们可以很快看到这一点，并通过道德，一个安全的两党委员会，同等数量的共和党人和民主党人，就乔治·桑托斯做了什么和没有做什么得出结论，我认为这是当你把它带回国会的时候，如果它上升到能力。”
麦卡锡敦促道德委员会迅速采取行动，并认为该委员会可以比等待桑托斯的法庭诉讼结束更快地就桑托斯达成决议。
“我认为乔治·桑托斯的指控非常严重。我也知道在美国，在被证明有罪之前你是无辜的，但我不想坐以待毙。因此，我想做的是将这一点转移到伦理学上，”麦卡锡说。“我不想坐等法院采取行动。我想做的是让众议院采取行动，在这里有一个过程。”
桑托斯在离开众议院时告诉美国广播公司新闻，“无论发生什么，在被证明有罪之前都是无辜的。”他补充说，他还没有看到决议，也没有与领导层进行过对话。
纽约东区的联邦检察官表示，纽约州共和党人桑托斯于5月10日受到13项刑事指控，包括七项电信欺诈罪、三项洗钱罪、一项盗窃公共资金罪和两项向众议院做出重大虚假陈述罪。
他对所有指控都不认罪。
“我有权为证明自己的清白而斗争，”桑托斯对聚集在长岛法院外的大批记者说。
加利福尼亚州民主党众议员罗伯特·加西亚以马萨诸塞州民主党参议员埃德·马基的身份发言。和其他参与者在2023年4月20日华盛顿特区美国国会大厦前的绿色新政新闻发布会上倾听
亚历克斯·王/盖蒂图片，文件
众议院共和党领导层没有要求桑托斯辞职，但至少有12名众议院共和党人表示桑托斯应该辞职或被驱逐出国会，其中包括许多来自纽约州的共和党议员。
众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡上周表示，他不会支持桑托斯竞选连任，并表示如果众议院道德委员会建议他辞职，那么麦卡锡将同意这一建议。
加西亚说，他驱逐桑托斯的决议是为了让共和党人记录在案。
“还没有行动，所以现在是确保共和党人记录在案的适当时机，如果他们真的要袖手旁观一个连续说谎者和骗子的话。他们必须记录投票，美国人民将会关注他们的投票。
加西亚已经在本届国会会议开始时提出了一项驱逐桑托斯的决议，但在立法未采取行动后，他现在提出一项特许动议，希望加快投票时间。
加西亚说:“我一直希望他辞职，所以我认为最初的驱逐决议是为了，理想情况下，议长在道德委员会上提出这一点，这是应该发生的，但道德方面没有采取任何行动来采纳这一决议。”"显然，麦卡锡议长已经授权乔治·桑托斯进行各种投票."
加西亚将有关时间表和可能性的问题推迟到麦卡锡和共和党领导层的其他成员。
他说:“我认为我们将会看到众议院领导层将会做出什么样的决定，实际上会有多少选票。”。“我认为这还是取决于他们。他们有几个不同的选择，但我们希望看到驱逐投票，我们希望看到他被驱逐。”
要求众议员桑托斯辞职的共和党众议员南希·梅斯(Nancy Mace)对美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)表示，她希望在决定如何投票之前看看先例。
“我想看看先例和历史，看看过去是怎么做的，为什么，”她说。“我只是想在做决定前得到这些信息。我还想确保被驱逐的个人有正当程序。”
Democratic congressman introduces resolution to expel Rep. George Santos
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., introduced a resolution on the House floor Tuesday afternoonto expelGOP Rep. George Santos.
"I rise to give notice of my intent to raise a question of the privileges of the House. ... Rep. George Santos be, and hereby is, expelled from the House of Representatives," he said.
House Republicans can schedule this vote within two legislative days, needing a two-thirds majority to pass; however, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would refer the resolution to the House Ethics Committee instead.
"I think we can look at this very quickly and come to a conclusion on what George Santos did and did not do through Ethics, a safe bipartisan committee, equal number of Republicans and Democrats, and I think that's when you bring it back to Congress if it rises to the ability," McCarthy said Tuesday at a press conference following his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House.
McCarthy urged the Ethics Committee to move quickly and argued the committee could come to a resolution on Santos faster than it would take to wait for Santos' court proceedings to play out.
"I think the George Santos indictment is very serious. I also know in America you're innocent until proven guilty, but I don't want to sit around and wait. So what I would like to do is move this to Ethics," McCarthy said. "I don't want to wait around for the courts to act. What I would like to do is have the House take action and have a process here."
Santos told ABC News while leaving the House floor, "Whatever happens innocent until proven guilty." He added that he hadn't seen the resolution yet and hasn't had conversations with leadership.
Santos, R-N.Y., was indicted May 10 on 13 criminal counts, including seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
"I have my right to fight to prove my innocence," Santos told a mass of reporters who gathered outside the courthouse on Long Island.
House Republican leadership has stopped short of calling for Santos to resign, but at least 12 House Republicans have said Santos should resign or be expelled from Congress, including many Republican lawmakers from New York.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said last week he would not support Santos's bid for reelection and said that if the House Ethics committee recommended he resign then McCarthy would agree with that recommendation.
Garcia said his resolution to expel Santos is about putting Republicans on the record.
"There hasn't been action and so now's the appropriate time to make sure that Republicans are on record if they're going to actually stand by someone that is a serial liar and a fraud. And they're gonna have to record a vote, and the American people will be watching their votes," said Garcia.
Garcia already introduced a resolution to expel Santos at the start of this congressional session, but after inaction on the legislation, he is now offering a privileged motion in hopes to speed up the timeline on a vote.
"My hope has always been that he would resign and so I think that the initial expulsion resolution was building to, ideally, the speaker taking this up in the Ethics Committee, which is what should have happened, but there's been no action in ethics to take up the resolution," Garcia said. "Speaker McCarthy obviously has empowered George Santos on a variety of votes."
Garcia deferred questions about the timeline and likelihood of it passing to McCarthy and other members of Republican leadership.
"I think we'll see what the House leadership is going to decide, what the votes will actually be," he said. "I think it's still up to them. There's a couple of different options that they have but we want to see an expulsion vote and we want to see him expelled."
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who has called on Rep. Santos to resign, told ABC News she wants to look at precedent before deciding how she'll vote.
"I want to look at precedent and history and how it's been done in the past and for what reasons," she said. "I just want to have that information before I make that decision. I also want to make sure that an individual that's getting expelled has due process."
