Fetterman Pushes To Expel Menendez From Senate After Santos Booted From House

 Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) called for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to be expelled from the U.S. Senate on Friday as now-former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Fetterman’s remarks, which he made during a lengthy interview that he gave on ABC’s “The View,” came after the House voted to expel Santos after an Ethics Committee report said that he lied and following numerous federal counts he was charged with, including alleged aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, and conspiracy.

The freshman senator said that he was “not surprised” that Santos was removed, but believed that “the more important picture is that we have a colleague in the Senate that actually does much more sinister and serious kinds of things.”

“Senator Menendez, he needs to go,” Fetterman said. “And if you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate? And, you know, Santos is kind of, lies were almost, you know, funny. And like, you know, he, you know, landed on the moon and that kind of stuff.”

“Whereas, you know, I think, you know, Menendez, I think is really a senator for Egypt. You know, not New Jersey. So I really think he needs to go,” Fetterman said. “He has the right for his day in court and all that, but he doesn’t have the right to have those kinds of votes and things that — that’s not a right. And I think we need to make that kind of decision to send him out.”

 

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Santos’ expulsion vote, which required a two-thirds majority, passed easily with 311 representatives voting in the affirmative to 114 voting against, and two voting present. Democrats, who remained mostly united in their vote for Santos’ expulsion, were joined by 105 Republicans.

The New York congressman’s expulsion comes after all four of the top Republican House leaders said they would vote against expelling Santos. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) all opposed expelling Santos, CNN reported. The Republican leaders believed an expulsion could set a bad precedent since the New York representative has yet to be convicted of any crimes. GOP House leadership also did not work to whip up any votes to keep Santos from being expelled, with Johnson saying it was a vote of conscience.