Botox, Hermès and OnlyFans: Why This May Be George Santos’s Last Week in Congress

from New York Times I'm Michael Boro. this is the. [Music]. daily only five members of the US House. of Representatives have ever been. expelled from the. institution this week Republican. representative George Santos of New York. could very well become the sixth my. colleague Grace Ashford explains why.

after a year in office so many of. Santos's colleagues from both parties. have had. enough it's Monday November. [Music]. 27th so Grace welcome back to the show. hey Michael good to be back so we. haven't talked in a while the last time. you were were on the show George Santos.

was not yet a member of Congress he was. a congressman elect and you had. discovered along with our colleagues in. your Collective reporting that Santos. had fabricated much of his life story. really basic facts about his career his. education it caused a huge uproar. nevertheless he is sworn into office and. then his life gets incredibly messy. that's right.

so last December uh shortly after our. first story came out federal. investigators at the Department of. Justice open an inquiry in March the. house Ethics Committee announces a. parallel investigation and then in May. the doj actually charges Santos with. over a dozen felonies in October they. add 10 more charges including aggravated. identity theft and through all of this. Santos Stands Strong and Resolute he. says he's innocent he says he's going to. remain in Congress to serve his. constituents M and there for a while it.

looked as though he was maybe going to. be able to actually outrun all of this. all of these attempts to bring. accountability he was the subject of two. expulsion efforts both of which failed. the first is led by democrats and it. gets tabled by Republicans who say the. investigation should be allowed to run. their course the second is led by this. kadra of Republicans from New York and. this also fails resoundingly not only. does it fail to get the 2third majority. that it needs to pass it doesn't even. get a simple majority because of how.

many Democrats voted against it well. just explain that why would Democrats. vote against this and vote to keep. Santos in office well I think for a lot. of people they look at Santos as not. just being about Santos but always about. precedent and you know once we start. getting into a place where on the basis. of news reports on the basis of. accusations a member can be removed from. the office that they were duly elected. to I think there were a lot of people on. both sides the aisle that found that to.

be pretty concerning so Democrats said. let's wait let's not you know rush to. judgment let's wait and sort of see the. evidence that comes either from the. criminal case or from this ethics. investigation which they knew at that. point was pretty close to its conclusion. and so that's really where things stood. until the release of this really damning. ethics report the week before. Thanksgiving okay so tell us about this. report so this report is the culmination.

of months and months and months of. investigative work the committee issued. dozens of subpoenas they interviewed I. think nearly 40 Witnesses they reviewed. tens of thousands of pages of documents. looking for evidence that he had. violated you know house ethics rules but. also federal law and all this culminates. with the filing of a third resolution to. expel Congressman Santos coming from the. chairman of the house Ethics Committee a. republican from Mississippi and this is.

really the most serious challenge that. Congressman Santos has faced yet and. it's all going to come to a head in the. coming week right because later this. week there's going to be a vote on the. house floor to formally remove Santos. from Congress and from everything you're. saying it sounds like the third time. could be the real time it actually could. happen this is definitely the most. serious of these challenges thus far so. what did house ethics and investigators.

who put this report together actually. fined well they lay out what I think is. one of the most kind of comprehensive. theories of the case in terms of. Congressman Santos and they put it right. at the top of their report they say that. they have found substantial evidence. that he violated both house ethics rules. and criminal law and specifically they. say that he sought to fraudulently. exploit every aspect of his candidacy. for personal financial profit.

H basically turned the idea of running. for congress into a kind of personal. piggy bank as though the four years that. he spent campaigning and running for. office was one long running grift that. would allow him to enrich himself okay. and what are the specifics that the. report establishes to support that claim. well I think you know our listeners are. somewhat familiar now with some of the. biographical embellishments that we've. reported about Congressman Santos you. know this sort of story that he told. about himself that he worked on Wall. Street and that he's a successful.

businessman the report really digs into. this narrative that he's putting forth. and shows how this kind of works as a. big circle he portrays himself as the. successful businessman in order to. solicit funds from donors donors buy. into it and buy into him give him money. that he then funnels to himself and now. we can see from this ethics report all. of the ways in which he is finding ways. to take that money and bring it back to. himself self for example one of the.

biggest questions that I had as a. reporter from the very beginning of my. time looking into George Santos was. about the large personal loans that he. reported having made to his campaign. right he claimed that that successful. businessman that he wasn't but that he. claimed to be was capable of giving his. campaign a lot of money this is really. Central to this image that he has of. himself as a successful businessman is. that he has all this money that he can. loan to his campaign in 2020 he says he.

loans himself more than $80,000 in 2022. that number skyrockets it's more than. $700,000 wow and now for the first time. we have a lot more details about what. was really going on there what exactly. was going on with those alleged loans. from Santos to his campaign well in 2020. Santos reports that he loans over. $80,000 to his campaign over a series of. transactions and this is a little bit. unusual because according to the. financial disclosure that he files with.

the house that same year it says that. he's only earning $55,000 a year and he. has no savings what we didn't know but. we do know now is that in fact he did. not loan his campaign $80,000 he loaned. his campaign. $3,500 so why make that claim two. reasons the first is that it made his. campaign look a lot more successful on. paper than it was in reality and. successful campaigns draw more donors. and more support right and number two it.

gave him this mechanism through which he. could actually repay himself for the. loan that he hadn't really fully made in. the process collecting tens of thousands. of dollars of profit so he basically. discovers if you tell the world that you. have loaned your campaign money that you. didn't have no one seems to check and. you can then reimburse yourself for some. of that money all that money and. basically just steal from your campaign. yes and according to the ethics report.

this is not the only way that he finds. to divert campaign funds and donor funds. into his own pocket what are the other. ways so the other thing we learn about. in great detail is this Florida company. called Redstone strategies that Santos. had been using during his 2022. Congressional Campaign and we learned. that he has been using it as sort of an. intermediary where he will transfer. money from other places other accounts.

into Redstone strategies at which point. it sort of becomes his to do what he. wants with it we'd heard a bit about. Redstone before he was actually charged. back in May with having stolen $50,000. from two different donors using Redstone. uh he had told them that it was a type. of independent expenditure committee and. that the money would be used to fund ads. but no ads were ever bought and in fact. we can see now from the report that a. lot of that money just went straight.

into Santos's pocket just how much money. was Santos able to extract from this. company Redstone well the number that. the ethics report gives is. $200,000 wow does the report say how. much money overall that Santos took from. his donors from his campaign coffers so. it's really hard to come up with a. single number that encapsulates all of. this because there are so many profit. streams but one point investigators.

mentioned that Santos withdrew nearly a. quarter of a million dollars in cash. from his various bank accounts and we. have no idea what became of that wow but. it's not even just the money that he. explicitly pulled out of his campaign. that concerns them there's this whole. sort of other category of campaign. spending that they give us a lot of. details on which is really just how he. used the campaign to fund his life hm so. walk us through those in as much detail.

as you can well you know as we sort of. set at the top key to the story that. George Santos is telling about himself. is this notion that he is a very wealthy. person with you know excellent tastes. who's able to kind of live the high life. and in this ethics report we get to see. just how high that life. was this report is loaded with horrible. inexcusable totally juicy details the. damning 56-page report finding Santos. allegedly using thousands of dollars in.

campaign funds on trips to Atlantic City. and even to pay his own rent we learn. about trips to Atlantic City apparently. he told a Stafford that he liked playing. roulette the report also specifically. detailed a list of suspicious campaign. expenditures including more than $10,000. on fashion at Herm in famo we learn. about thousands of dollars that he spent. at luxury stores 1,400 at a medical spa. that performs Botox treatments 800 we. learned about thousands of dollars worth.

of spa treatments a number of which are. actually identified as being for Botox. in documents and smaller purchases at. only fans a website often used for adult. content and. pornography one of the expenditures that. Drew the most attention was a payment to. the website only fans H this obviously. you know raises some eyebrows because. it's not generally how people would like. their political donations to be spent. but also because there is a video of. George Santos telling a television.

reporter that he has no idea what only. fans was and he'd only learned about it. very recently which is again hard to. square with a payment like. this and Grace there's no world in which. the expenses we're talking about can be. construed as campaign expenses and thus. they are violations of campaign Finance. laws it's very hard to make the case. that payments to you know design minor. stores and on fancy hotel St benefit the.

people of New York's thirdd. congressional district and so when. Congress members and their staff get. finished reading this report there's. this real sense that the tides have. shifted for Congressman Santos that all. of the evidence that they were looking. for has now been laid out in Stark. detail details that are going to be very. difficult to explain away let alone. forget now they've seen what they needed. to see and they are ready to move to. expel Congressman.

[Music]. Santos we'll be right. back so Grace how is everyone in. Congress thinking about and talking. about this upcoming vote to expel Santos. this third effort to push him out of the. house and from everything you've said. the gravest threat so far to his career. in Congress. well Congress is kind of a buzz with the.

details of this report and you know what. it might mean for this upcoming vote. we're seeing signs on both sides of the. aisle that these Revelations have had a. real impact on the way people are. thinking about this very consequential. decision probably the most interesting. response comes from Santos himself while. he calls the report a smear he says that. if the Ethics Committee had any ethics. they wouldn't have released it he. nonetheless also kind of seems to bow to.

some of this news and makes the. announcement that in fact he will not. run for re-election in. 2024 something he has previously never. been willing to say no and it's actually. I think a pretty consequential shift for. him in terms of the story that he's been. telling because you know he has been. steadfast in saying that he is innocent. of everything he's been accused of and. that he will continue to serve his. constituents and that he will be. reelected even and so this is the first.

time we're starting to see that perhaps. he is letting go of that Vision as well. interesting should we see that. announcement him saying I'm not going to. run free election as an attempt to kind. of head off this exposion vote as a way. of saying I'll see my own way out so. there's no reason to force me out the. door well you know perhaps but I. wouldn't go so far as to say that he is. necessarily going to see himself out uh. notably his announcement does not come. with any promise to resign from office.

he in fact says he will continue to. serve as long as he is allowed okay well. given that complex Santos reaction I'm. not running free election but I won't. resign how are both Democrats and. Republicans in the house thinking about. this vote and whether they're going to. remove him from. Congress well for Democrats this is a. little simpler many of those Democrats. who initially were you know worried. about setting a dangerous precedent.

about you know kind of rushing to. judgment now feel that in this ethics. report they have the formal finding that. makes them you know kind of confident to. make a decision like this grave as it is. probably one of the highest profile of. those is representative Jamie Rasin um. from Maryland um who initially had voted. to protect Mr Santos to avoid setting a. precedent of he said EXP People based on. intuition um you know without criminal.

convictions or disciplinary findings in. the face of this report though he said. that he thought that it was very clear. what the duty of the house was and that. was to expel got it so Democrats seem. very much ready on mass to vote to expel. Santos what about House. Republicans well this is where things. get a little trickier so there were. already a group of Republicans that had. been pushing pretty vocally to expel. Congressman Santos many of whom hail. from New York and in fact most of those.

are people who were elected in 2020 the. same year that Santos was and represent. these kind of moderate districts um in. the Hudson Valley um and on Long Island. where they have been already targeted. for being on the same party as. Congressman Santos right and of course. their moderate constituents probably. won't hold it against them to vote to. expel Santos because they're not hugely. partisan districts I think that's part.

of the calculation and so now what we're. seeing is that those lawmakers are. having some success in persuading their. colleagues to support an effort to expel. and what are some examples of those. Republicans who are kind of flipping. toward. expulsion Republicans are showing us. they do have the ability to call out one. of their own I did not vote in the past. to expel George because I didn't believe. there was due process and so uh the. ethics committee really I think gave him.

the opportunity he did not Avail himself. of that opportunity the Ethics Committee. found that he did not cooperate I think. he's been given the fair do process now. there's representative Ken Buck from. Colorado Congressman Greg Murphy of. North Carolina said that Santos's. actions were reprehensible and he was. not worthy of being a member of Congress. also there's representative Greg Murphy. congresswoman Ashley Henson of Iowa said. the conduct was illegal and unacceptable. and Americans deserve better from their. repres. Republican Zack nun says it's time for.

Santos to go the people of America. deserve better and we're going to make. sure he's held accountable just as we. would anyone who has violated federal. law there are three representatives from. Iowa Zack nun Ashley Hinson and. marionette Miller Meeks we were able to. see that he inappropriately used donor. money for all these other things for. personal gain as well as in New York. state Nicole motakis uh and that was. enough for us to say he should no longer. be be serving as a member of.

Congress and one way that we can see. just how significant the shift within. the Republican party is is that the. current resolution to expel Santos was. introduced by the Republican chairman of. the house Ethics Committee Michael guest. from Mississippi but now the ethics. committee chairman putting his weight. behind this in a real signal that he. believes that the conduct that his. committee this bipartisan committee has. found should warrant George Santos being. kicked out of the house in the last. round uh he didn't vote to expel Santos.

and he didn't vote to protect him either. he voted present and this time he. himself is leading the charge we passed. that due process point and it's time for. members of Congress uh to make a. personal decision as to whether or not. feel the evidence is. substantial fascinating so where does. all of this. leave the math around expulsion for when.

this comes to a vote expulsion requires. a 2third majority that's a lot most. things in the house are done by simple. majority how close is the house with all. these Democrats who are flipping and. Republicans who are flipping towards. expulsion to actually expelling. Santos yeah it is an incredibly High bar. and it was made an incredibly High bar. on purpose because this is an incredibly. significant decision but by our. calculation even if every single.

Democrat were to vote to remove Santos. you would still need more than 70. Republicans to do the same in order to. have that motion. carry and how many of those 70. Republicans have publicly said they're. ready to vote to expel so what we can. say we know that in the last expulsion. resolution 24 Republicans voted to. remove Santos since that time a little. over a dozen have publicly said that.

they have changed their mind and would. now support an expulsion resolution that. brings us to just under 40 but that's. not 70 right and so I think the question. really is you know for all of the rest. of the Republican conference who have. now gone home from Washington there many. of them are probably with their families. you know over the Thanksgiving holiday. thinking this over you know what kind of. decision are they going to make when. they return to Washington well what. would be the best and the strongest. argument for House Republicans to.

protect. Santos given the incredibly damning. Revelations of this house ethics report. well there's sort of a a historical one. and a political one historically if. Santos were to be removed based on this. ethics report he would be only the sixth. member in Congressional history to be. removed from the House of. Representatives three of those were. expelled. for supporting the.

Confederacy and the other two were. expelled for after they were criminally. convicted Santos of course has not been. criminally convicted his trial is. currently set for September of 2024 H. what about the political case for. sparing him well Republicans have been. struggling since they took control of. the house in 2022 with the fact that. their majority is so so so narrow just a. couple of votes. losing Santos's vote would make that.

majority even. narrower so the fear for Republicans is. that they will lose this seed because if. Santos is removed and if I'm remembering. the rules correctly there's a special. election for his seat which you have. Grace told us is a moderate swing. District on Long Island I'm guessing the. fear for Republicans is that a Democrat. Scoops that seat up and the Republican. majority becomes one vote smaller yeah I.

think that's the nightmare scenario uh. that a Democrat is able to take. advantage of this kind of black eye for. the Republican party on Long Island and. then not only do they win the special. election but then they are in a good. position to come in and win the general. as well well Grace given this complex. math given the uncertainty that Santos. will be expelled when the house votes. later this week given the reality that. many Republicans don't want to lose even. a single member of their majority I'm.

curious what it's going to really mean. if this vote fails because as you told. us Santos is going to leave Congress at. the end of his term so what would we. really take from the fact that he's not. expelled but instead has been basically. browbeaten into leaving on his own well. I I think it would. be a real inflection point the house. Ethics Committee in its report said that.

uh Congressman Santos's Behavior. warranted public condemnation uh was. beneath the Dignity of the office and. had brought severe discredit upon the. house that was in their words if the. majority of house members read that same. report about you know all of that. conduct all of the times that he. blatantly stole from the campaign lied. to donors enriched himself and they say. no actually okay with that that says. something mhm I think it's it's another.

in this series of moments where we as a. country as a political system are. redefining what's allowable and what we. can. accept I have one last question for you. Grace you've now been covering. Congressman Santos. for the entirety of his career in. Congress which isn't that long but. you've gotone to know it arguably better. than anyone and you've gone to know him. arguably better than anyone and now this.

report is out and we're reaching this. potentially historic moment in Santos's. career I wonder if you've gotten any. closer to understanding what might be. the biggest question of all about George. Santos which is why he has done all the. things that he has. done I think because he can H you know I. think you one could argue that up until. this month he has been really really. successful in creating the reality that.

he wants in talking people into in. turning nothing into something in. getting people to believe whatever he. tells. them and it seemed like he was going to. be able to continue to take that as far. as he. [Music]. could yes there is this criminal. investigation going on yes he is facing. some real charges but you know in. another way you know a trial is just. another opportunity to tell a story and.

Congressman Santos is great at telling. stories I think that you know the kind. of closest you can get to answering that. question is that he thought that it. would work because it had worked for a. long. time until it. [Music]. didn't well Grace thank you very much we. really appreciate it thanks so much. Michael on Friday evening during a. profanity laced tiate on X spaces.

representative Santos said that he. expects the house to expel him in the. coming days but instead of appealing to. his colleagues for leniency Santos. lashed out at them calling them quote. Hypocrites and Felons who have. extramarital Affairs get drunk with. lobbyists and Skip votes Santos said. that if he is removed from in the house. he would consider it quote a badge of.

honor I know I'm going to get expelled. when this expulsion resolution goes to. the floor because people are so quick to. judge and ask and demand for political. expediency and this is what this is It's. political expediency so have had it I'm. very well resolved as a human being so. like throw this at me Hit Me With Your. Best Shot at this. point.

we'll be right. back here's what else you need to know. today over the weekend Hamas released 40. Israeli hostages many of them children. that it had taken into Gaza during its. October 7th attack on Israel the. releases which began on Friday involved. a series of handovers that require re. ired Israel to free an even larger.

number of Palestinians held in Israeli. prisons those exchanges are part of a. deal brokered by Qatar and the US that. requires a dayslong pause in fighting. that is set to end today this deal is. structured so that it can be extended to. keep building on these results that's my. goal that's our goal to keep this pause. going Beyond tomorrow but in a speech on. Sunday President Biden said he hoped. that the truce could be extended an idea.

that Hamas says it is open. to we've seen this is the day-by-day. approach hour by hour process nothing is. guaranteed and nothing is being taken. for granted but the proof that this is. working and worth pursuing further is in. every smile and every grateful tear we. see on the faces of those families who. are finally getting back together again. [Music].

today's episode was produced by Sydney. Harper and Michelle Banja it was edited. by Mark George contains original music. by Brad fiser Marian Lozano and Dan. Powell and was engineered by Alysa. Moxley our theme music is by Jim. brunberg and Ben lansberg of. [Music]. wonderly.

[Music]. that's it for the daily I'm Michael. Babar see you. tomorrow.