Rep. George Santos (R-NY) introduced a resolution Thursday afternoon — one day before an expected vote to expel him — to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) for his criminal act of pulling a fire alarm.
Santos first announced his intention to introduce his privileged resolution to expel “convicted and guilty-pleaded Congressman Jamaal Bowman” Tuesday morning during a frigid outdoor press conference.
“He took a plea deal for pulling a fire alarm, a fire alarm which obstructed and delayed an official hearing and proceeding on the House floor,” Santos told a large gathering of reporters. “Now had that been any other person, had it been one of the members of the media, had it been a Republican member of Congress, we all know that person would have been charged with obstructing a congressional hearing, just like the 140 people sitting in prison right now because of January 6. But Jamaal Bowman gets a pass.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) observed earlier this week the different standards held by those rushing to expel Santos — who has not yet had his day in court and pleaded not guilty to federal crimes — but making no moves to expel Bowman despite his pleading guilty to a crime on U.S. Capitol grounds.
“If people think that’s [expelling Santos] appropriate, then Jamaal Bowman should be expelled,” Emmer said.
Friday’s historic expulsion vote comes weeks after a scathing report issued by the House Ethics Committee. The report included evidence Santos knowingly filed false reports with the Federal Election Commission, used campaign funds for personal purposes including subscriptions to OnlyFans and botox treatments, and willfully violated ethics laws as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House. However, Santos denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.
In September, Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building moments before Republican then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) held a critical government funding vote. Across the Capitol, Senate Democrats were scrambling to cobble together a funding agreement of their own.
Republicans claimed Bowman pulled the alarm to force an evacuation of the Capitol and delay the House vote, potentially a federal crime, to give Senate Democrats more time.
Bowman claimed he pulled the alarm thinking it would open the door, insisting he was trying to make the vote across the street in the Capitol before time expired. But a Breitbart News report that Bowman, a former middle school principal, threw emergency warning signs to the ground before pulling the fire alarm discredited Bowman’s claims.
Footage later confirmed Breitbart’s exclusive reporting.
WATCH: BUSTED: Security Video Shows Democrat Jamaal Bowman Take Down Warning Signs, Pull Fire Alarm
Bowman was charged by the D.C. Attorney General but entered a plea deal to the misdemeanor charge of willfully or knowingly falsely pulling a fire alarm. He agreed to pay a $1000 fine and write a formal apology to U.S. Capitol Police, a punishment many Republicans say amounts to a slap on the wrist for a crime carrying a maximum sentence of six months.
Bowman, an expert on the matter, called Santos’s introduction of the resolution nothing more than a stunt.
“No one in Congress, or anywhere in America, takes soon-to-be former Congressman George Santos seriously,” he said. “This is just another meaningless stunt in his long history of cons, antics, and outright fraud.”
Santos’s resolution is privileged, which means the House must likely vote on the measure within two legislative days.
The colorful New Yorker admits his time in the House is likely up, but he is not going down without a fight. “Let’s hold our own accountable, but let’s make sure we do it with the precedent of the House,” he said Thursday.
“Now, if the House wants to start different precedent and expel me, that is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body because this will haunt them in the future when mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts.”
A successful expulsion vote requires two-thirds of the House.
Follow Bradley Jaye on Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.