House Democrats Move To Censure Openly Gay Rep George Santos

A group of Democratic House members announced on Monday that they plan to introduce a resolution to formally censure Rep. George Santos, the indicted New York Republican who has been caught in a wide array of lies about his upbringing, resume, and family and faces multiple charges of money laundering and fraud. The censure resolution, the strictest punishment Congress can hand down aside from expulsion, is being led by Rep. Ritchie Torres. Torres said he is filing the resolution because the House Ethics Committee has yet to release its report on Santos after House Republicans referred an expulsion resolution against Santos to the committee in May. Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York Republicans who want Santos to resign, said at the time they expected the House Ethics Committee to issue a report a couple of months later. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in May that he hoped the Ethics Committee would move quickly. In response to the censure resolution, he thinks that Democrats should allow the Ethics Committee to carry out its process. Because Democrats are in the minority in the House, they do not control what legislation makes it to the floor. However, any member can force a vote on a censure resolution over the House majority’s objections.