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Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of trying to ‘bury accountability’ for Rep. George Santos because they ‘need’ his vote in the narrowly divided House.
‘Extreme MAGA Republicans need George Santos’ vote. He is critical to their ability to govern,’ Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters.
The leader tore into Republicans for denying Democrats an up or down vote on an expulsion resolution – which would have needed a two-thirds majority to pass. Instead, Speaker Kevin McCarthy held a vote to refer the resolution back to the Ethics Committee, which is currently investigating Santos.
‘The Ethics Committee has had the George Santos matter for months -months! So what are you referring to the Ethics Committee?’ he questioned.
The Ethics investigation is focused on, among other things, whether Santos ‘violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office,’ the House Ethics Committee said in a statement.
Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of trying to ‘bury accountability’ for Rep. George Santos because they ‘need’ his vote in the narrowly divided House
‘This was an effort to bury accountability,’ Jeffries went on. ‘Why? Perhaps it’s because extreme MAGA Republicans actually need George Santos’ vote. He is critical to their ability to govern. George Santos was the deciding vote in passing the Default on America Act,’ he said, referring to the House GOP’s debt limit bill – what they prefer to call the Limit Save Grow Act.
The bill passed 217 to 215 – and would have gone down in defeat if one member changed their vote. As one who’s grown comfortable in the limelight, Santos held his vote to the end and it was the last vote that pushed the bill over the finish line.
Republicans lead the House by a slim four-vote margin, and the free-wheeling conference has a number of dissenters not afraid to defy leadership on its priority bills.
Jeffries tore into the New York Republicans who flipped seats in districts President Biden won in 2020 – the ones Democrats hoped would vote with them to expel Santos as most have already called for him to resign.
‘The so-called moderates voted with the extremists as they always do, to feel and defend and coddle.’
‘This is not Bob Dole’s Republican Party. It’s not John McCain’s Republican Party. It’s not Mitt Romney’s Republican Party. This is George Santos’ Republican Party and it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Republican Party,’ Jeffries said. He was flanked by images of Greene and Santos to make his point for the second week in a row.
Jeffries also said Republicans were ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’ over the findings of the report by special counsel Robert Durham.
‘This is what the extreme MAGA Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and on the Oversight Committee have been doing throughout the year – promising big blockbuster developments that turned out to be nothing.’
The FBI’s opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the Trump-Russia collusion probe, was ‘based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence,’ Durham states in his report.
Meanwhile on debt negotiations, the leader said two weeks were not enough time to hash out budget priorities and Republicans need to get on board with a clean debt ceiling bill.
‘It’s not responsible for extreme MAGA Republicans to adopt the take it or leave it approach in a situation where we’ve got divided government,’ Jeffries said.
‘We can have a conversation about what the appropriate degree of spending or revenue or investments that should be made to protect the health safety and economic well-being of the American people. We’re in a situation now, where that has to be done over the next few weeks to avoid a catastrophic default. So in that two week period of time, we don’t have the luxury of partisan gamesmanship.’
‘Extreme MAGA Republicans need George Santos’ vote. He is critical to their ability to govern,’ Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters
The leader declined to comment on whether President Biden leaving the country for the G-7 summit in Japan challenged negotiations, as Republicans have said. Biden canceled the second leg of his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea to return home and resume negotiations.
Jeffries is trying to get every one of his members to sign on to a discharge petition to force a clean debt ceiling bill vote to the House floor.
McCarthy and Biden seemed more optimistic coming out of a meeting earlier this week, though McCarthy insisted the two sides were still ‘far apart.’
