Hakeem Jeffries says Republicans won’t allow vote to expel Santos because they ‘need’ his vote

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of wanting to “bury” responsibility for Representative 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 rule,” Jeffries, DN.Y. Thursday to reporters.

The leader attacked Republicans for denying Democrats a yes or no vote on an eviction resolution — which would have required a two-thirds majority.

Instead, Chairman 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 case for months—months! So what do you mean by the Ethics Committee?’ he wondered.

Among other things, the Ethics investigation focuses on whether Santos violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a fiduciary services company; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct against a person seeking employment in his congressional office,” the House Ethics Committee said in a statement.

“This was an attempt to bury responsibility,” Jeffries continued. ‘Why? Maybe it’s because extreme MAGA Republicans actually need George Santos’ vote. He is crucial to their ability to rule. George Santos was the casting vote in passing the Default on America Act,” he said, referring to the House GOP debt limit bill — what they prefer to call the Limit Save Grow Act.

The bill passed by a vote of 217 to 215 – and would have suffered defeat if one member changed their vote. As someone comfortable in the spotlight, 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 narrow four-vote margin, and the free-running conference has some dissenters unafraid to challenge leadership on its priority bills.

Jeffries pounced on New York Republicans swapping seats in the districts President Biden won in 2020 — the ones Democrats hoped would vote with them to oust Santos, as most have already called for him to resign.

“The so-called moderates, as always, voted with the extremists, 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 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 are “turning a molehill into a mountain” following the findings of Special Counsel John Durham’s report earlier this week.

“This is what the extreme MAGA Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and on the Oversight Committee have been doing all year — promising big blockbuster developments that turned out to be nothing.”

The FBI’s opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the Trump-Russia collusion investigation, was “based on raw, unanalyzed and unconfirmed intelligence,” Durham said in his report.

Meanwhile, during the debt negotiations, the leader said two weeks was not enough time to work out budget priorities and that Republicans need to come on board with a clean debt ceiling.

“It is not responsible for extreme MAGA Republicans to adopt the take it or leave it approach in a situation where we have a divided government,” Jeffries said.

Extreme MAGA Republicans Need George Santos’ Vote. He is critical to their ability to govern,” Jeffries, DN.Y., told reporters

“We can have a conversation about the appropriate expenditures or revenues or investments that should be made to protect the health, safety and economic well-being of the American people. We are now in a situation where that needs to happen in the coming weeks to avoid a catastrophic default. So in that two week period we don’t have the luxury of partisan games.’

The leader declined to comment on whether President Biden’s departure before the G7 summit in Japan challenged negotiations, as Republicans have said. Biden canceled the second leg of his Australia and Papua New Guinea trip to return home and resume negotiations.

Jeffries is trying to get all his members to sign a discharge request to force a clean debt ceiling vote to the House of Representatives.

McCarthy and Biden seemed more optimistic coming out of a meeting earlier this week, though McCarthy insisted the two sides were still “far apart.”