Arkansas House delegation: 2 votes to expel, 1 to stay, 1 abstain for Santos

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas delegation was split on the expulsion of Rep. George Santos from the U.S. House on Friday morning.

The vote was ultimately to expel the Republican New York congressman, with 311 to expel and 114 against, with two members voting “present” and eight not voting.

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The Arkansas delegation had two “yea” votes to expel, from representatives Bruce Westerman and Steve Womack, with Rep. French Hill voting “nay” and Rep. Rick Crawford one of the eight not voting.

Hill issued a statement shortly after the historic vote, expressing concern about the precedent the expulsion sets as the reasoning behind his “nay” vote.

“I have called on Rep. George Santos to resign since his fraudulent and discrediting conduct and inappropriate actions became public,” Hill stated. “Prior to today, the House had voted to expel only five Members of Congress, including only two since 1980 – both of whom were convicted of their crimes before expulsion. I believe that expelling a Member of Congress before conviction sets a dangerous precedent, which is why today I voted not to expel Rep. Santos.”

Womack cited the recent House Ethics Committee report on Santos, which found significant evidence of Santos breaking federal law while running for office.

“I believe members of Congress should be held to a very high standard of conduct,” Womack stated. “Mr. Santos has fallen woefully short of that standard. The recent House Ethics Committee report only confirmed what we already knew: Mr. Santos does not belong in Congress. He spewed lies to hoodwink voters to get elected, admitted to several fraudulent activities, and has made a mockery of the institution. The Constitution guarantees Santos will have due process on his criminal charges. However, Congress has the authority to punish its members—and we did that today.”

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Westerman compared his expulsion vote to a business decision.

“The U.S. Constitution provides full and broad authority for the U.S. House to expel a member,” he said. “An expulsion is not otherwise required to be based on any actions by the courts or legal system. The House has established ethical standards for members and has a bipartisan committee to deal with ethics issues much the same way a business or organization has an HR department and employee standards. If an employee had been found to violate ethical standards like George Santos did, there would be no question about immediately firing him regardless of the actions the legal system had taken or might take in the future. The Ethics Committee did a very thorough investigation and determined that he utterly failed to meet the ethical standards of the House. Therefore, I voted yes on the resolution to expel him.”

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Crawford clarified that his not voting was due to extenuating circumstances and he was in favor of Santos’s expulsion. 

“I had a personal family issue at home that I had to attend to, which prevented me from casting my vote to expel George Santos from the House,” he stated. “Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution reserves to Congress the right to expel members for misconduct. After a thorough investigation, the House Ethics Committee produced an extensively documented, bipartisan report, demonstrating serious misconduct unacceptable for a member of Congress. After carefully reviewing the committee’s report, it is clear to me that expulsion is warranted in this case. The expulsion of a member of Congress will continue to be a rare occurrence, requiring as it does a two-thirds vote of the body. But when egregious conduct is demonstrated, there will be occasions, as here, when the House must exercise its Constitutional powers.”

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