Kevin McCarthy on George Santos: 'Something's going to come out on this guy'

WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in an interview Wednesday that he had a "gut feeling" a revelation was going to come out about Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., "within one year" of winning the midterm election.

McCarthy told New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit that he tried to get somebody else to run in Santos' district, but but at that point, Santos had already “kind of locked down" and "you couldn't beat him."

"I go up and do a fundraiser for him...and I listen to him and I walk back and I just say, 'We shouldn't fund this race. I don't know what it is. But we shouldn't fund this race.'"

A couple days before the election, he said he was having a meeting with Fox News reporters Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer and recalled telling them that “within one year, something’s going to come out on this guy. I don’t know what it is, but it is just my gut feeling.’”

After Santos was indicted on 13 federal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, House Republicans voted to support McCarthy's decision to refer a Democratic-led expulsion resolution to the House Ethics Committee in May so that Santos would have “due process," according to Roll Call.

“If I removed him from office because he lied, what lie equals removal and what lie doesn’t because we wouldn’t have anybody in office so I sent it to ethics,” McCarthy said in the interview. “That’s why.”

Santos is expected to face his third expulsion vote this Friday after a scathing House Ethics Committee report published earlier this month that alleged he used his campaign funds for his personal benefit and violated federal criminal laws.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: McCarthy on Santos: 'Something's going to come out on this guy'