George Santos hits the panic button after getting indicted again
You’d think one criminal indictment would be enough for House Republicans to expel George Santos, but no, he’s still there. In fact he was in a House Republican conference meeting today when the news broke that he’d been hit with a second round of criminal charges – a symbolically fitting moment for a House Republican caucus that’s corrupt from top to bottom.
It turns out Santos didn’t take the news of his latest indictment particularly well when the media broke it to him. He insisted that he won’t resign, and then he “rushed into his office and slammed his door.” Okay, so this is clearly going well for him (insert sarcasm).
Now is probably a good time for a reminder that every scandal-plagued politician insists they’re not going to resign right up until the moment they resign. We don’t know if George Santos will resign. But his current insistence that he’ll never resign is not an indicator that he won’t resign. It’s just what people say publicly while they’re trying to figure out if their best move is to resign.
At this point George Santos has to be seriously considering a plea deal, given that he has about a 100% chance of being convicted and sent to prison for a very long time. Once that happens, House Republicans will reluctantly have to expel him anyway, since he’ll be of no use to them. The question is whether Santos will cut a plea deal that includes his resignation. Tick tock.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report