George Santos Celebrates After Republicans Gut Ethics Office

Embattled Republican Representative George Santos celebrated after his Party gutted the Office of Congressional Ethics as one of their first acts of business this week, lauding the move as "fantastic," then falsely claiming that Republicans actually strengthened the office. Not long after this celebration, Democrats in the House hand-delivered a complaint to Santos that they had filed with that very same office. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

So as one of the first orders of business for the new Republican Congress, late on Monday, they voted to gut the ethics office that, of course, is in charge of launching investigations into members of Congress when they are accused of wrongdoing, what Republicans have done, in which they had said they were gonna do, and now of course they officially have, they're gonna put term limits on the people on that committee, which of course means three of the four Democrats on the uh, office are now gonna be gone. They have hamstringed the office to where they cannot hire any new people after 30 days of a new congressional session. So 30 days from now, they can't hire anybody for the next two years, no matter what happens if all of the staffers quit. They can't hire new people, effectively crippling the office, which of course is what Republicans want.

They also made it to where the Office of Congressional ethics has to have at least four votes in order to move something forward. Meaning if you get a complaint about a Republican, but you can't get four of those Republicans on that committee now to vote to pursue it, then it's dead. And nobody is happier about this, by the way, than of course, Republican Congressman George Santos. George Santos was asked by the media how he felt about the Office of Congressional Ethics being gutted on their first day in action, and he said, quote, I think it's fantastic. I'm, I'm sure you do, George. And Gee, I wonder why George Santos wouldn't want the office of Congressional ethics firing on all cylinders. Right? Total mind blowing there that George Santos doesn't want the body that could investigate him to be properly staffed and to have the power that they're supposed to have.

But yesterday, of course, Democrats did file a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics asking for an investigation into George Santos for so very many things. They hand delivered the complaint that they sent to the office to Santos himself as well, just to put him on notice that, hey, we're paying attention. We, we know there's been a lot of bad reports this week, including accusations that you hired a guy to impersonate Kevin McCarthy's, chief of staff to solicit money from big donors. So that's a, a borderline fraud on behalf of the individual who did that, possibly criminal fraud if they want to pursue charges. So George Santos has a lot to be worried about. Not to mention, once everything settles down in Brazil, he may face extradition on the investigation that's been going on there. Which by the way, he already admitted to having committed that crime to the police officers in Brazil. But the lies

Have still not stopped because after he said it was fantastic that they've gutted the office of congressional ethics, George Santos lied further and said this. I think it just gives them more power. It's a good thing for transparency. It's a good thing for Americans renewal. I don't even know what that means. I know it's not true. It's not a good thing for everybody. But how can you even twist it as such, you idiot, like, oh, it's a good thing. We can't hold our own accountable. It's, it's very good for transparency that there's going to be nothing to see because we're not gonna do any investigations. I guess that's what he means. I don't know. But that doesn't mean Santo's problems are over. Like I said, we've got the investigation in Brazil. You've got New York investigators on the case.