Transcript of House Ethics chairman introduces resolution to expel George Santos from Congress

Things are moving fast on Capitol Hill, it seems right now. The Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee has just filed a motion to expel Republican congressman, George Santos. A significant move by a noteworthy lawmaker. This is the chairman, the Republican chairman of the Ethics Committee that just spent months going through all of the claims against George Santos. The vote could happen soon after lawmakers returned from Thanksgiving break, and there does seem to be growing momentum among that they have now seen enough after that devastating Ethics Report. A 56-page report released yesterday laying out the wild claims that Santos's wildly misused campaign funds on everything from beauty treatments to personal trips to high-end shopping at retail stores. Cnn's Lauren Fox, joining us now from Capitol Hill with much more on this. Lauren, what are you hearing from lawmakers? It is significant that this motion comes from the Ethics Chairman.

Yeah, this is especially significant given the fact that the committee report didn't include any recommendations to expel George Santos. The argument being that continuing their investigation to get to that point would have taken so much more time. But obviously, this is a very important step given who the messenger here is. There have been previous attempts to expel George Santos from Congress. Those attempts coming from his colleagues, Republican colleagues from the state of New York. But this is significant because now there is an ethics report, and as members are reading it, they are changing their minds about how to proceed with a vote if and when it comes to the floor to expel George Santos. At this point, CNN's count has at least a dozen Republicans who have now said they are willing to try and oust Santos from Congress. This is a really high bar. It would take two-thirds of the House of representatives to pass it. Assuming all of the Democrats support it, that means that you need about 50 Republicans to back that resolution. Now, we won't see what is going to happen until after the Thanksgiving recess. Lawmakers are away for the holiday next week.

But when lawmakers return, you can expect that this could come up for a vote. We should also note that George Santos is going to have more to say. He is holding a press conference on November 30th on Capitol Hill. That is when we could hear any additional news that he has about his plans. He said yesterday in a tweet he does not plan to run for re-election. But given the pressure he's getting, does that mean that he could step aside? Obviously, we'll be watching very closely. Cate.

Lauren Fox. Good to see you. Thank you.

John. All right, with us now, CNN's senior data reporter, Harry Etnan. And the important thing to watch is how many Republicans in the House of Representatives turn against him if they can get to that two-thirds measure to expel him from Congress. And we're watching that count very carefully. What they're watching those members is how unpopular George Santos is. So put it in historical context.

Yeah. Let's take a look here. These are the lowest approval, favorable ratings that I could find from this century. This is amongst folks, all constituents. Look at George Santos in New York Third district from earlier this year. Just seven % had a favorable view of him. That's tied with Bob Taft, who, of course, was convicted of a crime just before this poll was taken. Bob Menendez, who's obviously right now in some major trouble in some federal cases at 8 %. And, of course, Rob Legoyovitch, who, of course, was an infamous convicted criminal at 8 %. He is amongst.

The lowest at this point. I will say welcome to the modern era where two of the numbers on this board are from this moment. If this were the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, some would say, Johnny would say, George Santos is unpopular, so unpopular. And they would say, How unpopular is he? He's so unpopular that...

And by the way, I love Johnny Carson. Beliefs held by a few. So, of course, we mentioned George Santos's favorable rating, seven %. That's in New York's third district. Nationally for the other ones, the Earth is flat. 10 % of Americans believe the Earth is flat. The US fake the moon landing. Look at that, 12 %. The fact is, George Santos is less popular than a bunch of conspiracy theories that no one should believe he is below the Mendoza line. You can pretty much get 10 % of Americans to agree on anything. But even in New York's Third district, you can't get 10 % of voters to say that they like George Santos.

George Santos is losing to the Earth is flat right now. There was a poll taken in his district before this Ethics Report came out. Whether he should resign, what did people think?

Overwhelmingly, yes. 78 % overall of all voters say yes, he should resign. But here's the key nugget, right? You're talking about that whip count in the House of representatives. They're going to need a lot of Republicans. In New York's Third district, he is not a popular guy amongst Republicans. 71 % of Republicans earlier this year said that they believe that George Santhos should resign. So the fact is if Republicans boot him from the Congress, a lot of Republicans in that third district would be.

Quite all right. I said Republicans in Congress are looking at his overall approval numbers right now. What they're also looking at is New York's third congressional district. If they lose George Santos, if they lose that seat, it makes their margin so, so narrow. So talk to us about that district.

Yeah. I mean, look, it's a district that Biden won back in 2020, right? But it's also a district that Joe Pinyon won in the 2022 US Senate race. So it's one of these purple districts, won that voted Democratic in 2020, but then switched Republican in 2022. So this could be a tossup come 2024 or even earlier, maybe than November, if, of course.

He resigns. All right, Harry.

Thank you very much. Thank you.