Opinion | Congress Expels George Santos. Who’s Subsequent? Specific Occasions

George Santos, assuming that’s his actual title, is a basic kind, and in one other period he’d be promoting miracle elixirs out of a horse-drawn wagon or maybe founding a faith primarily based on his divine revelations. As a substitute he went to Congress. On Friday the Home expelled the indicted New Yorker, however nevertheless unhealthy Mr. Santos’s conduct, it’s a worrying precedent for a polarized age.

Mr. Santos faces 23 federal prices, together with fraud and identification theft. But he has pleaded not responsible, and even politicians get a presumption of innocence. Earlier than Friday’s expulsion, which handed 311-114, solely 5 folks in historical past had been booted by the Home. Three have been eliminated in 1861 for serving the Confederacy. The opposite two, in 1980 and 2002, have been convicted of significant crimes.