Shortly after he was elected Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson suggested to Sean Hannity that he was willing to put up with George Santos’s cornucopia of lies and accused-criminal status so that Republicans could hold on to their razor-thin majority in the House. “We have a four-seat majority in the House,” Johnson explained. “It is possible that that number may be reduced even more in the coming weeks and months, and so we’ll have what may be the most razor-thin majority in the history of the Congress. We have no margin for error. And so George Santos is due due process…if we’re going to expel people from Congress, just because they’re charged with a crime, or accused, that’s a problem.” (Santos has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.)

At the time Johnson said all this, there appeared to be little appetite among Republicans to throw out one of their own, as was reflected in the two failed votes to boot Santos from Congress. Yet fast-forward a few weeks—following an Ethics Committee report filled with allegations that New York representative engaged in criminal activity, including spending campaign cash on Botox, Sephora, and OnlyFans—and the sentiment appears to have shifted, a whole lot.

For one thing, Johnson has gone from basically saying he won’t support expulsion without an actual conviction to having conversations about Santos’s “options.” Per The Hill:

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday said he spoke with Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) “at some length” during the holiday recess “about his options” as the embattled lawmaker faces a likely third vote on his expulsion.

The report has increased calls for Santos to be expelled from office and is prompting plans among lawmakers to force a third vote on the New Yorker’s ouster when the House returns to session this week. Asked at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport on Monday if the House will vote on expelling Santos this week, Johnson responded: “It remains to be seen.”

It’s not clear what Santos’s options could possibly be besides “resign now” or “get expelled later this week,” but perhaps Johnson has a third idea he’ll reveal when lawmakers return to DC on Tuesday.

For his part, Santos is apparently resigned to his fate, saying on Friday during a conversation on X Spaces: “I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor. I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.” During the same conversation, he claimed Congress is filled with “felons galore” and “people with all sorts of shiesty backgrounds.” He also threw in that some of his colleagues are “more worried about getting drunk every night with the next lobbyist that they’re going to screw—and pretend like none of us know what’s going on.”

From respectable business journalist to…

This will only encourage him

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