George Santos Thinks It’s “Fantastic” the GOP Has Made It Harder to Investigate Congressional Wrongdoing

If there’s one thing Republicans have made clear over the last number of years it’s that they absolutely will not stand for lies, deceit, or attempts by its members to spread misinformation for their own gain. No, just f–king with you of course. If the GOP has made anything clear it’s that it is all about lies, deceit, and attempts by its members to spread misinformation for their own gain, so much so that such things are basically a prerequisite for would-be elected officials; at a minimum, the party has demonstrated that evidence that one of its own has engaged in such behavior is in no way grounds for dismissal, punishment, or shunning of any kind.

Which is how you know that when a top GOP representative says that a newly sworn-in lawmaker who lied about a comically large portion of his bio while running for office, allegedly committed fraud in Brazil, employed a staffer who reportedly raised money by impersonating a more powerful figure, and may have violated campaign finance laws, to boot, is going to be sat down for a stern talking to, what he really means is “We’re obviously not going to do anything about this.”

Apparently reasonably confident that there will be no repercussions for actions—both the ones he has admitted to, like not actually working at Goldman Sachs, and the ones he has initially admitted to and then denied, like the one about allegedly stealing a checkbook and using a false name to spend the money—George Santos said Monday that he thinks it’s wonderful that the House passed a new set of rules this week that will significantly hamper the power of the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate lawmakers over suspected wrongdoing. “I think it’s fantastic,” the New York Republican, whose win helped the GOP eke out a slim majority, declared in an interview. Incredibly, he insisted that the rules passed on Monday will actually give the office “more power,” though as Insider notes, that is in no way the case:

The Office of Congressional Ethics, established in 2008, is a quasi-independent body tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct against members of Congress. It then makes a determination as to whether those allegations are worth investigating further, at which point it makes a referral to the House Ethics Committee, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. But the rules package for the 118th Congress, put forward by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, reimposes eight-year term limits for the Office of Congressional Ethics’ board members, made up of former members of Congress, that were laid out when the office was established and later extended in subsequent Congresses.

The practical effect of that will be the immediate removal of three of four Democratic-appointed board members: former Reps. Mike Barnes, Belinda Pinckney, and Karan English. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can appoint their replacements, but that could take months. Furthermore, the rules prevent the office from hiring new staff after one month and require four board members to sign off on any staffing decision. That means the office, which has just one investigative counsel on staff and is actively seeking to hire two more, likely won’t have enough time to hire new staff or be able to fill any vacancies that might come in the next two years. Taken together, the rules will make it extraordinarily difficult for the body—which otherwise operates independently of Congress and has generally appeared more effective at investigating allegations of wrongdoing than the self-policing ethics committees in the House or Senate—to have resources it needs to carry out its work.

Obviously, that’s to Santos’s—and maybe some of his new colleagues’!—benefit.