New York progressives heckle Santos, argue with Greene on Capitol steps

Progressive Democrats from New York heckled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) as he spoke to reporters on the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday, yelling at the embattled lawmaker to resign and telling Republicans to boot him from Congress.

Earlier in the day, House lawmakers punted on the question of whether Santos — who is facing 13 federal charges alleging he committed fraud, misused public funds and made false statements to the House — should be expelled, sending an expulsion resolution to the House Ethics Committee rather than voting on it directly.

The Ethics Committee has already been investigating Santos since March amid mounting questions about his background and finances, looking into whether he engaged in unlawful activity during his 2022 campaign and failed to properly disclose information to the House.

Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) interrupted Santos’s press scrum with shouts about how Santos needs to leave Congress.

As @Santos4Congress was addressing the press about the vote to refer his expulsion resolution to Ethics, @RepBowman and @AOC started yelling for him to leave Congress.

Santos at one point during the yelling said “there’s a deranged member here.” pic.twitter.com/4V33ttrM47

— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) May 17, 2023

“Kick him out! He’s gotta go!” Bowman shouted. “Resign! Save yourself! Have some dignity!”

Ocasio-Cortez told Santos, “You gotta go. You gotta give it up.”

“New Yorkers need better!” Bowman yelled.

Santos acknowledged the lawmakers, telling reporters, “If I could understand you over my colleague screaming here.”

“I can’t continue to address you guys because there’s a deranged member here, so I’m gonna walk,” Santos said.

Bowman then got into an animated conversation with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), telling the Republican her “party’s hanging by a thread.”

“You gotta save the party,” Bowman said. “No more QAnon, no more MAGA, no more debt ceiling nonsense.”

As Bowman spoke, Greene started to chant, “Impeach Biden.” When Bowman told her to “do something about guns,” Greene shot back: “Right, so close the border.”

The interactions between the lawmakers came after Santos continued to defend himself amid ongoing investigations, saying, “There’s a process in this country. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty.”

“You cannot behave as judge and jury in this procedure,” Santos said.