GOP Rep: 'Last-minute email' from House Republican 'made the difference' in vote to expel Santos

Disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-New York) may have ended up surviving a third attempt to expel him from the House of Representatives were it not for a Friday morning email from a fellow House Republican.

During an interview on CNN, Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) — who is also a member of the House Committee on Ethics — told host John Berman that the political will to expel Santos was dwindling ahead of Friday's expulsion vote, dropping to maybe 70 or 80 House Republicans. Because the House would need 290 members to meet the US Constitution's two-thirds requirement to expel a member, Santos' future was uncertain. However, Joyce said an email from fellow Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) is what pushed the expulsion over the finish line.

"One of the members... today came forward with the email for those who may have not understood where he was coming from, and explained that not only he but his mother were ripped off by [Santos'] campaign," Joyce said. "And so when you start ripping off other members, if that's not enough to convince people that maybe you shouldn't be here, then I don't know what it's gonna take."

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"Are you talking about your Ohio colleague Max Miller? That his statement you think made the difference there?" Berman asked.

"Correct," Joyce said. "I'd have guessed we were dropping from 150 [Republican votes for expulsion] to about 80 or so, 70. And I think's Max's last-minute email to all the members determined the outcome for [Santos] because a lot of us, they may not have believed my investigative report, sorry about that, but they believed Max."

At approximately 10 AM Eastern Time, Miller sent an email to all House Republicans detailing how Santos' campaign made charges with both his own credit card and his mother's credit card "that exceeded FEC limits." He added that neither he nor his mother had authorized those charges and that he has since spent "tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in the resulting follow up."

"I've seen a list of roughly 400 other people to whom the Santos campaign allegedly did this," the email read. "I believe some other members of this conference might have had the same experience. While I understand and respect the position of those who will vote against the expulsion resolution, my personal experience related to the allegations and findings of the Ethics Committee compels me to vote for the resolution."

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Ultimately, 311 Democrats and Republicans voted to expel Santos. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) voted against the resolution.

Watch the interview below or by clicking this link.