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Congressman George Santos (R-NY) Holds Press Conference as He Faces Third Vote to Expel Him from House of Representatives; At Least Three Killed, Seven Wounded in Jerusalem Shooting. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 30, 2023 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

GILI ROMAN, BROTHER-IN-LAW AND NIECE ESCAPED HAMAS JUST BEFORE ENTERING GAZA: She concluded that her daughter and husband are alive, but she also concluded that her mother-in-law was killed. So she got a few seconds of a speech radio program, she got out different -- but most of the time she was in the dark. Just imagine, imagine how hard it was for her.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: You said her sister-in-law is still being held. Were they held together?

ROMAN: No. Unfortunately, no. We know that her sister-in-law was held with other hostages that had been released earlier this week. And we know that she is healthy and waiting for her release as well, but she was not held with them, and they did not meet each other, unfortunately.

HILL: Gili, we so appreciate you taking the time to join us and share what that reunion has been like, and we will continue to follow your story. Thank you.

ROMAN: Thank you. And we'll all have to be strong and resilient to wait until all of them will be back. Thank you.

HILL: And CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And that breaking news is we are going to take you straight to Capitol Hill and a press conference from George Santos.

REP. GEORGE SANTOS, (R-NY): -- round three of expulsion of Congressman George santos from NY-3. I think we can all look back and say this is not how at least I thought this year would go. I don't think this is how most people in the media would think this year would go. And it's just an unfortunate circumstance that I have to sit here and watch American people waste, Congress waste the American people's time over and over again on something that is the power of the people, not the power of Congress, which is to remove and elect -- to elect and remove members of Congress. Obviously, some want to cling to some circumstances and to

allegations, but there has been a longstanding precedent in the House that every single member that's ever been expelled, and they are trying to join me to the group of three Confederates and two people convicted in a court of law. So if I am to get expelled tomorrow, I will be number six in the history, the first Republican, and the only one without a conviction or without being part of a -- or without having committed treason. So that's kind of where we stand today on that sense.

But let me go down a few things here that -- to give you a sense of Congress today and what it represents for the American people. It represents chaos. Chaos because we have a House that doesn't work for the people. We have a House where we have members with severe allegations against them having the gall and the courage to call the speaker a joke. I read that today in "Politico" (ph), it was on the cover the "Politico" (ph), where, you know, we are reading about members of Congress trying to smear one of the most honorable members of our conference in the Republican Party. So that's just where we've stooped down to. People with rap sheets who think and feel emboldened enough to go call out other people for their policy.

Secondly, it's amazing to me that this House continues to want to push me out. Meanwhile, we have Secretary Mayorkas, who has committed absolute dereliction of his duty, has put all Americans in danger. If you saw last night the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting, which is something that for years has been one of the most beautiful celebrations in New York City, most peaceful, crowded, yes, but yesterday we had a band of vandals who thought it was appropriate to fight the NYPD. This is what took place just yesterday. And that's on Secretary Mayorkas, because a lot of these people, they are not here because they love this country, they're not here because they want the best for this country. Why are they here? It's starting from inside. And that's what you get when you have open borders and an administration that is oblivious to the real issue that's taking place.

And then lastly, let's talk about consistency. We have a member of Congress that earlier this year took a plea deal to obstructing a Congressional hearing. That's not the plea deal he took, right? I'm kidding. He took a plea deal for pulling a fire alarm. A fire alarm which obstructed and delayed an official hearing and proceeding on the House floor. Now, had that been any other person, had it been one of the members of the media, had it been a Republican member of Congress, we all know that that person would have been charged with obstructing a Congressional hearing. Just like the somewhat 140 people sitting in prison right now because of January 6th. But Jamaal Bowman gets a pass.

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That's why today at noon I am going to be introducing a privileged motion for expulsion of convicted and guilty-pleaded Congressman Jamaal Bowman. And I stand there, I think that that's consistency. Let's hold our own accountable, but let's make sure that we do it with the precedent of the House. Now, if the House wants to start different precedent and expel me,

that is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body, because this will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts.

So bearing that in mind, I am going to make this a very brief comment on the process here that's taking place with the ethics committee. By admission of the chairman himself, he said that the process was not full throttled and not complete because it would require many more months in order for the committee to offer any kind of punishment. So, instead, they decided to stop short of completing the process, going ahead and putting out a slanderous report, unprecedented. Nobody here has seen ethics reports of any other members who have been under investigation. But yet again, changing precedent for me, it seems it's all fair game.

So there we go. They go ahead and release this report littered, littered in hyperbole, littered in opinion that would have -- no decent cop would bring this to a prosecutor or a D.A. and say here's our report, go ahead and charge him. Right? So this is what the Ethics Committee put out. God bless them and what they think they are doing and what their work is. I believe they do good work when it's relevant, but this ain't it.

So with that, I am going to make this a brief opportunity for a couple of questions in an orderly fashion without screaming at me. We will go by hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Santos.

SANTOS: Go ahead.

(INAUDIBLE)

SANTOS: I cooperated. I provided every single document for the most part that they went off of came from my counsel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Santos.

SANTOS: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said this is a distraction from the institution. I know you have been getting this question a lot. But if it's really, truly a distraction from the institution, why not just resign?

SANTOS: Because if I leave, they win. If I leave, the bullies take place. This is bullying. The chair of the committee putting out a motion to expel, just introducing it and not calling its privilege, was designed to force me to resign. But he didn't have the fortitude to go ahead and call the privilege. He had someone else do it, someone who has actually recently just had done one on me, which is Congressman D'Esposito. So the reality of it is, it's all theater. It's theater for the cameras, it's theater for the microphones, it's theater for the American people at the expense of the American people because no real work is getting done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman Santos.

SANTOS: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You talked about a lot of the alleged transgressions of other members of Congress. Have you made any formal complaints?

SANTOS: I will be filing -- I will be filing a slew of complaints in the coming hours of today and tomorrow to make sure that we keep the playing field even, because at this point, I have been nothing but generous and kind with my time. I have not raised my voice or a single finger against a single other member of this body. But now I guess it's fair game to continue to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman Santos.

SANTOS: Go ahead.

(INAUDIBLE)

SANTOS: I told you the other day, I am not unpacking the report. It is counterproductive for me to do so at this time. There will be a time that unpack it entirely and go line by line. I will go line by line when the time is proper.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman Santos.

SANTOS: Go ahead.

(INAUDIBLE)

SANTOS: He resigned. He resigned. That's -- the reality is he resigned. He resigned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman Santos.

SANTOS: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman Santos, you mentioned many members of Congress have rap sheets. Are you going to be naming them? Why not put them -- their names out --

SANTOS: Why do I have to do your job for you? You guys like digging stuff up on me. Why don't you go dig up on other members? There are so many. It's out in the open.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You talked about being bullied, that you're feeling that you're being bullied. Why do you think you are being bullied?

SANTOS: I mean, it's the third time, and each time for different reasons, and they just keep going. I don't know. Ask them. I don't care.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the accusations against you true?

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SANTOS: I've said this many times. I am fighting to defend myself and to dispel each and every accusation as soon as I have the opportunity.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you say to constituents who feel like you are not serving them while all this is going on?

SANTOS: You see, that's not true. I have two district offices in New York, and they're constantly busy with folks coming in for various issues, obviously, pertaining from the simple as a need for an expedited passport to more complex immigration issues. There is one thing that sometimes deters people from walking in is when we have crowds of media outside the office.

And I am not blaming the media. I'm just saying that that does interfere with constituent services. People don't want to be on camera. They don't want that exposure of them. But the service is there. I nominated 29 applicants to the service academies and I've already had four gotten accepted, and I did that earlier than most people in this building. So I'm pretty proud of the fact that I have a staff that's a veteran staff in leadership in my D.C. office and in my district office. And the operation runs pretty smooth.

Look, we haven't had real complaints other than from organized anti- George Santos groups. Obviously, I didn't win my seat unanimously with every single vote in the district. I had people who opposed me. But we do the best and we are open to everybody. And look, the thing I like to do most is serve the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you expect the expulsion vote to pass?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In regards to the allegations that you bring up in the ethics report, though, these are items that you could easily say did not happen and you have not participated in any of these things. So why are you waiting until after the vote this comes to actually address these major issues?

SANTOS: I didn't say, I didn't say I was waiting for the vote to come down. I understand. I am doing this in a different schedule. It's not the schedule of the House or the expulsion -- you got a question.

Go ahead, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you expect the expulsion to pass, and if so, why do you think this time --

MATTINGLY: We are going to keep monitoring what we have been watching. That is, of course, Congressman George Santos. He is facing for the third time a vote of expulsion on the House floor, likely tomorrow. Certainly, momentum heading in the direction of his expulsion within his own party along with Democrats. He is standing out in front of the House, not on the Capitol steps like he planned because it turns members aren't allowed to have press conferences on the Capitol steps.

I want to bring in the panel in a moment, but just to kind of give a summary of what we've heard up to this point, he accused multiple members of having rap sheets, something he read in the publication "Political," which we aren't totally sure exists at this point. Protesters in New York City last night supporting the Palestinian cause, he referred to them all as illegal immigrants. He compared Jamaal Bowman, the Congressman who pled guilty to pulling a fire alarm, paying $1,000 fine, writing an apology letter, to the January 6th attack on the capitol, and those individuals as well who are in jail.

He said he cooperated for the most part with the ethics inquiry. He did not, he did not sit down for an interview. He also said that the ethics report, which is very damning and contained a lot of receipts, was so thin that it wouldn't have brought charges against him if he were a cop. Of course, he has been indicted.

So that's where things stands right now. Oh, also, two action items. He is going to file a slew of ethics complaints with the Office of Congressional Ethics, and the aforementioned Jamaal Bowman, he will try to file a privilege of resolution to expel him as well.

HILL: He also did promise to go line by line when the time is proper to go through that ethics complaint and -- the ethics findings rather. And I did think it was notable how he really, again, this was something he read in "Political," which we are not familiar with the publication, but it was a very a clear message, I would say, to Speaker Johnson as well saying, hey, I am on your team. I'm on your team.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HILL: That was tough to miss off the top.

MATTINGLY: For good reason given Johnson saying he was concerned about precedent, not getting fully behind at all the expulsion, said we will get to the panel. This is all theater. He was referring to the expulsion vote, how to make the argument for what you are watching on one side of your screen right now as well.

Joining us now, CNN Congressional correspondent Lauren Fox, CNN political commentator, former Trump White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten, and co-host of the Higher Learning Podcast Van Lathan, also CNN anchor of EARLY START and chief national affairs analyst Kasie Hunt.

Lauren, I want to start with you. You were there. This is serious. It doesn't have a lot of press precedent. And I know we can joke around, and we're still trying to figure out what "Political" is as a publication. But explain what this means for the chamber. LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, clearly, he

was trying to deflect this morning. All eyes were on weather he was going to make a decision this morning to resign. Clearly, that was not his intention for holding this press conference. He wants to distract. He wants to talk about other members.

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He wants to talk about other people's transgressions without even naming who he is talking about. It's also clear that he's not stepping aside, it's also clear that momentum is building for the votes to expel him.

Now, we expect that that will come up tomorrow on the House floor, that's when the vote will occur going to be close. It's not clear the votes are there to expel him. Speaker Johnson's comments yesterday that he had concerns about setting the wrong precedent, that's weighing on members 'minds.

They realize that that is something that they could potentially be wading into, and you saw Santos seizing on that this morning. So, Phil, obviously he's still going, he's still answering reporter questions. But I asked him off the talk, why didn't you participate with the Ethics Committee, if you are so concerned that this was a sham report, why didn't you sit down for an interview?

And he said, he did participate, but I would just note that the committee report is very clear. They did not get the cooperation they were looking for from George Santos.

HILL: I think his exact words to your response, Lauren, were that he cooperated. Quote, for the most part. What's interesting, as we look at it now, Lauren just brought up the reservations that we heard about from Speaker Johnson. There is also the very real calculation of the majority and what would happen to that majority.

Ryan Zinke told you earlier this morning it should be the same decision whether that majority is four or 40 people. Kasie, when we look at where things stand and the messaging that is being put out by Speaker Johnson, by what we're seeing this morning, where does the momentum sit this morning?

KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It seems like and Lauren's been reporting this, it seems like it's against Santos right now, that the momentum is toward its a wave that is going now, pull him out of Congress. I think that's part of why you mean this was a performance that he gave this morning, right?

I mean, it was a pugnacious performance in the era of Trumpian politics. He's trying to turn himself into a martyr and likely earn himself a paycheck after he is forced out of Congress. I think it's pretty transparent kind of what's going on there now.

That said, he is not wrong, that it is a remarkable precedent to set to expel someone who has not already been convicted or most of the expulsions from Congress took place in the context of the Civil War. They were people who fought for the enemy of the United States of America in its time of most difficulty.

So that's true, and that's what you heard from the House Speaker as well. But I do think that one of the key dynamics here is that it does show you the diminished power of leaders in Congress to do stuff about this.

A big part of the reason there haven't been more expulsions for situations like this is that when we have had this, the person has been informed in no uncertain terms by their leaders that the right thing to do is to exit stage left immediately.

And typically, they have said, okay, fine, we'll do that. The leaders have had the power to get members of Congress to do that and it has not resorted to what you are seeing on your screen right now, which are the people that had to be forcibly ejected because they could not be convinced.

I mean, I think it's just more evidence, Erica, that we're living in kind of a shame-free era in our politics.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, Kasie, that's a really good point about usually people just resigning. That has not been the case, Ben, I was watching you not in a creepy way during that press conference.

HILL: Glad we clarified, Phil.

MATTINGLY: As I was saying, I was like, well, that sounds weird, and you kind of had a look of the always Sunny in Philadelphia stringboard meme of trying to put together all of the different pieces. What was that?

VAN LATHAN, CO-HOST, THE RINGER'S "HIGHER LEARNING" PODCAST: I was thinking about how much I'm going to miss him. I mean, he's a mascot for America's political unseriousness, and we very much need that because we act like they're people who are navigating through the country trying to make it better for us.

But really, we're like a bunch of little George Santos people who are propping themselves up, not keeping their eye on the ball and benefiting themselves. And so, I saw him there with a full face of makeup on doing this entire thing, thinking, I'm going to miss this guy, man, this guy was he was the perfect sort of underpinning of how absurd things have gotten.

And without that, people get to feign seriousness and not actually do anything and not actually affect anything, but be him inside. So, I was thinking, man, even though he's going to go on to become the greatest reality television star of our time, I was thinking, God, I'm going to miss this guy.

HILL: Yeah, I was thinking, you're not going to have to miss him for very I am not clear that regardless of what happens here, that he is going away in that context. I do think you bring up a great point, though, too, about what we are seeing now in terms of lawmakers.

We are in this shame-free world, as Kasie pointed out, and there have been significant questions for several years now, perhaps best encapsulated here of what are lawmakers doing, right?

[08:20:00]

And but I do mean that on a serious front and looking at what is happening this morning, you have to wonder, too, what voters are saying about.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, certainly, and I think that we kind of live in a world where a lot of folks are running for Congress to become political influencers down the road. More and more members have podcasts rather than doing constituent gates.

You know, what is it that he does there is unclear. But here's what I'll say, I'm hearing the same thing as Kasie. I do think that this expulsion resolution ends up passing. It needs a two-thirds majority vote; we know all Democrats are going to be for it.

The full New York delegation is calling for this. But it sets up an interesting dynamic in Congress where, of course, Speaker Johnson's going to lose one more vote that he has in a very slim majority. But I would argue it's better for the Republican Party that George Santos be out for obvious reasons.

But also, one of the most vulnerable Republican lawmakers is Mike Lawler, who is a New York member, and a top target of the DCCC. It's harder for him in reelection to say, oh, yeah, this guy's my colleague, so it's in the best interest of the institution that he begone and to hold on to serious member seats.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, go ahead.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: No, I would just say you mentioned Mike Lawler. The vast majority of New Yorkers wanted George Santos to resign. He could have easily resigned, that's what the vast majority of New Yorkers wanted. 83 percent of Long Islanders, his home place, wanted him to resign, and the vast majority of Republicans wanted him to resign.

More New Yorkers wanted him to resign than wanted Richard Nixon to resign back in 1974. So, the fact is, you get this guy coming up here with this populist message, the people are against him, not with him. This is not a hard equation to solve, folks.

GRIFFIN: Yeah, but Van's going to miss it. Can I mention, though, that I do think one thing that some of the Freedom Caucus folks are arguing is Bob Menendez, who's been indicted by the Department of Justice on corruption charges and aiding a foreign government is still a sitting US. Senator.

So, there is this question of precedent. Why is this, you know Botox charges and Ferragamo loafers for some reason more serious than that? I think it's a valid point.

MATTINGLY: I think it's probably the Only Fans is probably ---

GRIFFIN: It puts you over the edge.

LATHAN: Do you feel like that makes him a little bit more relatable?

MATTINGLY: No, I think to your point, why he kind of encapsulates where he's like a caricature that's probably far more real than any of us would like to admit about the current state, not just of Washington, but in general.

LATHAN: Yeah, I think there's a disconnect, right? People are watching this and they want to be inspired. They want to believe that there's a way out to the America that we're in right now. And you see this and you see someone who so clearly puts himself ahead of the interests of the country, like he's not even pretending to care about anything other than himself, literally took the money that he raised and spent it on Only Fans and Botox.

That is breathtaking, but I don't think we can let go of it. I think everyone wants to see him gone, I want to see him stay around for a little while. What else could he do?

MATTINGLY: Well, and I assume you appreciate the transparency, right? Just do it, like don't try and do things and smoke guys. We appreciate it, Lauren Fox. Harry Enten and Alyssa Farah Griffin, Van Lathan, Kasie, always a pleasure, thank you.

HILL: New overnight. At least three people are dead, seven others wounded in Jerusalem. This is after police say Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop. We have a live report for you just ahead.

MATTINGLY: And tributes are pouring in from across the world after the death of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, including from Vladimir Putin. We're going to tell you what he said, stay with us.

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HILL: This morning, at least three people were killed, seven injured, after police say Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a bus stop in the eastern part of Jerusalem near the West Bank. In this video seen here, you can see someone being taken away on a stretcher.

This happened just hours after the IDF killed four people, including two children in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. And we do want to warn you, what we are about to show you is graphic video of one of those children. You can see the child's body on the street being pulled to the side as someone waves for help.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Ivan Watson joins us now from Beirut. So, Ivan, this ongoing violence there, this is obviously playing into the larger dynamics as we watch this now pause that was extended at the last-minute last night, walk us through that.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure, I mean, while Gaza has been relatively quiet for the last week, throughout this truce that has been extended kind of day after day, the West Bank and Jerusalem are bleeding, with Hamas claiming responsibility for an attack on a bus station in Jerusalem that left at least three people dead, seven wounded.

The Israeli police say that they killed the attackers, who they say arrived in a car from East Jerusalem. Hamas has said, again, that this was part of their military wing that carried this out and that it was a direct response, as they put it, to the unprecedented crimes committed by, as they put it, the occupying forces, including the brutal massacres in the Gaza Strip.

And it goes on, meanwhile, as you also mentioned, the Israeli military has been conducting operations throughout the course of the past month and prior to that initial Hamas attack of October 7 in the West Bank. So just this morning, there was a 21-year-old Palestinian man who was killed in some kind of confrontation around one of the Israeli releases of Palestinian prisoners.

That it's part of the prisoner exchanges between the hostages that have been released by Hamas in Gaza. And the Palestinian Ministry of Health, they say that this year alone in the West Bank, there have been at least 455 Palestinians killed and 247 killed since the initial Hamas Massacre of October 7.

So, it just gives you a sense of the loss of life and how deadly and volatile the situation is right now, even though the bombs have stopped falling for about six days now in Gaza. And I will add one other factor, Qatar and Egypt mediators in this truce, they're pushing for two more days of truce.

If that falls through, we could have more violence here between Israel and Lebanon. And the UN peacekeepers here have recorded for two straight days now, shooting across the border, they say, from Israeli forces here into Lebanon, back to you.

MATTINGLY: Ivan Watson force in Beirut, thank you.

HILL: Well, while you were sleeping overnight, Israel and Hamas did announce a last-minute extension to that deal to pause the fighting for one.

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