Expulsion
A motion has been introduced in the U.S. House to expel Congressman George Santos in light of the federal indictment against him…and resolution of separate theft charges in another country.
The House has only expelled five members in its history. In a celebrated case, a Kentucky congressman was not expelled…and he physically assaulted an Iowa congressman.
Rep. Josiah Grinnell was a Vermont native who moved to Iowa and founded the city of Grinnell in Poweshiek County, as well as Grinnell College. After dabbling in state legislative politics, Grinnell was elected to the U.S. House in in 1862, serving two terms.
On June 14, 1966, Kentucky Rep. Lovell Rousseau repeatedly stuck Iowa’s Rep. Grinnell with the iron handle of his rattan cane until it broke. The two men were standing on the Capitol’s East Portico at the time.
Rousseau approached Grinnell and said he had been waiting for an apology from him for the insults he lodged against him and Kentucyky during House debate three days before. Grinnell pretended to not know what Rousseau was talking about, which only angered the Kentuckian even more. As you might imagine, the issue of slavery and aid to the Freedman’s Bureau was involved, as well. Grinnell called Rousseau’s claim that he had commanded Iowa regiments in the Civil War “the merest trickery, the merest blowing of his own horn”.
Fellow members of Congress refused to expel Rousseau for his attack, but they did censure him…making him one of fewer than two dozen members to be admonished in that way. Rousseau immediately resigned, and then won the seat back in a special election.
But neither Josiah Grinnell or Lovell Rousseau served beyond that session of Congress, declining to run for re-election.
So we know a caning on the portico does not warrant expulsion. We’ll see if 218 members of this House think Santos deserves a different outcome.
