McCarthy won’t back Rep. Santos for reelection after indictment

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he will not support Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in his reelection bid after the congressman was charged in a 13-count indictment over alleged financial crimes. 

“No, I’m not going to support him,” McCarthy told CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday. 

Raju asked McCarthy if he would try to help defeat Santos, who has said that he plans to still run for reelection in 2024 despite the charges he is facing, in a GOP primary. McCarthy responded that he believes Santos “has a lot going on” and “has other things to focus on in his life” than running for reelection. 

McCarthy’s comments mark the furthest that the Speaker has gone in opposing Santos’s continued service in the House.

He said in February that he would have “difficulty” supporting the embattled freshman congressman after revelations that Santos made a wide range of false statements about his personal, professional and educational background while running for his House seat. 

Santos has been indicted on 13 charges, including seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House. 

Many Democrats and a handful of Republicans, most of them from Santos’s home state of New York, have called on him to resign in light of the revelations, but Santos has been adamant that he would continue to serve. 

Santos pleaded not guilty to all charges on Wednesday and told reporters that he would work to clear his name. 

McCarthy and other top GOP House leaders have not yet joined those calls for his resignation though. 

“He could go through his time of trial, we’ll find out how the outcome is,” McCarthy told reporters earlier on Wednesday. 

Santos decided to temporarily step aside from his committee assignments in January while the controversy is ongoing to avoid serving as a “distraction.” 

McCarthy said he would call on Santos to resign if an investigation from the House Ethics Committee finds that he broke the law.