>> well the line congressman is, back the question is for how long. tonight, i am laura coates live. you know, you have to wonder what took them so long. the house ethics committee releasing a report, shock full, and i mean chalk full of evidence that george santos allegedly's campaign phone so his own personal profit, also lodging he reported fake loans and kept it all going through a, quote, constant series of lies. not mincing words, they say quote, he blatantly stole from his campaign. unquote. they brought the receipts. i mean they literally brought the receipts. a $3,332.81 airbnb listed as a hotel stay on an fcc report for july seven 2022. a day's own campaign calendar listed him as off, and spending the weekend in the hamptons. 1400 dollars at a spa that month, charged to a campaign debit card and described as botox, and expense spreadsheets. 1500 dollars at another spa, also noted as botox. i do not know about botox, mud that is a whole lot for somebody who is relaxing in the hamptons. there is more. you knew there would be more, right but this might surprise you, $4,127.80 at hermes, now i can't afford it, so i will call it -- just for effect. there are also hotel bills, plane rides, taxi bills, casino charges, and get this, what is intriguingly described in the report as a purchases at onlyfans, and sophora. now if you don't know a lot about onlyfans, the new york times describes it as a platform where some participants charge money for explicit content. i would just leave it at that. i defined george santos calls the report biased, but what you expect from the congressman who only lied his way into the job in the very first place. telling one major whopper after another, lying even about graduating from college. lying about working on wall street. after saying he was a very proud of his jewish heritage, claimed he did not mean he was jewish, he meant to-ish. even lying about meaning a college volleyball star. now it would be funny if it wasn't for real, and this wasn't a member of congress. it could have an impact on your actual life. and it is kind of funny, but do not take my word for it. see what snl thinks. >> people need to know who you are. >> i'm george santos, -- if you are nasty. i graduated on a volleyball scholarship from -- university, four years of -- and i am a proud representative for my district in long island, new jersey. what are you talking about? >> madonna is calling me. hello. like a virgin? i remember, i was, there i was the virgin. >> now comedy aside, the fact is he is already facing 23 federal criminal charges. he pleaded not guilty, and of course there is a presumption of innocence. today he also said he is not going to seek a second term. for that time honored reason, because of his family. he says that they deserve better. now he faced the possibility of being expelled from congress, and we ask the members of a non partisan -- from the third congressional district who organized to have santos expelled. i asked them what they think of all of this? >> george santos wanted to do, was to run a campaign, and use the campaign funds as his personal piggy bank. he needs to go. >> it has been almost a year, and nothing has been done. santos has been collecting a big six figure salary, with full health benefits, on taxpayers backs. you know, shame on congress for not getting rid of this guy. >> you should be expelled immediately, no more excuses, this committee report has been released. >> everybody knows he is a crook. the fact that he hasn't been expelled yet is a symptom of the broken political system that makes my generation feel disillusioned with our institutions. >> a lot of opinions there. i want to bring in maureen dailey, she is a managing editor of the north shore leader, and the reporter who first broke the story of the santo scandal. maureen, thank you for being here this evening. you actually wrote an article when he was running, when he was running for the seat, marine. it is the -- asked a lot of suspicions on claiming the net worth of $11 million. i want to read for people just so they know, just go ahead of the game you are here. it's as controversial u.s. congressional candidate george santos has finally filed his personal financial disclosure report on september 6th. 20 months late, he's claiming an inexplicable rise in his alleged net worth to $11 million. two years ago, in 2020, santos personal financial disclosures claimed he had no assets over $5, 000, no bank accounts, no stop accounts, no real property, and net worth barely above zero. so i have to ask, you maureen, today when you see all of this coming out, and you see this ethics report, are you feeling vindicated by your own reporting? >> i'm feeling vindicated. we were called everything. that man called our paper everything that he could possibly come up with. things i could never repeat. every form of liar, everything wasn't true, and we have absolutely been vindicated. excuse me. i'm very proud. >> i know you, feel i have a cough myself, marine. pause for a second. do not worry about it. >> i'm so proud of our team, and i'm so proud that we have been proven right. if only we have been listened, to if only someone had taken notice before election day, we would not be where we are today. but the article did not get the pick up that we would have liked for it -- >> well, why do you think that is the case? >> you know, i think because people don't realize how important local papers are. news is local. everything is truly local. we have a staff, our reporters live, except for a few of, us live in the district. we live in the neighborhood. the man delivers our papers receives our papers. he is a subscriber. it is hand delivered to the coffee shops. it is hand-delivered to the mom and pop shops. it is hand-delivered to the delis. people go out of their way to find it. we cover the local stories, yes, but this was a major local story. this was very important that people of council district congressional district three deserved better. they did not deserve this. >> maureen dailey, thank you so, much and again you were ahead of the game. now here we are at this point in time. thank you, maureen, i appreciate it very much. >> thank you. >> i want to bring in robert zimmerman, a former new york congressional candidate that ran against and also lost to congressman santos back in 2022. robert, thank you for being here. first of all i want to echo what maureen had to say about all politics really being local, this might be another indication of the power of those stories. but there were actually, just going through, it robert, there were thousands of dollars spent on designer goods. and botox, and onlyfans, all on the campaigns dime. i wonder, what is your reaction tonight? what are you hearing from the folks in your district about all these revelations? >> well, i must say first to maureen and to her publisher, for their excellent work they did. we certainly took their articles and recirculated them throughout the district, 80,000 went door to door and homes, we shouted the alarms as best we could, we are the only ones amongst the candidates whoever did. santos was running for four years, and never -- republicans never raised these issues, the democrat who ran before me never did opposition research on him. so we did our best as, well also blank state media -- others trying to azwell sound the alarm. but i think when you look at the results today, you look at the stories today. yes it is vindication for journalists, and they did their best on it. but the bigger point that strikes me is that as you said at the beginning of the show. what took so long? this is not -- this is a petty thief and hood. in fact, the ethics committee -- access to the banking records has this information. why did it not come earlier? >> that is the question, robert. excuse me. that is the real question for it. for the reasons you have laid out, most people have not been a part of a campaign, or don't know what goes into it, but they assume that opposition research happens, and the airport includes a thing called a vulnerability report. now that was commissioned by santos 2022 campaign, it is 137 pages long. details lies about his education, is work history, so you have talked about the idea of the usefulness of research, why did this not get raised earlier? >> you know, -- we were the only ones in the four years of his congressional campaign that never sounded the alarm on it. now the democratic national campaign committee which was in charge of opposition research on sandals produced an 87-page report. it lifts a lot of stuff, i will not fan that. but they also nail a lot of important issues as well. but part of the problem here, laura, as you're on cnn contributor said, the media covers the marquee races, they don't cover the local elections. they get lost in the process. many journalists, made a sincere effort, but came back and said we don't have the money or staff or time to do this kind of work. part of the problem the journalists have, campaigns have, that the federal election commission that should be charged with overseeing the financial reports, that are being issued, doesn't have the staff to do that type of investigative work. so that is the real first reason. here is the bigger one. for a year now, laura, the republican majority in congress has known the story about this guy. there is no mystery here. yet, for a selfish manipulation of power, and desperation to hold on to their majority, they buried these stories. this work was not over the past couple of days, these facts have been known for a long time. they held on, and they covered up these facts. in fact they were complicit to his crimes by trying to cover up the situation and protect him. now they had to release it because of pressure, but we are not there yet, do not take for granted he will be expelled, we have to keep the public pressure on to make sure he is expelled from congress. >> i do wonder, what will happen next, including who might take his seat, and who will run again. will it be you, robert? >> you know, my focus for the past year honestly has been building a bipartisan coalition to make sure his expelled from congress, keeping the pressure on congress, we are making progress. a lot of other great groups are helping us along the, way doing their own, conducting their own work to do that as well. but in addition to that, frankly, when there is time for political discussion, we will have it. i will clue you in. right now when they have a special election, there may be a new congressional district as well on top of that. so now is not the time to talk about the political agenda, now is the time to focus on restoring integrity to our system, representation for over 750,000 people who have not had representation, not had a congressional office, they are to service them, and i have been working on those casework issues with my campaign staff because quite frankly, i am no one there calling because his office is virtually shut down. >> robert zimmerman, i will put that down in the tbd. thank you so much for joining us this evening. i want to bring in -- tbd is something i wkyt peabody fine. another acronym another day. all right look i love you. thank you so much. i want to bring in cnn legal analyst elliott woodmans and former republican congressman -- i love you too, it is a lovely, nightclub both of you are here. listen the most i get from this is, what is gonna happen now first of all you have been a member of congress. it did take a long time to not get to this particular point, what happens next? is it a guarantee hole be expelled? >> i think so, because look at the political taken this long, but expelled because republicans want to go on war. he is damaged goods, we are heading to an election year, they are going to move this on quickly -- how they stack up and charges an ethics in play we have to wonder does this help -- the justice department, and they went back and forth as to whether they pause the congressional investigation while this is going on so there could be more charges here is already been charged with a number of crimes, and could there could be more. i think the important thing here, is it is easy to get wrapped up in the botox, the hamptons, all the nonsense. really what this comes down to, when people give money to campaigns, they ought to know that their money is being spent by the campaign. campaigns ought to be transparent with the public about what they are doing. george santos did neither of those two things, and take the public's money, and abused his position in congress. that could be a crime. >> a really important point about, that a idea about the irrespective test. they have this pretty straightforward as you talk about, elliott, test to figure it out. if the expense would exist even in the absence of the candidacy, or even if the officeholder were not in office, and then the personal use men apply. the fancy way of saying, you can spend the money on things that are not related. so you look at this, you look at the hermes back, botox, only fans, forget the irrespective, test it doesn't pass the smell test. you have to be so careful about where you classify everything. there was none of that here. he basically lived off of his campaign. there is no gray area here. everything he did he left off his campaign. it is one of the most agrees issues abuses of campaign finance have ever seen and the beauty of the house ethics committee, people don't know, there's so much in congress is partisan and>> and the house ets committee is split equal number of democrats and republicans in order to move something forward, they both have to agree on -- some bipartisan agreement here. that is clearly here. this was caving in its tone, starting with literally the first sentence something like george santos cannot be trusted. those are strong words from anybody in congress. >> he is now going to have a press conference on november 30th, is terms are not over, he would not run for reelection. why is he going to say, do you think? >> they will move on this pretty quickly after thanksgiving. so we will know. look, i may be the lone wolf at this table, this is historic. the only members who have been booted is because they joined the confederacy, or were convicted in a court of law. i worry about this precedent of expelling a member who has been charged. >> that is why they were so aggressive about leapfrogging the justice department so they could expel him. if they waited for the justice department process to play out, it could have been years before he got prosecuted. here they needed and wanted to get him out of congress, that is why they moved as quickly as they did. >> i want to hear from his perspective as, well if you're talking about trying to have some currency, some bargaining chip, being a member of congress -- i would, leave is that enough for what happened? i will note for everyone, he did beat in a decisive -- by about 20,000 votes. in a district where biden won by eight points. now the question will be, canada win and run there, or will it be -- thank you both so much. so, why are some young americans who are on tiktok saying the sympathize with the people osama bin laden, and why now? that is the question i have for the editor in chief of --- and d he i is here nexext. >> dozens of young americans on tiktok now say they sympathize with osama bin laden. you heard that right. the terrorist orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, the worst terror tax on u.s. soil in history, now suddenly going viral on tiktok. i'm not comfortable seeing has -- the users have been posting videos on social media platforms, supporting a letter bin laden wrote in 2002, criticizing the united states and its support of israel. justify the targeting and killing of american civilians, and filled with antisemitic tropes, and conspiracy theories. let's talk about now with editor in chief -- men is also a former new york times media columnist. ben, thank you so much for being here today. i want to just -- before hearing about this for the first time this evening, and shocked for a lot of reasons. one of the videos posted on tiktok, a new york-based lifestyle influencer writes this about bin laden's letter. quote, if you have read it, let me know if you know if you are g through an existential crisis in this very moment, because in the last 20 minutes, my entire viewpoint on the entire life i have believed and have lived has changed. and i ask, is it shocking that 22 years after 9/11, a letter written by osama bin laden has not only reemerged, but so many americans seem to be finding on that platform, persuasive? we >> yes. you know, this letter went fairly viral on tiktok. the guardian had posted it years ago and got hundreds of thousands of used to their website. obviously, in the defense of young people, this was not just young people, i would say it was a diverse array of -- who for who this was all new, and were just totally interested in fascinated by it. it was not an enormous phenomenon, and in fact we do live in this moment when really dark strange theories or spilling out into the public in ways they did not used to, and i think america has always had these very weird occurrence, and now they're much more visible. i think we should also be a little careful about amplifying them. in fact i think a lot of the attention to these totally nuts videos came actually after from journalist like us seeing them and saying what is this? >> well you know, the guardian you mention actually had a link to the letter, and then had an article that provided context to analyze it more so. they then pulled it down, and that fueled some conspiracies about, wait, they are trying to shield people from the information. so it became a cyclical prophesy going on about that very issue. when you talk about being careful about it, fearful is not necessarily synonymous with tiktok for example as it would be for maybe a media outlet for new service. but according to a new poll, ben, a third of americans between the ages of 18 to 29, they get their news from tiktok. i'm wondering, when you think about that scope, and that cross section, is there an added danger at the prospect it could go viral? it could be very quickly absorbed and consumed? >> you know, it is interesting. we just lived through this decade in media where facebook and twitter where the dominant platforms for information on news. a lot of what you got was people who you thought were crazy or -- screaming at you. one of the things that has made tiktok so popular is that it does not do that. it serves you stuff it knows you will like. it reinforces your biases, it keeps you in your own bubble. i think part of the reason we haven't seen as much of this on tiktok, because it is happening in, private when crazy stuff is being discussed on tiktok, it is not always at the surface. i think in this case it absolutely did. >> i want to if you think people or a lot of the feedback i heard from people who are avid uses of tiktok and hearing about the story, they find it condescending to think there is some snobbery around where they can get their news from, and it is up to you to decide whether an echo chamber or to be. do you think this is a snobbery being imposed on people or legitimately a concern about the type of information that circulating? >> you know, i think it is some of both. there is old people like us who have always been panicked about whatever 19-year-olds were consuming, >> who are you calling? old i don't know who are you talking, about i'm not, old go ahead. thank you. >> but you know, at the same time, america has always had a deep well of people who believe really profoundly strange and -- in this moment, in also surveys that is breaking through to the, surface you are starting to see it. among the many patie