George Santos accuses Democratic colleague of treason for accidentally pulling the fire alarm

Disgraced Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has joined the chorus of GOP voices demanding consequences for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who recently pulled the fire alarm during a key House vote but has maintained it was an accident.

Santos and his colleagues believe Bowman pulled the alarm on purpose, as the Democrats were desperate to delay a vote on a 45-day funding bill that would prevent a government shutdown. As reported by the Associated Press, the GOP released the bill in the 11th hour, and Democrats wanted more time to review it before the vote.

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Santos – who is currently facing federal prosecution on seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, and one count of theft of public funds – released a video accusing Bowman of treason and comparing his pulling the fire alarm to the actions of those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

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“It’s an embarrassment that this colleague of mine thought that committing an act of treason to obstruct a proceeding he did not agree with was appropriate,” Santos said, “and he is now trying to play it off as if it were an accident. This is the same standard that the people from January 6 were held with. I want him to be held at the same standard.”

“It’s time to face the music, and I want to see if the DOJ is going to show their bias or not.”

Bowman has told the press that he did not pull the fire alarm to delay a vote but that he mistakenly set it off while actually in a rush to get to a vote. He got stuck behind a door that is not typically locked.

“I thought it would help me open the door,” he explained.

A later statement from Bowman said, “I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite – I was trying to urgently get to a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open.”

As Bowman stated, the bill ultimately passed the House in a 335-91 vote, with 90 Republicans and one Democrat voting against it. It then passed the Senate 88-9 just hours before the midnight deadline.

Santos is not the only one comparing Bowman’s actions to the Capitol Insurrection. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reportedly expressed the need for Bowman to be punished, explaining he should be treated “how other people were treated when they come in and wanted to change the course of what was happening in the building.”

“This should not go without punishment,” McCarthy added. “I’m going to have a discussion with the Democratic leader about it. But this should not go without punishment. This is an embarrassment.”

In an interview on CNN, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Republicans for moving to immediately file motions to censure or expel Bowman “before there has even been conversations that are finished to even see if there was a misunderstanding here.”

“But while they did that, what they did not do was to commit to the same when George Santos was actually found guilty after a thorough investigation of thirteen federal charges… They have been buddying up and giggling with him on the House floor… But they’re filing a motion to expel a member who in a moment of panic was trying to escape a vestibule? Give me a break.”