After news broke of the pending charges on Tuesday, McCarthy said, “I think in America, you’re innocent till proven guilty.”
On Wednesday, state and federal prosecutors charged Santos with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to the House of Representatives.
But that didn’t seem to change much for McCarthy. The Republican House leader told CNN after being informed of the charges that “it always concerns me,” but didn’t call on Santos to resign.
After reporters pressed him on whether it was time for Santos to leave Congress, McCarthy dismissed the idea.
“He will go through his time in trial and let’s find out how the outcome is,” according to CNN reporter Haley Talbot.
Twitter users weren’t impressed by McCarthy’s responses on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“If for some way when we go through Ethics and he has broken the law, then we will remove him,” McCarthy said, adding, “He has a responsibility to uphold what they voted for, to work and have their voice here, but at any time, if it rises to a legal level, we will deal with it then.”