BOOTED:  New York Republican Rep. George Santos yesterday became only the sixth member of Congress including Civil War traitors and convicted criminals ever to be ejected from Capitol Hill. 

  “To hell with this place,” Santos said after the vote.

  The vote was 311-114 with 290 needed for the expulsion. Speaker Mike Johnson voted to keep Santos, but 105 Republicans voted to expel, meaning they would rather have New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appoint a Democrat replacement than keep Santos in his seat. 

  The vote followed two weeks after a 56-page Ethics Committee report that accused Santos of stealing money from his campaign, overcharging donor credit cards, creating fictitious loans, and engaging in fraudulent business deals. The report details Santos spending on visits to spas and casinos, shopping trips to high-end stores, and a subscription to the OnlyFans porn site.

  Santos immediately violated his morning promise that if it’s “God’s will” for him to leave, he would do so graciously. Dodging reporters on the way out even before the speaker’s gavel fell, Santos headed to his car saying, “You know what? As unofficially already no longer a member of Congress, I no longer have to answer a single question to you guys.” 

WAR RESUMES: Israel resumed its ferocious bombing campaign yesterday after the collapse of a seven-day cease fire and exchange of hostages for prisoners, killing as many as 200 civilians in Gaza. Enormous explosions ravaged Gaza.

  UNICEF spokesman Jerry Elder said in a video from a Gaza hospital that, “We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the shrapnel littering their bodies, with the broken bones. Inaction by those with influence is allowing the killing of children.” He said, “This is a war on children.” 

  The Palestinians say 15,207 people have been killed.

  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he witnessed the bombing from an attack helicopter over Gaza and posted on Twitter/X that, “This morning we returned to hitting Hamas with full force. The results are impressive.” He said, “Hamas only understands force.” 

 ORANGE ALERT: A federal appeals court yesterday dealt Donald Trump a serious legal blow, ruling that presidential immunity does not shield him from lawsuits brought against him for his actions the day of the January 6^th insurrection. Essentially the ruling says that Trump was acting as a disappointed political candidate that day, not as president.

  Down in Georgia, a lawyer representing the former president in the state’s election interference case argued that putting Trump on trial during the 2024 presidential contest would be “the most effective election interference in the history of the United States.” 

  Steven Sadow argued that just running for president carries a legal privilege. “Can you imagine the notion of the Republican nominee for president not being able to campaign for the presidency because he is in some form or fashion in a courtroom defending himself?” Sadow asked the court. 

  Sadow also argued that if Trump were to win the 2024 election, Georgia could not try him in the case until after he left the White House again. He said the supremacy clause of the Constitution makes federal law “supreme” over contrary state laws, although the question of whether a president can be prosecuted is not settled law.

  What the argument amounts to is that not only presidential candidates, but sitting presidents are above the law.

SORRY ABOUT THAT: Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon issued an apology for saying at a pro-Palestinian rally last month that people feeling fear being Jewish right now were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.” She said in her apology, “This phrasing was a terrible mistake.”

  Fellow actress Julianna Margulies, who became famous for the television show “ER,” apologized for saying on a podcast that some Black people not standing with Jews right now had been “brainwashed to hate Jews.” She said she “did not intend for my words to sow further division.” 

  When she graduated from Stanford law school in 1952, O’Connor couldn’t even get an interview at a law firm, but she broke barriers against women not only in the law, but in every pursuit. She told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that her tenure on the court “had an incredible ripple effect of making opportunities become available for women. It was just an incredible transformation.”

THE SPIN RACK:  News broke yesterday filling in some of the details about the prison stabbing of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop convicted of murdering motorist George Floyd. A fellow inmate stabbed Chauvin 22 times, telling FBI agents that he had thought about killing Chauvin for about a month. Chauvin is alive, but his exact condition has not been made public. — Stocks yesterday hit a new high for the year. — Police in Los Angeles are searching for a man they believe has become a serial killer of the homeless. Three people were shot dead this past week.

BELOW THE FOLD: Police in Carlingford, Australia are searching for whoever stole a delivery van containing 10,000 Krispy Kreme donuts. Instead of gunpowder residue, they’ll be looking for powdered sugar. 

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