Republicans are on the cusp of expelling Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) for pocketing millions in federal disaster relief funds and funneling them into her campaign. The House Ethics Committee has already found her in violation of House rules, and it will meet on Tuesday to determine her punishment. Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled the full House will take up her expulsion soon. That vote, if it passes, would hand Republicans a sufficient margin in the House to do what needs to be done and expel Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL).
The Florida Republican is a walking disaster. In February, police responded to a disturbance at Mills’ D.C. penthouse. His girlfriend was found in the lobby, physically shaking and scared, with fresh bruises on her arm. She later walked back her account and no charges were filed, but the episode exposed more mess: Mills was still married at the time, a fact his own staff didn’t know. Another person who was blindsided was his other girlfriend, former Miss United States Lindsey Langston, who quite reasonably looked at Mills’ conduct and decided to break things off. Mills responded by threatening to release explicit videos of her if she dated anyone else, according to texts reviewed by The Blaze.
But domestic violence and threats to release revenge porn barely scratch the surface of Mills’ scandals; there’s also the matter of stolen valor. Mills has repeatedly told voters he is an Army Ranger. He is not. He has claimed attendance at military sniper school and described being “blown up” twice in Iraq, including in campaign videos. Colleagues who served alongside him in contractor roles told investigators the claims were false. He lacked basic sniper knowledge that any graduate of the sniper school would possess. In one IED incident he cited, he wasn’t even in the vehicle that was hit and suffered no injuries. And when DynCorp, the contractor he worked for, demanded proof of the claims he made on his resume, Mills reportedly left his gear on his bed and walked off the job rather than produce documentation.
Add to that: his marriage (which he treated so cavalierly) was performed by a radical Islamist cleric, and there are serious questions about whether he converted to Islam around the same time. The scandals have piled up for months. Any one of them would be disqualifying for most professions. Together, they paint a picture of a man whose personal conduct makes him a permanent liability.
Mills’ recent votes prove it. Last September, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) brought a censure resolution against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after Omar suggested Charlie Kirk brought his own assassination on himself. The resolution should have passed with unanimous Republican support. Omar’s comments were grotesque, and yet the resolution failed. Mills was one of only four GOP members to vote no. He proffered frivolous First Amendment arguments to justify his vote and even implied Charlie himself would have agreed. No one who watched the vote believed that for a second.
The real reason was obvious: Axios reported days earlier that Democrats planned to counter by threatening Mills with his own censure resolution. Mace herself later said Mills texted her threats the night before the vote. He wasn’t defending free speech; he was protecting his own hide. When the personal risk to Cory Mills went up, the interests of his constituents and his party went out the window.
This is not an isolated lapse. Mills has a pattern of self-dealing with his votes on censure resolutions. Lawyers get disbarred for putting their own interests ahead of their clients’. Members of Congress take an oath to their constituents and the Constitution. When personal scandals create an irreconcilable conflict that distorts their votes, the remedy is the same: removal.
Mills will not resign on his own. He has shown zero interest in an honorable exit. The only path left is for the House to do what it must. Expel him. Let Florida voters choose a replacement who can serve without a cloud of personal scandals dictating every vote. The Republican Party will be better for it.
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Will Chamberlain is senior counsel at the Article III Project.
