Senate Democrats want Bob Menendez to resign

Campaign for the Resignation of Senator J.J. Menendez, After his Indictment of an Egyptian Businessman in the U.S. Senate

Other Senate Democrats are calling for him to quit include: Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, JackyRosen of Nevada and Jon Tester of Montana. John Fetterman, a senator from Pennsylvania, called for the man to go after he was indicted. Republican senator has not called for his resignation yet.

At a defiant news conference on Monday, Menendez insisted he’s staying in the Senate and offered a preposterous excuse for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that F.B.I. agents found at his house. He said he kept it for emergencies, “because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.” Apparently, Menendez, who was born in New York, wants us to believe that, because of intergenerational trauma, he feels the need to hedge against Communist revolution in America. (Ironically, his family now, indeed, faces government confiscation.) He said he was the victim of racist persecution by those who “simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator.”

It’s a big step for Booker, who works with Menendez, to call for the resignation of the senator. His announcement is in a large group of statements from Democrats.

“While he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, serving in public office is a privilege that demands a higher standard of conduct,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., in a Tuesday statement calling for his resignation.

The indictment was issued last week in New York on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion. The indictment claims that he and his wife took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. The businessmen were supposedly helped by the U.S. government’s actions in aid of the Egyptian government.

Menendez is also facing tremendous pressure at home in New Jersey to step aside. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy quickly called for his resignation, as have members of the House delegation including Rep. Andy Kim, who said he will challenge Menendez in the June 2024 Democratic primary if he does not leave Congress before then.

The mounting calls put pressure on party leadership, including President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to take a position. So far, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has called it a “serious matter” but the president has not personally weighed in on resignation calls. Schumer said that Menendez had a right to due process and that he supported his decision to step down from his position as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.