Senate Democrats Piling on Bob Menendez With Resignation Demands

By Ward Clark | 1:40 PM on September 26, 2023

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Only yesterday, we recounted the saga of New Jersey's Senator Bob Menendez, his numerous charges of corruption, and the call for his resignation from — of all people — John Fetterman (D-PA). Now, other Senate Democrats, and indeed Democrats in other offices, are piling on with calls for Menendez's resignation.

Over a dozen Senate Democrats have called for their colleague, Sen. Bob Menendez, to resign after a bombshell indictment was unsealed in federal court last Friday.
Sen. Cory Booker issued a statement on Tuesday calling for Menendez, also from New Jersey, to step down in the wake of federal corruption charges related to overseas dealings with the government of Egypt.
"Stepping down is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgement that holding public office often demands tremendous sacrifices at great personal cost," Booker’s statement said. "Senator Menendez has made these sacrifices in the past to serve. And in this case he must do so again. I believe stepping down is best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving."

Senator Booker uses an interesting choice of words here: "...best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving." While Senator Menendez, yes, is absolutely entitled to his constitutional rights, including the presumption of innocence, as I said yesterday, there's an awful lot of smoke for there not to be a fire there somewhere. If the charges end up being true, it would seem that Senator Menendez has spent his life serving himself. Not that he's the only politician ever to have been accused of that, mind.

Senator Booker wasn't the only Democrat Senator to join the chorus.

As of midday Tuesday, 13 Senate Democrats have called for Menendez to resign. The calls are no longer just coming from Senate Democrats, either. None other than former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has chimed in, which, considering her history, is rather ironic.

The list of senators includes: Sens. Bennett, Fetterman, Kelly, Booker, Brown, Welch, Baldwin, Tester, Casey, Klobuchar, Rosen, Heinrich and Warren.
In addition to the dozen Senate Democrats, several members of the House have also called for Menendez to step down including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Constitutional rights and protections are one thing; damaging the electoral odds of Democrats holding their razor-thin Senate majority is quite another, and at some point, a plurality of Democrats are going to see that the continued presence of Bob Menendez in New Jersey's Senate delegation is a liability. Not that his replacement, given the political nature of the Garden State, will be anything but another liberal Democrat, but voters in swing states tend to paint with a broad brush. The Democrats can't afford any of this kind of political liability right now; they have enough liabilities to deal with in the Oval Office.

Catch up with yesterday's call from Senator Fetterman here. You can also, again, refresh yourself on the entire Menendez saga in these links:

Stay tuned. The fat lady may not yet have sung in the Menendez saga, but she's sure warming up in the wings.