Typical: Dem Senator Menendez Plays 'Latino' Race Card in Response to Resignation Calls Over Bribery Indictment
If it seems like Groundhog Day came a few months early in the state of New Jersey, well, that’s just because the Garden State keeps electing Bob Menendez.
For the second time, Menendez — a man who rose up through the ranks of the New Jersey Democratic political machine to get to the upper chamber of the U.S. Congress, an impressive feat for a thoroughly unimpressive man — has been indicted on bribery charges.
According to NBC News, federal prosecutors charge, in an indictment unsealed on Friday, that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” as part of a “corrupt relationship” involving New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian government.
“The senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Sen. Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt,” said U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, according to USA Today.
The couple received “cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value,” the indictment states, according to NBC.
“Federal agents said they discovered many of the items when they executed search warrants in the couple’s home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in June 2022. They found more than $480,000 in cash, ‘much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,’ including jackets bearing the senator’s name that were hanging in his closet, as well as more than $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box, the indictment alleges,” NBC reported.
This is the senator’s second bribery indictment, the first happening in 2015. The jury was unable to reach a verdict in 2017, according to The Associated Press, and the case was dropped.
To quote Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell, “To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
If Wilde were writing in modern-day New Jersey and not Victorian England and his play were titled “The Importance of Being Wawa,” he might have phrased it thusly: “To accrue one bribery charge, Senator Menendez, may be regarded as a misfortune; to get charged twice — I mean, I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.”
(It’s worth noting here that despite his close brush with imprisonment, Menendez won re-election in 2018 by a comfortable 11 points over Republican challenger Bob Hugin. Menendez won by 18 percent in 2012, so the bad P.R. of a federal criminal case might have hurt him, but the New Jersey Democratic machine is the New Jersey Democratic machine.)
Now, granted, there are plenty of calls for Menendez to resign from the Senate after the indictment was announced. We’re all innocent until proven guilty, after all, but two separate occasions in court on bribery charges isn’t a good look for any politician or party and there’s literally any number of living, breathing Democrats (and some that aren’t but probably vote anyway) in New Jersey who could do about as well as the undistinguished Menendez has without, you know, fighting federal charges again.
But even though Menendez has agreed to take leave of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed him for having “rightly decided to step down temporarily” as chair, as if this were some kind of bold step for someone being charged with peddling influence for foreign interests — he’s not going to be stepping down from his office.
Why? Because, in part, he said on Friday that critics were “rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat.”
NEW: Sen Menendez responds to calls for his resignation w/ new stmt: “It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.”
Full statement is here: pic.twitter.com/qkVTXhwoAw
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 22, 2023
“I am not going anywhere,” Menendez said, according to NBC News.
“I remain focused on continuing this important work and will not be distracted by baseless allegations,” he said, adding that prosecutors have “misrepresented the normal work of a congressional office.”
Right. Here is what the FBI reportedly turned up in a search of the Menendez home that apparently Menendez considers part of “the normal work of a congressional office”:
Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine, are accused of taking “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes” — including gold bars.
Prosecutors showed photos of evidence that federal agents found executing a search warrant at their home.https://t.co/aKbTtDgpfE pic.twitter.com/HD8ja9VGqU
— Axios (@axios) September 22, 2023
These are photos from the Menendez indictment that were taken after the search of his home: https://t.co/AqzA6Y2rVI pic.twitter.com/QJMjGxk0ci
— erica orden (@eorden) September 22, 2023
Also undercutting the whole they’re-just-going-after-the-Latino argument is the sheer number of Democrats who have come out and called for Menendez’s resignation. Among them is New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who, in case you hadn’t noticed from the last name, is of Hispanic extraction.
BREAKING: @AOC calls on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign following his indictment on federal bribery charges, “to maintain the integrity of the seat.”
“It shouldn’t matter whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat. The details in this indictment are extremely serious.” pic.twitter.com/QAe2H0qmJi
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 24, 2023
So there’s a fellow Latino telling him it’s time to go. Also telling him it’s time to vamoose are fellow New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy:
NJ Gov. Phil Murphy calls on @SenatorMenendez to resign pic.twitter.com/MJiKmLkHYk
— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) September 22, 2023
“The allegations in the indictment against Senator Menendez and four other defendants are deeply disturbing,” Murphy said in a statement “These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system … Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”
Also, Reps. Josh Gotthenheimer, Andy Kim and Mikie Sherrill — Garden State Democrats all — have told him it’s time to go.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer calls on Bob Menendez to resign his seat in the U.S. Senate. pic.twitter.com/Vpjc3Zras6
— David Wildstein (@wildstein) September 23, 2023
https://t.co/M5ylYPNIBZ pic.twitter.com/FoPE89CUXv
— Rep. Andy Kim’s Office (@RepAndyKimNJ) September 22, 2023
These are serious allegations against Senator Menendez and if proven true, there is no room for this kind of conduct in public service.
Today is a sad day for New Jersey and I believe it’s in the best interest of our state that Senator Menendez resign.
— Rep. Mikie Sherrill (@RepSherrill) September 22, 2023
“I called on him, given the gravity of the charges, to step aside,” Gottheimer said, according to the U.K. Guardian. “Given how we’ve got elections coming up, there’s a lot of distractions; obviously giving the senator time to defend himself, I think what’s best is that he step aside and we focus on issues.”
Meanwhile, you’ve got to hand it to one of Menendez’s potential challengers in 2024 for coining (excuse the pun) the perfect nickname for him:
NEW: Christine Serrano Glassner, a 2024 Republican challenger to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), dubbed the senator “Gold Bar Bob” after he was indicted on corruption charges Friday. https://t.co/GBlUEszUHm pic.twitter.com/oHuv7qai2c
— The Hill (@thehill) September 22, 2023
But, Menendez is claiming these individuals want him to step down because he’s Latino. Right.
This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It has to do with the fact that Menendez was credibly charged with corruption in 2015 and the government chose not to pursue the case further after a jury couldn’t reach a verdict.
It’s now 2023, eight years later, and we find out that the FBI raided his home and found stashed cash, gold bars and other ephemera of ill-gotten wealth. Legitimate earnings aren’t usually scuttled away in the places they were allegedly found.
Perhaps this is what Menendez thinks “the normal work of a congressional office” looks like — in which case, he obviously shouldn’t be in congressional office. QED.
But please, Sen. Menendez, don’t even sally forth with the preposterous nonsense that anyone’s “rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat.”
When even AOC won’t buy that line, it’s pretty clear that if that’s what you’re trying to base your case on, you’re done for.
Menendez is up for election next year. The country will get a chance to see if Groundhog Day ever ends in New Jersey.
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