Menendez whines ‘I’m innocent!’ as calls for his resignation mount: ‘What’s wrong with you guys?’
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) proclaimed his innocence Tuesday after reporters cornered him in a Capitol Hill elevator amid mounting calls for his resignation from lawmakers.
Menendez appeared irked by reporters questioning him about his refusal to step down from the Senate after being hit with federal corruption charges last week.
At least 22 Senate Democrats have publicly called for the New Jersey lawmaker’s resignation as of Tuesday night, as he faces three criminal counts related to an alleged years-long bribery scheme that Manhattan prosecutors say benefited Menendez, his wife, three Garden State businessmen and the government of Egypt.
“Because I’m innocent! What’s wrong with you guys?” Menendez shouted at reporters as the doors to the elevator outside his Capitol Building office shut.
“I’m here to do the work of the people of New Jersey,” the embattled senator said repeatedly, refusing to announce if he would run for re-election.
Menendez’s fellow New Jersey senator, Cory Booker, said Tuesday that his colleague in the upper chamber should resign after the unveiling of bribery charges against him and his wife, Nadine Menendez.
“Stepping down is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment that holding public office often demands tremendous sacrifices at great personal cost,” Booker said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
Menendez “is no longer able to serve effectively in this US Senate,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Tuesday afternoon.
“I urge Senator Menendez to resign,” Peters said in a statement, suggesting that the incumbent would no longer have the backing of the Senate Democrats’ campaign fundraising arm.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) have also called on Menendez to step down.
In the lower chamber, House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) noted Monday that it “probably would be a good idea if [Menendez] did resign,” joining Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and others calling for his resignation.
Menendez, who has resigned his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is accused of doling out political favors for the Egyptian government and for co-defendants Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes in exchange for bribes, including a Mercedes-Benz, cash and more than $150,000 in gold bars.
