If Democrats want to maintain their credibility as the adults in Washington, they need to throw all their weight behind demands for Bob Menendez to resign. The powerful Democrat, who was indicted last week on stunning bribery charges, stepped aside as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—the influential role he allegedly profited from in exchange for aid to the Egyptian government. But, in a defiant press conference Monday, Menendez vowed to remain in office as he fought the corruption charges. “As I have stated throughout this whole process,” he said, “I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I will still be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
New Jersey Democrats don’t seem so sold on that idea. Governor Phil Murphy called for the senator’s “immediate resignation,” as have other leaders in the state. “NJ deserves better,” said Representative Andy Kim, who announced a primary challenge to Menendez over the weekend. “We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our integrity.”
But that’s precisely what national Democrats are risking as their leaders tip-toe around the scandal. Over the long weekend, only three of Menendez’s Senate colleagues had called for him to step down: John Fetterman, Sherrod Brown, and Peter Welch. When lawmakers returned to work Tuesday, more joined the chorus, including Tammy Baldwin, Jon Tester, and Bob Casey. The rest have mostly maintained their strategic silence or responded to the charges with caution: The White House has tried to stay out of it, with Karine Jean-Pierre leaving it up to the senator himself and “leadership of the Senate” to decide what to do. And Senate leadership, for its part, has seemed to commit itself to the embattled Democrat. “Bob Menendez has been a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement after the indictment. “He has a right to due process and a fair trial.”
That’s true, of course. But for a party that has stood firm against the corruption of Donald Trump and the increasingly extreme GOP that has looked the other way at his conduct for political gain, it’s incumbent on them to be equally forceful in rooting out alleged bad behavior among their own—even when it’s politically inconvenient. To pull punches is to sacrifice the moral high ground they currently hold. “We are given the public’s trust,” New Jersey State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said over the weekend. “And once that trust is broken, we cannot continue.”
None of this is to say there is a moral equivalence between the Democrats and the GOP, the latter of which has tolerated—and in some ways embraced—not only staggering levels of apparent corruption in Trump, Clarence Thomas, and others, but grave attacks on democracy and institutional norms. However, a weak response to the Menendez allegations—including that he schemed to provide Egypt sensitive government information and to influence the prosecution of a political donor in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes—could muddy the waters ahead of this year’s New Jersey state house elections and the 2024 race. “As Phil Murphy has skillfully navigated New Jersey Democrats to separate themselves from this debacle, the Senate caucus needs to do the same,” former New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli told Politico. “Otherwise, you’re going to get candidates in competitive states like Montana and West Virginia having to answer questions about Menendez and whether he represents a problem in the party.”
For now, Menendez is a liability for Democrats. But he could represent an opportunity for them to distinguish themselves from their counterparts: “Consistency matters,” as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it to Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday. “It shouldn’t matter if it’s a Republican or a Democrat.”
