The Facts
On Thursday, US Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was charged with conspiring to act as an agent of the Egyptian government for many years while he was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Previously, Menendez and his wife, Nadine, were indicted on federal charges that they accepted bribes in exchange for crafting policy favorable to the Egyptian government.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
Everyone in the US is innocent until proven guilty, but these charges against Menendez are too serious for him to be able to still carry out his duties in the Senate. An overwhelming number of his Democratic colleagues have called for him to resign. It says something about Republicans — who are likely looking to benefit from this — that they haven’t done the same.
Republican narrative
Calls for the senator's resignation are years too late. Menendez, who similarly faced corruption charges in 2015, retained his party's support and was re-elected in 2018. The only thing that the Democrats' outrage today demonstrates is that they were willfully blind to his misconduct until it no longer benefited them.
