Republicans have refrained from explicitly demanding the Democratic senator’s resignation. There are a few possible explanations.
Senator Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal corruption charges accusing him of involvement in an Egyptian influence-peddling scheme. Menendez allegedly accepted over $100,000 in gold bars and almost $500,000 in cash, among other items, in exchange for promoting Egypt-friendly U.S. policy in his capacity as Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman. Regardless of his plea, his political troubles are mounting.
As of yesterday, 28 Senate Democrats, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), had called for Menendez’s resignation. High-profile New Jersey Democrats, including Governor Phil Murphy, have echoed those demands. So far, though, no Republican senator has explicitly said the same, and some, like Senators Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), have argued that the embattled Democrat should not step down, with the former saying, “In America guilt is decided by a jury, not politicians in fear of their party losing a Senate seat,” and the latter arguing that, because “the Department of Justice has a troubling record of failure and corruption in cases against public figures,” Menendez’s fate should be determined by “jurors and New Jersey’s voters, not by Democratic politicians who now view him as inconvenient to their hold on power.”
Forgive me if I don’t take those statements at face value. By my lights, there are three possible reasons the Republicans haven’t joined their Democratic colleagues in calling for Menendez to step down from the Senate. None are particularly generous to elected Republicans, I’ll grant, though one, if it is the rationale, is perhaps less cynical than the other two. I’ll start with that one first.
Reason 1: Republicans believe a Menendez replacement would be softer on foreign-policy issues.
Menendez, for all his faults (and there are plenty), has consistently been one of the better Senate Democrats on matters of national security and defense — except, allegedly, where Egypt is concerned. He was one of only four Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress to oppose former president Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran nuclear deal), alongside senators Ben Cardin (Md.), Joe Manchin (W. Va.), and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). He co-sponsored the (eventually failed) Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would have prohibited boycotts against Israel and its West Bank settlements as part of a protest against the Israeli government. In 2018, he urged former vice president Mike Pence to begin talks with Ecuador about withdrawing the asylum it has given Julian Assange, and in 2019, Menendez forcefully opposed former president Donald Trump’s planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Syria, arguing that “American national security interests require continued commitment to our mission there.” He also co-sponsored a resolution formally accusing China of committing human-rights violations in Xinjiang.
The most likely replacements should Menendez resign appear to be U.S. representatives Josh Gottheimer, Andy Kim (who has already announced a 2024 primary challenge to Menendez), Donald Norcross, Frank Pallone Jr., and Mikie Sherrill, though Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, has reportedly indicated her interest in running for the seat next year. Gottheimer, Norcross, Pallone, and Sherrill — who appears more interested in running for governor in 2025 — are all relatively close to Menendez on foreign-policy issues, while Kim has urged greater engagement with China. Given the similarities between most of those potential replacements and the current officeholder, it seems unlikely that national-security and defense policy is why Republicans have not called on Menendez to step down.
Reason 2: Keeping an indicted Menendez in office is politically expedient for Republicans.
This one is obviously true. In the 2018 New Jersey Democratic Senate primary election, during Menendez’s last corruption scandal, he gave up 37.8 percent of the vote to an essentially unknown challenger and won the comfortably Democratic state with only 54 percent of the vote in the general election. If Republicans were to nominate a strong candidate against Menendez in 2024, it’s possible — though not probable — that they could pick up the seat, especially if public opinion toward president Joe Biden remains as low as it is. Even if a GOP victory in New Jersey is out of the question, Menendez’s being up for reelection would provide talking points for Republicans nationwide, allowing them to tie the national Democratic Party to Menendez’s corruption.
Reason 3: Calling on Menendez to resign would make an eventual Trump endorsement a lot harder to explain.
Menendez has a history of corruption. The current indictments against the former president have no bearing on whether Menendez did or did not do the things that have been alleged. And yes, even public officials are entitled to the presumption of innocence until being proven guilty. But the people are also entitled to make up their minds on events such as these, and it would be difficult for Republicans to reconcile calling for Menendez to resign with their support for Trump in the general election should he secure the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 — and should they publicly endorse him.
For the health of the country and public trust in the Senate as an institution, Menendez should resign. But unless something changes, it looks like that pressure may come only from his own party.