WASHINGTON – Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of Democratic senators calling for the resignation of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who is facing federal corruption charges, while Sen. Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the chamber, is stopping short of asking the indicted lawmaker to step down.
Though Menendez denies the charges and intends to fight them, “the fact remains these are really serious and deeply troubling allegations of abuse of the public trust and corruption,” Duckworth, D-Ill., told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I think he should resign as senator.
“I don’t know how anyone could mount an effective defense with such serious charges, while also fully representing their constituents at the same time,” Duckworth said.
It’s rare that Durbin and Duckworth are out of step.
But Durbin, D-Ill., is sticking to a playbook that for now, is giving Menendez space and time to see that he has lost the faith of a number of his colleagues — some of whose re-elections in 2024 could be imperiled if he does not resign.
The Menendez scandal — replete with gold bars and bags of cash found in his home — will also be a headache for President Joe Biden if he remains in office. Biden heads into the 2024 election framing his likely rival, former President Donald Trump — facing four criminal indictments — as corrupt and unfit to serve.
House Democrats have spoken as one in calling for Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., facing corruption charges, to quit, so the question is, why not the same treatment for Menendez?
Durbin for now is in line with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — the top Democratic senator — in not piling on days after the Friday indictment where Menendez and his wife, Nadine, are accused of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, who were also charged in the scheme to help the Egyptian government.
Between 2018 and 2022, the alleged bribes to Menendez and his wife came in the form of gold bars, a Mercedes, home mortgage payments and cash totaling $480,000 found in their home.
“Not only is this abuse of the public trust, but this is potentially engaging with a foreign nation or foreign government that you know, as a veteran, is something that troubles me,” said Duckworth, a wounded Iraq war vet.
In 2016, Duckworth called for now former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign after a woman accused him of an unwanted kiss, and seven other women said he made unwanted advances.
In a 2019 New Yorker interview, Duckworth expressed some regrets, telling author Jane Mayer that the Senate Ethics Committee should have first taken up Franken’s case and “We needed more facts. That due process didn’t happen is not good for our democracy.”
I asked Duckworth about the Franken case, and if it informed her decision about Menendez. “These are two different cases,” she said. Franken “at the time was not being charged by a federal prosecutor.”
On CNN Sunday Durbin, asked about Menendez, declined a chance to ask him to quit. “This is a very serious charge. There’s no question about it. But it bears reminding us of what I’ve said about the indictments against Donald Trump equally serious charges. These are, in fact, indictments that [have] to be proven under the rule of law. The person who is accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence.”
Asked by host Dana Bash if Menendez, up in 2024, should run again, Durbin seemed to send a signal about discouraging a Menendez reelection bid in the midst of a scandal. Said Durbin, “And whether or not he will run for reelection remains to be seen.”
Menendez stepped aside as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he had no choice. Senate rules say members charged with a felony have to relinquish their gavel.
With Duckworth, at least 22 senators have called for Menendez to step aside, with the numbers growing after Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Tuesday — a Menendez friend — urged him to quit.
In his statement, Booker noted that this is the second time Menendez is facing federal corruption charges, with his 2017 case ending with a hung jury.
The new indictment, Booker said, is “one that contains shocking allegations of corruption and specific, disturbing details of wrongdoing.”
“The details of the allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with in order to be effective have been shaken to the core.”
Saying it is a mistake for him not to resign, Booker, “Stepping down is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment that holding public office often demands tremendous sacrifices at great personal cost. 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.”
