Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Tuesday insisted he’s innocent as more than a dozen of his Senate Democratic colleagues called on him to resign over last week’s indictment on bribery charges.
Asked by a reporter on Tuesday at the Senate over why he isn’t resigning, Menendez had a quick and simple retort.
“Because I’m innocent,” Menendez said in response to a question from NBC News correspondent Ryan Nobles.
“What’s wrong with you guys,” Menendez added.
In keeping with Senate Democrats’ protocol, Menendez stepped down from his powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Innocent until proven guilty is about whether he goes to jail. He should resign from the because he can no longer fulfill his duties effectively.
Take a cue from Al Franken, ffs.
Not the best example. Dems screwed themselves with Franken. That was some number one bullshit.
It does feel like Democrats keep trying to take the moral high ground on everything and it doesn’t really do much for them. They’ll cut and run the moment it seems like there’s even of whiff of indiscretion in a Democrat. Meanwhile you’ve got Republican pedophiles and blatant liars running for office and a presidential candidate with 91 felony indictments with a still halfway decent chance of winning, this after 4 years of the most incompetently corrupt administration and a bungled coup attempt. Republicans are morally bankrupt, but they stick with their people, either because they’re so easily manipulated and/or the alternative is so unpalatable.
Indeed, dems screwed themselves. But he was impeccably honorable, and resigned because he couldn’t possibly be effective any more. Not his fault, but also nothing he could do to fix it.
Menendez keeps saying he is innocent, but that is irrelevant. He is no longer useful as a senator, and he should resign.
Franken was right to step down.
“Hey, it’s just a joke” stopped being a valid justification sometime between my parents and my grandparents generation.
Even if that conduct was “normal” and “everyone did it” doesn’t fly either- because there’s plenty of times women will just go along because they’re afraid of what happens when they don’t. Or because peer pressure, or, you’re Senator Al Franken and they’re scared of loosing their job.
Truth is, it doesn’t matter if it’s accurate or not. The behavior was deeply inappropriate for anyone, never mind a senator, and as a senator he should have known cameras are everywhere and photos are very easy to misconstrue.
That said, he didn’t resign nearly as gracefully as they seem to remember- it took prettty much every female democrat politician stepping up and demanding it before he did.
You’re misremembering how the whole scandal went down. Virtually all the allegations against them had huge holes in their stories and many of them were just straight up proven nothingburgers. It was such an obviously targeted character assassination. The ONE instance where he said “it was obviously a joke” was a picture that was taken where it was pretty fucking obvious that it was a joke. The comedian in that picture had similar pictures of her wrapping her leg around a married Robin Williams And pretending to smack his butt on tour. The pic of Al Franken pretending to “grope” her boobs while she’s sleeping in bullet proof armor is a gag and not even the thing she made a complaint about (and in the pic his hands are very visibly NOT actually touching her).
Is it okay? It’s definitely something I wouldn’t have done, but I hardly find it an issue to lose your job over 15 years after the fact.
Anyway, check your facts before continuing to hate on the guy. Just remember that not all allegations are true, and virtually every senator that asked him to step down ended up regretting it later.
Losing*
Loose is the opposite of tight
Am I remembering all this incorrectly? Because from what I remember, none of his objectionable behavior happened while he was a Senator, and in fact it happened before he even ran for office. Some of it happened in the context of a USO show he was acting in. I’m not making excuses for his behavior, but I think it’s a very bad precedent to hold someone in office to a higher standard retroactively. I think Franken deserved a chance to keep his job and show redemption.
But contrast this directly with Menendez, who is accused of much worse behavior, while in office, that relates directly to his integrity.
Of course menendez should step down. And be prosecuted and all that.
Yes, he’s worse, my point is, Franken wasn’t wrong to step down.
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What an awful example. In fact, it is because of the rash decision by Democrats to turn on Al Franken, that I kind of agree with this guy. If he’s proven guilty, then absolutely a different story, then throw the book at him. But he hasn’t been proven guilty yet.
Democrats sure loooooove to turn on their own at the drop of a hat.