Washington — Sen. Cory Booker called for fellow New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez to resign from the Senate on Tuesday, joining a growing list of Democrats in the upper chamber who have called on him to step down after his indictment on federal bribery charges.
In a statement noting his close working relationship and friendship with Menendez, Booker said the allegations in last week’s indictment were “hard to reconcile with the person I know.” Nonetheless, he said senators “operate in the public trust,” which he called “essential to our ability to do our work and perform our duties for our constituents.”
“As Senator Menendez prepares to mount his legal defense, he has stated that he will not resign. Senator Menendez fiercely asserts his innocence and it is therefore understandable that he believes stepping down is patently unfair. But I believe this is a mistake,” Booker said. “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.”
Menendez and his wife are accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in exchange for using the senator’s power and influence to enrich and protect three New Jersey businessmen and benefit Egypt’s government. He has vigorously denied the charges, and rebuffed calls for his resignation in his first public comments on the case on Monday.
Who else has called for Menendez’s resignation?
Booker joined more than a dozen other Senate Democrats who called for Menendez to step aside on Tuesday, when the dam appeared to break in the upper chamber. Just one Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, had called for his resignation over the weekend.
The Democratic senators who have said Menendez should resign now include:
Tammy Baldwin of WisconsinMichael Bennet of ColoradoCory Booker of New JerseySherrod Brown of OhioBob Casey of PennsylvaniaJohn Fetterman of PennsylvaniaMaggie Hassan of New HampshireMartin Heinrich of New MexicoMazie Hirono of HawaiiMark Kelly of ArizonaEd Markey of MassachusettsJacky Rosen of NevadaJon Tester of MontanaElizabeth Warren of MassachusettsPeter Welch of Vermont
In the immediate wake of the unsealing of the indictment last Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York urged caution, calling Menendez “a dedicated public servant” who “has a right to due process and a fair trial.” Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin likewise said the legal process should be allowed to “move forward without prejudice.”
The tide began to shift with Fetterman’s statement on Saturday. “Senator Menendez should resign. He’s entitled to the presumption of innocence under our system, but he is not entitled to continue to wield influence over national policy, especially given the serious and specific nature of the allegations,” the freshman Democrat said. “I hope he chooses an honorable exit and focuses on his trial.”
Brown, of Ohio, echoed that call in a short statement Monday, hours after Menendez delivered his statement in New Jersey. “Senator Menendez has broken the public trust and should resign from the U.S. Senate,” Brown said.
It took until Tuesday for more Democratic senators to demand Menendez step aside. Several of the senators who have now spoken out are up for reelection in 2024.
Most Republicans have been curiously silent. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas was one of the few to comment on the case, and notably defended Menendez.
“The charges against Senator Menendez are serious and troubling. At the same time, the Department of Justice has a troubling record of failure and corruption in cases against public figures, from Ted Stevens to Bob McDonnell to Donald Trump to Bob Menendez the last time around,” Cotton said, a reference to an earlier case against Menendez that ended in a mistrial in 2017.
Jack Turman and Daniel Hollingworth contributed reporting.