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.

  • marine_mustang@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    1 year ago

    So they were flat-out lying about the gold bars and half-million in cash at his house? Because I can’t imagine any legit business where that’s required, or why it would be at his house instead of a safe deposit box.

  • Deadeyegai@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    45
    ·
    1 year ago

    What’s wrong with you guys

    Why don’t you also have gold bars and unaccounted cash just lying around your home?

    • photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of them probably do, but they’re better at hiding it. Or maybe they’re smarter and invest their bribes in stocks and such which aren’t just laying around.

  • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

      • paddirn@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

      • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        21
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          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.

        • dhork@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

          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.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            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.

    • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      AL Franken

      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.

  • Harpsist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m not saying ALL politicians are bribe taking scum lords.

    I’m just saying the pots are calling the kettle black.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    “Come on, all of you have secret envelopes full of cash in your home and google the worth of gold bars and you know it!”

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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.

    Menendez is accused of corruption and bribery, including accepting cash and gold bars in exchange for help through his influence as a senator and as chairman of his powerful committee.

    The chair of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), also called for Menendez’s resignation.

    Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) was the first New Jersey Democratic lawmaker to call for Menendez’s resignation.


    The original article contains 269 words, the summary contains 131 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Hairyblue@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Maybe he sleeps on riches like cash and gold like a dragon…

    Or he is a miser, or criminal miser. He should step down.