Bob Menendez is a giant pain in Democrats' ass
The corruption thing.
The Democratic case for the 2024 election is pretty simple: Donald Trump is deeply corrupt. Joe Biden isn’t.
Which, on its face, is a pretty easy case to make! Trump is currently under four indictments in a variety of jurisdictions around the country. Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Trump had engaged in a decades-long fraud by vastly overestimating the value of his various properties and other assets. And so on and so forth.
Biden — for all the sturm und drang centered on Thursday’s House impeachment hearing — faces no such credible allegations of corruption. (This is not to excuse Hunter Biden’s behavior, which, as I have written before, is decidedly sketchy.)
Enter Bob Menendez.
The bribery allegations against the New Jersey Senator are decidedly salacious. He had $480,000 in cash in his house. And $100,000 in gold bars. And a new Mercedes. And no good explanations for any of it.
What’s worse for Democrats is that Menendez, despite calls from a majority of his colleagues to resign, seems to have zero interest in doing so.
Asked this week why he refused to resign, Menendez responded: “Because I’m innocent. What’s wrong with you guys?”
Barring a stunning reversal — and Menendez doesn’t seem like the type to do that — the New Jersey Senator’s recalcitrance creates a problem for Democrats in their corruption argument against Trump.
Before I go any further, let me note here: A Democratic Senator being accused of accepting bribes is NOT the same thing as the likely Republican presidential candidate being indicted on 91 separate charges. Not even close.
But, the political reality is this: Republicans are desperate for anything to muddy the waters on the issue of corruption. They can’t change Trump’s (many) legal problems but they believe they can lessen the negative impact if they can get Democrats dirty too.
Keeping Menendez around for as long as possible (and keeping the allegations against him in the news) is a way for Republicans to do just that.
It’s of a piece with what Republicans are trying to do with their impeachment investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. The point isn’t really to remove Joe Biden from office. It’s to generate headlines. And raise doubts in voters’ minds about whether Biden is, in fact, clean on all of this. They don’t need to prove anything. They just need to keep asking questions.
Remember this: Donald Trump’s fundamental argument is that ALL politicians are corrupt. And that he is just the only one being honest about it. Which means you can trust him.
To that end, it’s notable that Trump has adjusted his argument against Biden between 2020 and today.
As NBC News wrote earlier this month:
In 2020, the moniker was “Sleepy Joe.” Now, it has been revised to “Crooked Joe.”
During their first showdown, Donald Trump disparaged Joe Biden as “a sleepy guy in the basement of a house” who was barely aware of his surroundings. Now, facing four criminal indictments and gearing up for a 2024 rematch, the former president is changing course to depict his successor as a nefarious mastermind who is pulling the strings of a complex justice system without leaving any fingerprints.
Again, Menendez’s (alleged) corruption does NOT in any meaningful way reflect on Joe Biden. But, it DOES have the potential to tarnish the Democratic brand and make it harder for Democrats to paint themselves as the pure party — devoid of scandal or corruption.
What’s worse for Democrats is that there is no simple way to get Menendez out. It would take a two-thirds majority of Senators to expel him from office — and, judging from the Republican reaction thus far (don’t rush to judgment etc.), that seems very unlikely. (There hasn’t been a senator expelled since the Civil War.)
Make no mistake: Politically, Menendez is a dead man walking. A poll released Thursday showed the incumbent with just an 8% approval rating, with 74% disapproving of him.
But, he can linger (and linger) for months and months. No trial date has even been set — as Menendez only officially pled “not guilty” on Wednesday.
And that’s bad news for Democrats.
The worst aspect of Bobby Menendez is that he thinks the American public is as stupid as he is corrupt.
The claim that he learned from his Cuban parents to always have cash on hand because of their experience with the overthrow of the Cuban government is absurd.
Their experience was watching the aftermath of the 1959 overthrow on TV from their home in New Jersey, since they left Cuba in 1954.
Furthermore, how did a Senator earning $175k a year accumulate over $500k without having money in the investment marketplace?
And most bills stuffed into clothing are less than five years old?
Total Trumpian Rat!
Hope the piling-on continues from Dem colleagues in the Senate and House.
You are correct about Menendez. However, unlike the Republicans who defend their indicted leader, the Democrats are not defending Menendez or saying it is because of a corrupt justice system. This difference is significant. It is interesting that Menendez is more likely to get GOP support than Democrats. The Republicans are going all in with crooks and liars.
So Menendez is clarifying the difference between the parties. One defends crooks. One defends the justice system.