Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday declined to call on Sen. Bob Menendez to resign — gifting a bit of breathing room to the indicted New Jersey lawmaker.
By Wednesday morning, more than half of Democratic senators had called on Menendez to step down. That included Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) as well as Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) — No. 3 and no. 4 in the caucus, respectively. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had done the same.
But Schumer took a different tack at the leadership press conference Wednesday, emphasizing Menendez’s right to due process. Schumer had already said last week that Menendez “rightly decided” to step down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as required by Senate Democrats’ bylaws.
Though Menendez has not yet said whether he will run for reelection, Schumer’s support could give him slightly more wiggle room with that decision-making. No Senate Republicans have called on Menendez to resign either.
Menendez has remained defiant to any sort of criticism over the charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, instead insisting he’s being targeted as a powerful Latino in politics and that the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his home were regular withdrawals from his savings accounts. He has not yet explained why he was in possession of gold bars.
Menendez was due in a Manhattan federal court for his arraignment Wednesday morning, keeping him out of the Capitol temporarily.
