Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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In 2017, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., faced bribery charges similar to the ones he currently faces. The jury couldn’t reach a verdict and the U.S. attorney dismissed the case.
Pursuant to that indictment, Menendez had resigned his minority leadership position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has again resigned his chairmanship of that committee after this current indictment.
Voters knew all this in 2018 when they voted him back into office by a margin of 54% to 42%, with a voter turnout of 53%. Democrats reappointed him ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee that year and to chair that committee in 2021.
We transfer power in this country by elections, not by the moral imperatives of columnists like Melinda Henneberger (“Schumer’s failure to demand Mendendez resignation is damaging,” Oct. 9).
This morality is exactly the pretext the House Democrats used to pass two impeachments of Donald Trump when they knew the Senate wouldn’t convict.
Richard Nixon resigned because it could be proved to a jury that he had obstructed justice, and had coerced the FBI and CIA to fall in line to do it.
Bill Clinton was acquitted of the charge of perjury.
Election results are sacrosanct. You don’t overturn elections on a whim. Just like you don’t rig elections, which Democrats are rightfully concerned about. Menendez will be tried and voters can throw him out next year. Henneberger doesn’t have the legal or moral authority to do that.
