Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on Thursday became the second Senate Democrat to publicly urge President Joe Biden to step down as the party’s presidential nominee.

“I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester, who is facing perhaps the toughest reelection bid of any Democratic senator this year, said in a statement posted to X.

“And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek reelection to another term,” he said.

Tester is considered one of — if not the — most vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbent up for reelection this fall. His statement comes amid an increasingly public effort by Democrats to get Biden to withdraw from the race over growing concerns about ability to beat former President Donald Trump and the possibility he could drag other endangered Democrats along with him.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is the only other Senate Democrat who has publicly urged Biden to step down from the race. But other top Democrats have privately raised their concerns to Biden directly and his campaign team.

Senate Democrats had a heated discussion with a trio of campaign officials during a meeting on Capitol Hill last week. Tester — who had previously raised concerns about Biden’s ability to win in November — did not attend that lunch.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have each privately raised concerns to Biden in recent conversations about Democrats’ ability to win if he stays at the top of the ticket. House Democrats, in particular, are worried that he will sink their ability to win back the majority — which could be their only foothold in power come January if Republicans flip the Senate, as expected, and if Trump wins the White House.

Tester gave Schumer a heads up on his call for Biden to drop out, a person with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO. Schumer told Tester to do what he thought was right, the person added.

Shortly before Tester’s statement, Rep. Jim Costa of California became the 20th House Democrat to call on Biden to end his campaign, in addition to the two senators.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle privately acknowledged in dual congressional briefings on Wednesday that her agency had made mistakes — but it won’t be enough to stem a wave of bipartisan criticism over Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Instead, the House is now expected to have a classified briefing next week once the chamber returns to Washington — a step both Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries backed on a call between top Secret Service, FBI officials and lawmakers, according to a person on the briefing and two people familiar with it.

Cheatle is at the center of a storm of congressional ire as lawmakers dig into a sweeping investigation of the shooting, including how the gunman was able to get on a roof roughly 200 yards from where Trump was speaking.

She appeared to acknowledge that frustration on Wednesday, telling lawmakers that there was a “failure” by the Secret Service at Trump’s rally. One of the people familiar with the briefing said that Cheatle acknowledged “mistakes and gaffes.”

But the details shared on the call did little to quash the laundry list of questions that lawmakers, including Democrats, have about the shooting. Shortly after the Senate briefing ended, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Cheatle should step down.

“Last week’s near-assassination of former President Trump was a grave attack on American democracy. The nation deserves answers and accountability. New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction,” McConnell said in a statement.

Other Republicans, in particular, vented afterward that they got little new information and that lawmakers were able to ask only a few questions.

“This was a 100 percent cover-your-ass briefing. … No one has taken responsibility. No one has been held responsible. Someone has died. The president was almost killed. The head of the Secret Service needs to go,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said after the briefing.

Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed for the administration to brief their respective chambers. Johnson, in particular, demanded that Cheatle and Wray take part, according to one of the people familiar with the briefing.

Lawmakers were also told there were roughly 20 minutes between when the gunman was identified as suspicious and when shots were fired, according to the second person familiar with the briefing. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) publicly confirmed that detail in a series of posts on X — largely complaining about the briefing.

Wray and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate also updated lawmakers on the status of the FBI’s investigation, noting that the bureau had so far interviewed roughly 200 people.

The FBI told lawmakers that the shooter searched “major depressive disorder” on his primary cellphone and that the FBI found searches and images of both President Joe Biden and Trump, the person on the call and the second person familiar with the briefing added. The gunman also scoped out the site of Trump’s rally in advance, including traveling to the fairgrounds on July 7 and earlier in the day on July 13, those two people said.

Law enforcement has struggled to publicly nail down a motive for the gunman, but officials have said publicly — and reiterated privately on Wednesday — that so far there isn’t evidence of others involved or a foreign tie.

And the FBI and Secret Service officials got questions from Johnson about if they were sharing information on credible threats, including an Iranian plot against Trump, in real time with Congress and the Capitol Police, the two people familiar with the call said.

But lawmakers fumed afterward that there wasn’t enough time to ask questions, with approximately four members on both the Senate and House call able to get one in. And even those who did weren’t satisfied. Both calls were scheduled for 30 minutes but both ran long.

A spokesperson for Sen. John Cornyn confirmed that he was one of four senators who got a question in during that chamber’s call but added that the Texas Republican “is not confident after the call that those in charge at the USSS are up to the task.”

Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) told POLITICO afterward that the House would have a classified briefing and that “my takeaway was it was an absolute failure in leadership.”

“Briefing was awful … not enough time for questions,” he added.

Republicans’ ire at Cheatle is only likely to grow after the Department of Homeland Security notified Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Wednesday that Cheatle will not appear before his committee Monday, after he issued a subpoena for her appearance earlier Wednesday.

“Given her travel and operational commitments, we would appreciate the opportunity for Director Cheatle to appear before the Committee on July 25, July 26 or during the week of July 29, 2024 rather than July 22,” DHS wrote to Comer in a letter obtained by POLITICO.

An Oversight Committee spokesperson appeared to reject that request, saying that “Cheatle has agreed to comply with Chairman Comer’s subpoena and the hearing will take place as scheduled on Monday, July 22.”

Anthony Adragna Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

ASPEN, Colorado — President Joe Biden’s top ally in the Senate says it’s too soon to oust the Secret Service director over the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Asked if Cheatle should step down, Sen. Chris Coons’ (D-Del.) said “I need and want more information” before making such a call, adding that a proper investigation into what happened needs to take place.

Coons’ comments come as top Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson — call for Kimberly Cheatle to be replaced.

Coons said Wednesday, while attending the Aspen Security Forum, that he wanted to know more about exactly what circumstances allowed a shooter to get close enough to fire a gun at the Republican candidate and former president. Trump’s ear was bloodied by the attempt on Saturday; a bystander was killed.

“Our national security and homeland security leadership is going to expect that information,” Coons said, referring to congressional leaders.

Still, Coons didn’t offer an absolute defense of Cheatle as he did not say that she should definitely stay on.

Coons was among senators briefed by Cheatle and other top security officials on Wednesday about the situation. He declined to go into depth about what was said but said he was glad the call took place.

“They provided a lot of very specific details about how they launched their investigations, the exact movements of the shooter, what happened on scene, how the investigation is unfolding so far,” Coons said.

He said that he recognized that reviews into such security lapses can often take a significant amount of time.

“It’s important that the American people get answers as soon as is reasonably possible as to how this happened,” he said. “We need to learn the right lessons from this critical national security incident.”

A dozen Senate Democrats have signaled they are open to taking the drastic step of expelling Sen. Bob Menendez, convicted Tuesday on 16 corruption charges, if he won’t resign.

And that now includes a member of Democratic leadership. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the No. 3 in the caucus, said she backed expulsion in a statement to POLITICO.

“After being found guilty, Senator Menendez should resign from the U.S. Senate. If he does not, he should face expulsion. He has betrayed the trust of his constituents and his duty to this country,” she said.

Others calling for Menendez to either step aside or face expulsion include seven incumbent Democrats facing reelection this fall: Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tim Kaine (Va.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.) and Jon Tester (Mont.). Additionally, four rank-and-file senators who aren’t up for reelection this year also want to boot Menendez if he doesn’t resign, according to their spokespeople: Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.). Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is also in that group, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

And Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) “likely would,” according to his spokesperson.

A spokesperson for Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) — Menendez’s chief Senate antagonist as he’s faced federal charges — declined to comment on Wednesday about expelling Menendez, but the Pennsylvania Democrat suggested earlier this year that he would support the Senate taking such a step.

Those early calls reflect the reality of a brutal political climate for Democratic senators this fall. Democrats need to hold onto nearly every contested Senate seat, many of them in purple or red states, to keep control of the chamber. Allowing Menendez to remain in the Senate despite his guilty verdict would make at-risk Democrats more vulnerable to Republican attacks, particularly given Democrats’ criticism of former President Donald Trump’s status as a convicted felon.

Leading the charge on expulsion is Booker, a longtime Menendez ally who ultimately broke with the incumbent last fall and called for his resignation.

“He must stand up now and leave the Senate. He must do that,” Booker said Tuesday on MSNBC. “And if he refuses to do that, I will lead that effort to make sure that he’s removed from the Senate. It is just the thing to do.”

If Booker or another senator does move forward with an expulsion resolution, the process could go a few different ways.

The resolution could be referred to committee — a time-consuming effort that would delay any potential floor votes. A senator could instead try and bring the resolution to a vote through unanimous consent, but a single senator could block it from moving forward. There are other procedural quirks senators could try to navigate, but ultimately getting a vote won’t be the speediest process and would ultimately require at least a two-thirds threshold to pass.

Asked about expulsion, Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who’s running to replace Menendez this fall, said in a press conference Tuesday he hopes the incumbent will step down in order to avoid a drawn-out process. Menendez is still running a longshot reelection bid as an independent candidate.

“We’ve had a lot of votes, a lot of issues in the Senate over the last couple weeks, couple months, and the senator has not been present,” Kim said, referring to Menendez’s absence while on trial. “We’ve seen how that’s affected the representation that New Jersey has and our voice in the U.S. Senate, which has been cut in half because of that. And we just can’t have that drag on any longer.”

If Menendez does resign or get expelled, New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy would be tasked with appointing a successor. He could appoint Kim, though in a statement on Tuesday he said he would nominate a “temporary” replacement, indicating he could be eyeing a placeholder candidate.

Menendez’s office did not respond to requests for comment, though the senator vowed to appeal his conviction on Tuesday following the verdict. He also maintained: “I have never violated my public oath.”

And while Menendez is facing a fresh wave of calls to resign from his Democratic colleagues — including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — most of them aren’t publicly backing booting him if he won’t step down voluntarily. At least, so far.

POLITICO contacted the offices of every Democratic senator Wednesday to ask if they supported expelling Menendez. Most didn’t respond or referred back to statements that didn’t mention whether or not they ultimately supported expulsion.

Republicans have largely stayed coy on the Menendez flap and whether they’d lend their votes to expelling the New Jersey Democrat. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who’s seeking to become GOP leader in the next Congress, said Tuesday that Menendez should resign and that it would be “appropriate” to expel him if he doesn’t.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office did not respond to requests for comment on how the Senate should handle Menendez.

Expelling Menendez would require support from two-thirds of the Senate. Even if Republicans ultimately unified behind the step — which they haven’t done so far — approximately 18 Democrats would have to vote with them to successfully remove Menendez, assuming full attendance.

Such a vote could also be delayed until after a pending ethics report. Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), who lead the Ethics Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that the panel would finish its investigation into Menendez “promptly” and “will consider the full range of disciplinary actions available under the Rules of Procedure.”

Expulsion is a historically unusual and rare step for the Senate to actually take, but the threat is a familiar one for New Jersey politicians.

Back in 1981, the Ethics panel called the public corruption of then-Sen. Harrison A. Williams (D-N.J.) “ethically repugnant” and demanded his expulsion. The senator ultimately resigned before the matter was put to a floor vote. He served two years in federal prison.

And in 1995 — the last time a senator faced the threat of expulsion — the committee voted to recommend expulsion for Sen. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.), who subsequently announced he would resign.

Just 15 members of the Senate have ever been successfully expelled from office, 14 of whom were booted for allegiances to the confederacy during the Civil War. The last actual expulsion vote occurred in 1942 against Sen. William Langer (R-N.D.) over allegations of corruption — and was unsuccessful.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is calling on President Joe Biden to “pass the torch” and step aside from the 2024 presidential race.

Schiff, who is expected to become California’s next senator, is a former House Intelligence Committee chair. He is also a close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been privately fielding caucus concerns about Biden.

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement, first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

A group of furious House Democrats was prepared to publicly repudiate an effort to nominate Joe Biden before the convention. An aggressive intraparty pressure campaign has convinced those lawmakers to stand down — for now.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told POLITICO he is no longer sending his missive to the Democratic National Committee after the party agreed to delay a vote to nominate Biden until at least Aug. 1. The letter urged DNC members against holding a virtual roll call, instead of the customary timing during the convention in Chicago later next month.

While Huffman said the DNC’s move was welcome news “for now,” he and others still had major concerns about the effort to confirm Biden as the nominee virtually, before the convention.

“This buys time. There is still time for a course correction,” Huffman said.

As of Wednesday morning, at least 30 House Democrats were planning to sign onto the letter — with at least twice that number privately supportive of the effort but unwilling to go public, Huffman said. But in the last 24 hours, many of those Democrats faced strong pressure from state parties, labor groups and the DNC itself not to sign onto the letter, according to two other people familiar with the conversations.

“No doubt about it, they were trying to twist arms and break legs,” Huffman said about the pressure campaign.

Huffman’s decision not to go forward has frustrated some Democrats who have been struggling to channel their discontent with the party and Biden’s fate atop the ticket. Many saw the letter — which would have included members who have not previously spoken out against Biden — as a potentially critical step toward moving forward, provoking more discussion about how to encourage the president to step aside.

“Despite almost unanimous agreement about what needs to happen, colleagues are remarkably fearful of retribution if they put their heads above water,” a House Democrat who signed the letter said Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, in an effort to slow down the process amid concerns about transparency, the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee co-chairs told panel members in a letter that they would “propose a framework for how best to proceed” at their Friday meeting — holding off on setting a nomination date until next week but saying it would be no earlier than Aug. 1. The delay is an implicit acknowledgment of the ongoing criticism that the DNC is moving forward with the virtual roll call vote, prior to the official convention in mid-August.

“This idea of jamming this in mid-July never made any sense and was just going to divide us and undermine our unity and morale at the worst time,” Huffman said. “But we may still have some tough conversations over an August virtual roll call.”

“I have not called on the president to step aside, but I am among the members who are just deeply perplexed that the president thinks he is tied or winning in the polls,” he added.

The DNC’s decision to delay came after intense lobbying from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The House Democratic leader phoned multiple DNC officials to raise members’ concerns. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was also involved in convincing the DNC to delay, according to a person familiar with the effort. The existence of Huffman’s letter came up in those conversations.

Major Democratic donors have also pressured former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jeffries, Schumer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to stop the virtual roll call altogether, according to one person directly familiar with the private conversations.

At least some Democrats on the Huffman letter had wanted to send it despite the DNC’s latest step.

As of earlier Wednesday, those who signed onto the letter had been told the draft would simply be edited and would go out as planned.

Ursula Perano contributed to this report.

Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver is all but certain to succeed the late Donald Payne Jr. in New Jersey’s 10th congressional district following her special primary win Tuesday night.

The 38-year-old Newark native prevailed over 10 other candidates that included former Irvington Councilmember Brittany Claybrooks, Linden Mayor Derek Armstead and Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker.

The district is one of the most Democratic in the country, so McIver is expected to have no trouble defeating Republican nominee Carmen Bucco, who ran unopposed, in the Sept. 18 special general election. But that election will only fill the House seat for a few months.

McIver is also the presumptive favorite to win a contest for the full two-year term. Payne died too late to remove his name from the ballot, so his name remained and was unopposed in the regular June primary. His replacement nominee for the full two-year term beginning in January, almost certainly McIver, will be formally chosen Thursday at a convention of Democratic committee members from the Essex, Hudson and Union county towns that make up the district in North Jersey.

Despite the crowded field that included some well-known names, it was an abbreviated low-profile, low-turnout contest in which McIver maintained the advantage the entire time. The Associated Press called the race for McIver, with 46 percent of votes, a half hour after polls closed at 8 p.m.

McIver, who counts Newark mayor Ras Baraka as a mentor, was elected in 2018. According to her City of Newark bio, she founded a nonprofit called G.A.L.S. “devoted to fostering female leaders of tomorrow” and has worked as an administrator, including a stint as personnel director for Montclair schools, from which she resigned after about a year.

Payne, a 12-year incumbent who succeeded his late father in the seat, suffered a heart attack in April and died weeks later. Essex County Democrats, who run one of the most formidable political machines in the state, quickly rallied around McIver to succeed him, including factions of the party that are sometimes at odds. McIver also had support of the Democratic Party in Union County, while the Hudson County Democratic Organization stayed neutral in the race.

Though the Democratic primary did not feature the “county line” that parties had used for decades following a judge’s decision in April to stay the practice, McIver’s party backing combined with the crowded field all aided her campaign.

“I don’t think it was a fair fight, but we did the best we could given the hand we were dealt,” Claybrooks, who worked for Democratic Senate nominee Andy Kim’s campaign before running for Payne’s seat, told POLITICO in a phone interview Monday.

The Democratic candidates for the seat did not raise much money. McIver, who as of the latest reports raised $90,000, led the field in fundraising.

Candidates didn’t express sharp differences at campaign forums. McIver earlier this month at an event hosted by the NAACP said that Congress needs to get “moving” on “action behind all of that talk” for reparations, according to TAPIntoNewark. She was the only Democratic candidate not to attend a different candidate forum a week later in Hudson County.

Over the years, Bob Menendez gained a reputation as New Jersey’s ultimate political survivor. On Tuesday, his endurance ran out.

The conviction of the Democratic senator on 16 counts in a sweeping bribery case comes nearly seven years after he beat prior corruption charges thanks to a hung jury — and 18 years after another federal investigation ended without charges.

When Menendez walked out of court following his 2017 mistrial, he ominously warned the Democrats who were “digging my political grave” that he would not forget them. On Tuesday, he vowed to keep fighting for his freedom, declaring “the law and the facts did not sustain” his conviction. He’s already running for reelection as an independent.

But this isn’t 2017. Menendez’s political career has been dead and buried since his indictment in September, when his party abandoned him and Rep. Andy Kim launched a winning primary bid to replace Menendez. In the ensuing months, New Jersey’s political system effectively collapsed, with Democrats upending the way they’ve done business in the state for decades. Just last month, a state grand jury indicted New Jersey’s most powerful Democratic political boss, George Norcross, on charges he led a different corruption scheme.

Now Menendez, who has virtually no chance of winning reelection as an independent in the deep-blue state, is staring at the ruins of a 50-year political career and the prospect of decades in prison.

It was a spectacular downfall that, despite the two-month-long trial and mountains of damning evidence, still evinced a measure of shock from New Jersey politicos used to seeing the senator survive federal investigations and prosecutions — all while accumulating power in the Senate and gaining a reputation as a policy wonk.

Menendez, the 70-year-old son of working-class Cuban immigrants, wasn’t always loved by all of his fellow New Jersey Democrats. But his political acumen was universally respected — and feared. His influence peaked as chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, a position he held while taking bribes in exchange for favors to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

“For his entire career, he’s operated in shades of gray closer to black,” said Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2025. “Every step of the way he’s operated in a questionable manner while at the same time being extremely well-versed in policy, very smart in his politics, and at the same time having a natural base in the Latino community.”

Even Fulop — who began his political career in 2004 with a hopeless primary campaign against Menendez, then a member of the House — credited the senator with getting important things done for New Jersey, like advocating for a light rail that “transformed” public transit in his home base of Hudson County, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

Julie Roginsky, a Democratic consultant, said Menendez’s downfall is tragic considering his record and what he represented to many.

“I don’t know if disbelief is the word. It’s tremendous sadness,” Roginsky said of the conviction. “He’s an incredibly effective senator, a trailblazer for the Latino community, and a throwback to the days when somebody attained the highest offices in the state by climbing their way up the ladder and not by purchasing a seat.”

For decades, Menendez instilled a mix of reverence and fear in fellow Democrats.

During that 2017 corruption trial in Newark, prominent Democrat after prominent Democrat showed up to court to watch the proceedings, signaling their support for the senator, who appeared to take account of the few who didn’t show. Even a bipartisan duo of Senate colleagues, New Jersey’s Cory Booker and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, took the stand as character witnesses.

The latest case against him was a stark contrast. Elected officials avoided Menendez’s first public appearance following his September indictment and didn’t attend his trial in lower Manhattan.

Nevertheless, the stench of corruption around Menendez wasn’t enough to derail the career of his son, Rep. Rob Menendez, whose 2022 political rise from relative obscurity was engineered by his father. Most of New Jersey’s Democratic establishment stuck with the younger Menendez in his successful primary reelection run against Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

Reformer to defendant

Menendez was shaped by New Jersey’s boss-driven political system much the way he would later shape it.

“He’s a guy who grew up in a corrupt system and figured out how to navigate it, and it eventually caught up with him. I think that’s what his legacy is going to be,” said Chris Russell, a Republican consultant who worked on the 2018 campaign against Menendez.

Born to blue-collar Cuban immigrants who fled during the Fulgencio Batista regime, Menendez was raised in a tenement in Union City, a one-square mile, extremely densely populated municipality with a big Hispanic population.

His first campaign was 50 years ago: For Union City school board, when he was a protege of the city’s mayor and powerful political boss, William Musto. Later, after being appointed board secretary, Menendez, alleging corruption, broke with Musto and would later testify at his benefactor’s corruption trial in 1982. He donned a bulletproof vest — a tale he would tell throughout his political rise to boost his credibility as a reformer.

Menendez was elected mayor of Union City in 1986, a position he continued to hold after he was elected to the state Assembly and then the state Senate. He won a seat in the U.S. House in 1992 and became a statewide figure with his appointment to the Senate by Gov. Jon Corzine at the beginning of 2006.

Corruption allegations and rumors soon haunted Menendez. During his campaign for a full first term, then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie subpoenaed records related to Menendez and a nonprofit, North Hudson Community Action Corp., that over a nine-year period paid the senator about $300,000 to rent office space in a Union City house he owned. Menendez, as a House member, had helped the nonprofit secure federal grants.

Menendez won a full term during the 2006 Democratic wave and the investigation died down, with many Democrats arguing Christie had gone after Menendez to boost his own political career or to please the Bush administration. A year before his 2012 reelection campaign, Menendez showed off a clearance letter from federal prosecutors stating that the case was formally closed. But just a year later, federal prosecutors began looking at Menendez again, this time regarding his relationship with wealthy Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen.

Menendez’s first indictment dropped in 2015. Prosecutors accused him of blocking a U.S. donation of security screening equipment to the Dominican Republic to benefit a company owned by Melgen, and interceding on Melgen’s behalf on a multimillion-dollar Medicare dispute, among other things. Melgen, they alleged, in turn provided Menendez with millions of dollars in campaign contributions, private jet flights and Dominican villa stays.

Menendez never disputed that he did favors for Melgen. But his legal team successfully argued in court that the favors were not in exchange for gifts, but out of friendship. The jury deadlocked on all counts, with most favoring acquittal. The judge declared a mistrial.

Still, the case hurt Menendez — never spectacularly popular with voters in New Jersey — in the polls, and it ended just a year before his 2018 reelection campaign. But, once again, it was a Democratic wave year, and Menendez managed an 11-point victory over Republican opponent Bob Hugin, who put tens of millions of dollars of his own money into his campaign.

The close call did not cow the senator. In their 2023 indictment, prosecutors in this latest case charged that Menendez and his wife, Nadine — a codefendant whose trial has been delayed due to her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment — began hatching a scheme in 2018 to accept bribes. In exchange, prosecutors alleged, they did favors for two other co-defendants, one with ties to the Egyptian government, and a cooperating witness.

“The arrogance went to his head. He thought he was so powerful and so important that he believed his own PR,” said Hugin, who also grew up in Union City and knew Menendez when the two served as student representatives on its school board. Hugin now chairs the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

What’s next

Senate Democrats have yet to say whether they’ll seek to expel Menendez but had resisted calls to do so before his conviction. Shortly after the jury read the verdict, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Menendez to resign, joining more than half of Senate Democrats who had already done so. At least one Democratic senator is considering a push to expel Menendez.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday also called for Menendez to resign and, barring that, said the Senate should expel him. Murphy said he would appoint a temporary replacement for the seat. If he chooses Kim, who beat Murphy’s wife in the primary, that would give the senator a bump in seniority should he win the November election.

The conviction news could actually be construed as positive for New Jersey Democrats, since it makes a Menendez independent bid harder to gain traction at Kim’s expense. Kim is facing wealthy Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw, a moderate, in November.

“Every percent he gets is coming from an Andy Kim voter. In a close race, he could do a lot of damage,” Fulop said.

There’s also speculation that Menendez could stay in the race to damage Democrats in an attempt to gain clemency from Donald Trump should he win in November. Trump called Menendez’s prosecution an “attack,” commuted the prison sentence of Melgen, Menendez’s former co-defendant, and it was during his administration that the Department of Justice chose not to retry Menendez after his prior mistrial.

“I think anyone who got convicted would be looking for clemency. I think he’s also going to be looking for revenge,” Russell said. “That’s a hallmark of Bob Menendez, to exact revenge on people who wronged him. This time he thinks he’s got a whole party of people who wronged him.”