Navarro: Menendez won’t resign if 99 senators call for him to step down

Political commentator Ana Navarro said she thinks as many as 99 senators could call for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to resign and he still wouldn’t do so.

“Whether I think he should or not, I think there’s a moot point because I don’t think he … will,” Navarro said on CNN on Tuesday. “I think 99 senators will come out and ask him to resign and he wouldn’t.”

In a press conference Monday, Menendez addressed the public and said that he would not step down from his position despite growing calls from members of Congress for him to resign. Menendez was indicted last week on charges that accuse him and his wife of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes. 

Many Democratic members of Congress and politicians in New Jersey have publicly called on Menendez to resign. Navarro said she thinks the one that might impact Menendez the most is the call for resignation from fellow New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D).

“The one that probably does sting a lot is Cory Booker,” Navarro said. “Cory Booker stood by Menendez in the last indictment, the last file proceedings, testified, was a character witness for Menendez and I know that they have a very strong bond.”

This is the second time that Menendez has been charged by federal prosecutors. He won reelection following the charges. He has yet to declare if he will be running for reelection for the upcoming cycle but in the press conference on Monday said is not going anywhere.  

“I don’t think he sees resigning as anything but giving up or an admission of guilt,” Navarro said. 

Resignation would impact his abilities to raise funds for reelection, she said. 

“Being in the Senate allows him to continue fundraising and having a legal defense fund that becomes much more difficult if you resign,” she said. 

At the Monday press conference, Menendez said he has withdrawn hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his personal savings account that he has kept “for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.” Menendez added that he looks forward to addressing those issues in the trial. 

Navarro noted that she thinks “Bob was born in the United States and I think his family fled Cuba before the revolution.” Still, fear is a “real kind of mentality for many exiles,” she said. 

Navarro added that if Menendez was taking out money from his personal savings account for 30 years, there should be a record or paper trail of it. She said she is “hoping against hope that that’s the case,” and that “he’s able to provide that evidence.”

She said Menendez has been a champion for Latino-American rights and losing him in Congress will leave “a great void.”