New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) went further than other Democrats on Tuesday by calling for the Senate to expel Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) following his conviction on 16 charges of bribery, extortion, fraud and acting as a foreign agent.
Murphy, who would pick Menendez’s replacement to serve the remainder of his term, which lasts until January 2025, called on Menendez to “resign immediately.”
“If he refuses to vacate his office, I call on the U.S. Senate to vote to expel him,” he said in a statement. “In the event of a vacancy, I will exercise my duty to make a temporary appointment to ensure the people of New Jersey have the representation they deserve.”
Sherrill called the verdict “extremely serious” and renewed her call for him to step down from office at once.
“I once again call on Sen. Menendez to immediately resign and for his access to classified national security information to be revoked,” she said in a statement. “If he refuses to resign from the Senate, he should be expelled.”
Murphy and Sherrill went further than other Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D) and Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who called on Menendez to resign Tuesday following the verdict.
“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 in a statement.
But Schumer stopped short of announcing he would otherwise advance a resolution to expel Menendez, as did several of his Senate Democratic colleagues.
A resolution to expel Menendez would need support of two-thirds of the Senate to pass.
The last time the Senate voted to expel a senator was in 1862, when the chamber expelled Sens. Trusten Polk (D-Mo.), Waldo Johnson (D-Mo.) and Jesse Bright (D-Ind.) for supporting the Confederate rebellion.