Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is still serving in the Senate, even though the evidence against him is overwhelming and a criminal conviction is likely in his future. The question is why? Why have Democrats stopped calling for Menendez to get the hell out of the Senate? Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Democrat Senator Bob Menendez is still serving in the Senate, even though the evidence against him is absolutely crazy overwhelming. And his criminal conviction is gonna be an absolute. This guy’s gonna be convicted. The question is, why have the Democrats stopped calling for Menendez to get the hell out of the Senate? He’s a frigging thug. He’s a criminal. This is his second run down the road as being a criminal. The first time he wasn’t acquitted. It was a hung jury. They simply couldn’t decide. But he got away with that. And so the Senate is saying, well, you know, he’s not such a bad guy. We outta wait till. Well, how does that, what’s the comparison here? What’s his name? The crazy.
Farron Cousins: Santos.
Mike Papantonio: Santos.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. Look, Santos, although Santos did survive, I think three expulsion attempts before he was finally expelled. Maybe it was two. But once the report actually came out and it said, look, we have determined beyond a reasonable doubt, this man did this, this, this, this. Everybody in the House got together and said, all right, screw this. You’re done. Menendez, the evidence and the things he is accused of are so much worse.
Mike Papantonio: They’re terrible.
Farron Cousins: Than what Santos did. The photographs, they’ve released the text messages, the evidence is available. I mean, I know.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, you go online and see the gold bars, the money is stuffed down in his jacket lining.
Farron Cousins: And so look, again, all of this is alleged against him because nobody wants to get sued.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, BS. It’s not alleged. I’m not gonna, I’m saying he did it. I’ll tell you what, if he wants to sue me, he did it. There’s no question the guy did it.
Farron Cousins: But, look, I don’t disagree with you. But we’re looking at a situation here where these Democrats in the Senate are more concerned about power. They’re more concerned about his maybe fundraising ability, his connections, than they are about actually doing the right thing here. And the right thing is to get him outta Congress. And so far the only consistent voice is Fetterman. Fetterman’s the only one who still says get rid of him.
Mike Papantonio: Absolutely. Has enough courage to say, what more do we need to know? Fetterman stands up and says, even the voices that you would expect to come out and say, Bernie Sanders, what a disappointment. I mean, you know.
Farron Cousins: Sheldon Whitehouse.
Mike Papantonio: Sheldon Whitehouse, all these folks you’re looking at and you’re saying, really? You know better than this. And all it is is just another, well, what is their approval rate? 15%? Is it past 20% right now?
Farron Cousins: No, God, no.
Mike Papantonio: I think it’s 12 to 15% approval rate for the Senate. And people wonder why. Well, God, it’s sitting right in front of you, man.
Farron Cousins: Well, look, I’m obviously super plugged into the online left community. We mocked Republicans relentlessly when they refused initially to call for Santos to get out. We all did videos on it. Where’s everybody on this? You cannot have it both ways. You cannot pretend that Santos was evil and horrible and had to be removed and then say, well, let’s let it play out for Menendez. You can’t. You have to take off the blinders every now and then.
Mike Papantonio: There’s no difference, is there?
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: There’s absolutely no.
Farron Cousins: Well, what he did was much worse.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, yeah. Not only stealing millions. The foreign agent issue, the tax evasion issue, the theft. How do you end up with stacks of gold bars under your bed?
Farron Cousins: He abused the power of his office. Put the United States potentially in danger. I mean, that’s how serious what this man did. He shouldn’t be allowed to be near the Senate.
Mike Papantonio: How about this, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado. This is what he says. I’m not so sure there’ll be any role for the Senate to play here. What’s the role of the, or Ray Luján from New Mexico? Well, it’s up to the voters in New Jersey. They’ll make the determination.
Farron Cousins: Those are the same things Republicans said when they were defending Santos. And it was ridiculous then and it’s ridiculous now.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Well, and oh yeah. I love this one. Well, he’s charged, I’m not making this up, he’s charged, Blumenthal, by the way, who I’m a big fan of Blumenthal, but he’s charged with things that are so extraordinarily bad and serious that we can’t make a decision right now. I mean, it’s so bad that we can’t make a decision. His exact words, he’s been charged with extraordinary, serious felonies. So because of that, we’re not gonna do anything. That’s basically what they’re saying here.
Farron Cousins: Like, it’s so horrific, we don’t even want to talk about it.
Mike Papantonio: You know what I’m interested in. I love these, you know, they’re just so, they can’t help themselves. They’re so Democrat, or they’re so Republican, they can’t even think outside that tiny little headline box. I’m interested to see their reaction to this. They’ll be a defense. It’ll be as ridiculous as this. But they’ll type in with their comment, I can’t believe you’re overreacting to Menendez, you know, and they’ll give us some ridiculous reason why this is different than Santos. It’s not different. It’s worse.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. He’s looking at a lot more years in prison than Santos is.
Mike Papantonio: Oh yeah. Thanks for joining me. Okay.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
Mike Papantonio: That’s all for this week, but all these segments are gonna be posted right here on this channel in the coming week. So make sure you’re subscribed to this channel. I’m Mike Papantonio, and this has been America’s Lawyer, where we tell you stories every week that corporate media won’t tell you because their advertisers don’t allow ’em to do it. They say, if you tell the story, we’re gonna cut back on advertising. Or their political connections are so Republican or so Democrat that they don’t wanna say anything that’s gonna cause any harm to their parties. It’s that tribal. But you know what? Around here, it doesn’t make any difference. We’re gonna call balls and strikes. We’ll see you next time.
