Tonight, a sitting United States senator is accused of using his official position to help a foreign power in exchange for riches and rewards. And while the allegations of cash, gold bars, even the convertibles, are getting all the attention, the other end of those alleged bribes is downright chilling. The Justice Department indicting senator bob menendez and his wife among allegations he sought and received Sensitive Information about u. S. Diplomats in egypt, information that eventually made its way to people with ties to the government. In addition, prosecutors say that he gave nonpublic information about u. S. Military aid. Also accused of ghost writing a pitch to senators on behalf of a foreign government. That would ease restrictions on arms and ammunition to egypt. Those restrictions in place in part due to concerns about human rights and democracy. All of this as he is chairing the Senate Foreign relations committee, one of the most powerful positions in the entire government. These schemes allegedly ended with stacks of cash, more than a dozen gold bars, help on mortgage payments, a mercedesbenz convertible. Youre seeing right there pictures of the evidence. But the timeline is important and also stunning here. This alleged conduct started not long after melendez escaped conviction on previous Bribery Charges when a jury deadlocked, but also it allegedly began around the same time that he said this about then president donald trump. The American People deserve to know who they elected to be their president. They deserve to know if hes in fact putting americas interests first. They deserved to know if donald trump is wittingly or unbyingly an agent for the russian federation. Congress must carry out its constitutional duty to fully and thoroughly investigate where the facts lead. Tonight, the pressure is mounting. The number of democrats calling on him to resign is growing. Both from congress and his home state of new jersey. But menendez is maintaining his innocence. He says his ethnicity is to blame. Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty. I intend to continue to fight for the people of new jersey with the same success ive had for the past five decades. This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along. It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere. As for the man in charge of the United States senate, Chuck Schumer is praising menendezs work, says he is temporarily stepping down from the Foreign Relations committee, and he says menendez has a right to due process and a fair trial. That may be so, but many of his fellow democrats arent as forgiving, including my next guest, joining me now, new jersey democrat steven philip, mayor of jersey city, also a candidate for new jersey governor in 2025. Mayor, thanks for joining us. You are now a part of this growing chorus of democrats calling on Senator Menendez to resign. What did you find to be the most damning allegation in the indictment against him . I mean, i think your intro was pretty spoton. If you read the indictment, i mean, it was 40 pages. It read like a boogie script. It was hard to take in from dma on money, gold bars, of course cars, then giving information to the Egyptian Government. So it was kind of really kind of a salacious 40 pages. And it makes it really hard to say that everything in there is not true. Maybe Senator Menendez could defend some of it. It would be really tough to say any component of that is defensible, if any of it. Tonight Senator Menendez is pushing back on calls to resign. He says, as we read, its not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to lunch are judge a latino and push him out of his seat. He says hes not going anywhere. Do you make of that, that this is about his ethnicity, to trying to push out the highestranking latino in the senate . Any reasonable person knows its not about ethnicity. Bob men then nez is not a tough guy. Hes not going to bow down to pressure. Thats unfortunate, the pressures going to build. Its not in his dna to resign. So absent the Senate Taking action, you know, i think hes going to dig in. And you know, from a democrat standpoint, its really hard to be critical of indictments that surround former President Trump or be critical of Clarence Thomas and then at the same time from a senate standpoint not take aggressive action against bob menendez with the same sort of allegations. Mayor steven fullup, thanks for joining us tonight. Former Special Assistant to president biden, Michaela Ross sa. Shermichael singleton, cnn political analyst. Laura baron lopez. And former federal prosecutor joseph moreno. Joseph, i want to start with you here. As the mayor said, it really does read like a movie script. Meeting a girlfriend, marrying her quickly, she just happens to have contacts who are close to the Egyptian Government that then are seeking information from a sitting United States senator. How strong do you think this indictment is . Gold bars, wads of cash, a mercedes convertible . Tawdry, absolutely. But tawdry does not always equal illegal. Supreme court has made it pretty difficult to bring these Bribery Cases against elected officials. You need not just quid pro quo, you need an official act, an exercise of governmental power. A vote on something, approval of a policy. When i go through basically those four kinds of conspiracies that Senator Menendez is confused, i sew holes in at least two of them. What about providing that information . According to the allegations, he received sought information from the United States government that was nonpublic and provided it to these contacts who then passed it along to the government. Unclassified but sensitive, absolutely. But hes not facing espionage charges. Maybe he should be, but theyre not in there. Again, it looks really bad, optics are horrible here. But as defense counsel, i can definitely poke holes in this. Michael . I think one of the things i noticed today, it was a very splashy presentation. Sometimes i think im not a lawyer, but from a communications perspective, it seems as though when prosecutors make these kinds of large presentations before the media, sometimes it seems like their cases might be weaker than perhaps we think they are and are trying to argue their case in the Public Opinion instead and thats why theyre doing the visual presentations. I mean go ahead. No, i was going to say, i dont think that the seat will be competitive from a political perspective. Whether he should resign or not, you know, i think whats funny about my party is, we quickly fall apart, whereas the other party tends to fall in line pretty quickly. We have no problem throwing each other under the bus, eating our young. It seems like republicans stick with each other. Look, i hear what you guys are saying. But again, just a normal person reading this document, what it sounds like hes being accused of doing is taking money, almost 500,000 in cash, in exchange for providing information actually, even acting to facilitate the interests theres no doubt it looks terrible. But should he be held to a different standard when it comes to running for office than santos or donald trump . Well, actually, thats exactly the question. Thats a fair critique, but i would say as someone who had a topsecret clearance, ive gone through that process, this has been a oneyear investigation. This guys the chair of the Foreign Relations committee. The second most prestigious, one of the most powerful Senate Committees thats over Foreign Relations for this entire country. Essentially acting as a Foreign Agent against the interests of the United States. I agree, George Santos is a problem and republicans should have expelled him from the house. But i expect democrats, including the president , to speak to this. Because if this were a republican, i would argue that the expectation would be for republicans to speak out against that individual. How, if you are senator schumer, would you be able to say that George Santos, for example, should leave the house and not say that the chairman of the Senate Foreign relations committee, whos under this kind of investigation, should not be in that post . Thats exactly why i think youre seeing so Many Democrats, in particular new jersey democrats the governor of new jersey, also a number of menendezs colleagues in the house, saying he has to go, he has to resign. Because even one of his former colleagues, tom malinowski, who used to serve in the state department, said, how can we as a party be calling for donald trump, say that donald trump is not fit for office, but then not call for the resignation of menendez . It doesnt look as though it will be sustainable position from schumer to not speak out more aggressively on this matter. Hes also now bringing in the fact that hes the highestranking latino in the senate. His state is 22 latino. He has a huge base of support. This is like a kennedy in massachusetts. Abby, i would say thats like Clarence Thomas all of a sudden saying, but im the black guy on the supreme court. Im not exactly sure how much room he has to maneuver by saying, im the Senior Latino in the United States senate. I think this puts democrats in a very precarious political predicament. Theyve gone after donald trump under the idea donald trump would somehow sell the secrets of the United States to any highest about iter. Here you have bob menendez, chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, essentially selling secrets to a foreign interestly, at least acting in the interests of a foreign en entity. I think democrats have to address this. Help me understand this. Sounds like youre saying, generally speaking, unless he took a vote for the Egyptian Government, he can accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars, he can accept 500,000 in cash, in exchange for facilitating their interests informally . Almost like a lobbyist would, from the halls of the United States senate. Is that what youre saying . Dont get me wrong, im horrified by this im just asking. I think thats kind of what it sounds like youre saying. If youre looking at purely legalistic, it has to be official act. Throughout the indictment youll see that term peppered throughout. It doesnt mean they can prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. Setting up meetings, making phone calls, right . Establishing goodwill in terms of a relationship. Those are not official acts. Sharing staff details about a u. S. Embassy in egypt . Its wrong, but its not part of his job as being a senator. Making votes, making nominations. Maybe putting a hold on foreign aid. Now thats a good one you say his role as a senator to access that information if he were a regular joe, he would not have access to that. Thats right, this is the loophole. Bob mcconnell from virginia, bob menendez, thats why they couldnt get him the last time. If they can drive through the same holes that prevented the doj from getting him the first time around. Shouldnt we have standards about ethics in this country . Whether republican or democrat, i think the American People have expectation elected officials serve our interests, not their own interests, let alone the interests of a foreign country. That appears to be what menendez is doing. Do you think on the issue of trump, the central issue for trump with democrats is Law And Order. Can they make that case with this sitting in front of them, Bonn Menendez . Given the speed of how many minnesota new mexicos, including the governor, have come out to say he should resign. As soon as lawmakers come back next week, theyll be back by tuesday, they are going to democrats are going to be peppered with questions in the senate the president will, too. The president as well. And i think that we are going to see more and more democrats start to say that he should resign. We should be clear. A lot of the democrats that came out tonight, they want his seat. Because these seats dont come up very often in massachusetts, new york, new jersey. The governor would probably love to run in a year for that seat and spend his own money, millions of dollars, running for senate the way he did for governor. Several congressmen who have been in office for decades want that seat. I imagine they also want that seat because menendez has been indicted twice in the last decade and it seems like it ought to be they spent 30 million against him last time and he still won by 12 points. Now hes running in a president ial year. This will help him. Stranger things have happened. Interesting conversation. Well continue to follow this story. Coming up next tonight, we are now seven days away from a government shutdown. Next, ill speak live with one of the republicans at war with House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy about the path forward. Congressman matt gaetz joins me live next. Plus why the mayor of dallas is changing his Party Affiliation from democrat to republican and the chilling words now that we are hearing from the former trump aide, cassidy hutchinson, who testified about what happened to her in washington after january 6th. I could not go back to my apartment. I ended up moving to atlanta for several months. Whenever you are ready. man are there any snakeses . woman nope. man are you sure . Here we go vo its time to push your limits. man okay. woman youre doing great man oh, is that a buffalo . woman babe, thats a cow. vo the allnew Subaru Crosstrek wilderness. Adventure on the edge. Honey. Honey. Nyquil severe honey. Powerful cold and flu relief th a dreamy honey taste. Nyquil honey, the nighttime, sniffing, sneezing, coing, aching, fever, honeylicious, best sleep with a cold, medicine. At morgan stanley, Old School Hard Work meets bold new thinking. Partnering to unlock new ideas, to create new legacies, to transform a company, industry, economy, generation. Because grit and vision working in lockstep puts you on the path to your full potential. Old school grit. New world ideas. Morgan stanley. You wont. Its ripe in here. My eyes are watering. Look how crusty this is. Ugh, its just too much. Not with this. Good advice. When stains and odors pile up, its got to be tide. Youre looking there at live pictures of capitol hill where the clock is really ticking on a potential government shutdown. Its just now seven days away and time is of the essence. Except that most members are now nowhere in sight. They were sent home for the week without a clear plan after conservative hardliners once again scuttled Kevin Mccarthys plans. One of those hardliners, congressman matt gaetz, joins me now. Thanks for being here, congressman. Absolutely, thanks for having me, abby. We should note you are still on the hill. So ill take that as a sign, perhaps things are moving forward. But i have to ask you, because this is starting to come to a head here. If Speaker Mccarthy puts a continuing resolution on the floor to keep the government open for 30 days, is that enough to get him out of his job . I agree with many who say, if Speaker Mccarthy embraces a clean continuing rest resolution to continue the spending policies of nancy pelosi and joe biden, that would most likely trigger a motion to vacate. Remember, i gave a speech last week detailing multiple areas where Kevin Mccarthy has breached his agreement with house conservatives. There was a big thrust of that that was the spending commitments. Also a vote on term limits, a vote on a balanced budget amendment, release of the january 6th tapes. These are things Kevin Mccarthy promised, he hasnt done those things, were here to hold him to account. I left a meeting with Congressman Biggs about the finer points of our department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. We have a rule being drafted right now so that we can pass Appropriations Bills for our military, department of Homeland Security, for our agriculture priorities, and also the department of state and foreign ops. Those will have a good amalgamation of policy and spending cuts and put our country on better fiscal spotting. Do you have support to take away mccarthys gavel . Depends on the democrats. I saw in an interview this morning that democrat whip Katherine Clark said if democrats were to bail out Speaker Mccarthy, they would require concessions. That should trouble a lot of republicans because if we have a republican speaker who is working for the democrats, because theyre the ones who bailed him out, then i doubt well be able to make much progress to