Chris Christie says he will NOT run for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat as pressure mounts for his resignation following bribery charges
Chris Christie is not interested in trying to fill embattled Sen. Bob Menendez’s seat in Congress — even if his 2024 presidential run is unsuccessful.
It comes as even Democratic members are calling for the New Jersey senator’s resignation over bribery allegations.
The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), briefly stopped short of calling on Menendez to resign on Sunday morning.
A federal grand jury has indicted the senator and his wife Nadine Arslanian Menendez on corruption charges in an investigation that focused on a luxury car, $400,000 in gold bars and cash, plus mortgage payments the couple allegedly received.
While even those within Menendez’s own party appear to no longer want him in the Senate, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says he won’t be the one to take his place.
“I have no interest in serving in the United States Senate,” Christie told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker on Sunday morning.
Currently, Christie is among a crowded field of Republican candidates vying for the Republican nomination for the Republican Party against major frontrunner Donald Trump.
Presidential hopeful Chris Christie says he has no interest in serving in the U.S. Senate, giving a decisive “no” when asked whether he would run for Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s contested seat in 2024.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife Nadine Arslanian are accused of having an improper relationship with businessmen who used the senator’s position for their enrichment. The couple are pictured at the White House in May 2022 – both denying the allegations of corruption against them
It is highly unlikely that Christie, who is in the middle of the pack according to polls, will be the Republican nominee in 2024. But he made it clear that his alternative plan is not to join the U.S. Senate.
Welker pressed: ‘You rule it out completely?
“Yes, I have,” the former governor and former Trump adviser said. ‘I’ve done that my entire career. I had the opportunity to appoint myself to the U.S. Senate, Kristen, in 2013 when Frank Lautenberg passed away and I was governor.”
“If I don’t appoint myself to the United States Senate, which is the easiest way to get there, then I’m certainly not going to run for it,” he explained.
Menendez is a two-term senator and the son of Cuban immigrants – and is up for re-election in 2024. Before becoming a senator, Menendez served in the House of Representatives since 1991 and at different times represented two separate districts in New Jersey.
He denied the corruption allegations against him on Friday, claiming the charges are racially motivated. He refused to resign.
“Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first generation of Latin Americans could rise from humble beginnings to become a U.S. senator,” he said in a statement claiming he was being “falsely accused.”
Durbin, who ranks just behind Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, did not call for his resignation but was critical of the senator’s alleged actions that led to the indictment.
“This is a very serious allegation,” Durbin told CNN during an interview with State of the Union host Dana Bash on Sunday morning.
He compared the allegations to the seriousness of the charges against former President Trump.
“In terms of resigning,” Durbin added, “that’s a decision for Senator Menendez and the people of New Jersey.”
Many Democrats are calling for Menendez’s resignation — or at least that he not run for re-election in 2024. But the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, did not call for Menendez’s removal on Sunday.
The indictment against Menendez alleges that the senator and his wife had an improper relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who allegedly paid the couple in exchange for Menendez to use his influence in Washington, D.C., to their benefit to apply.
The couple each faces three criminal counts: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit racketeering under the color of official right.
Menendez is also accused of “providing sensitive U.S. government information and taking other steps that secretly assisted the government of Egypt.”
The three businessmen are also charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.
Menendez said prosecutors in the Southern District of New York “misrepresented the normal work of a congressional office” in the indictment against him.
“I have been falsely accused before because I refused to stand down to those in power and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize that I was innocent,” he said in a statement about the allegations.
The senator added that he would not be “distracted by unfounded accusations” but would continue his work as a senator. He has agreed to resign as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.