Menendez indictment, shutdown scramble roil Capitol Hill

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

Turning from the auto industry to the U.S. Capitol, it has been an unusual, headline-making day with a series of developments, including news this morning that New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat and powerful committee chairman, has been indicted on bribery charges.

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, is covering that and more. And she joins us now.

Hi, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS:

Hi.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

This is such a striking indictment against Sen. Menendez. Can you help us understand what the accusations are?

LISA DESJARDINS:

Not just against him, but also with his wife. There are three counts here. They are all bribery charges, essentially, charging that Menendez and his wife, in a relationship with three businessmen they knew, took bribes, including money, and we will get into other things in a minute, in order to help, in some cases, deal with potential prosecutions of those businessmen, and also foreign governments.

Here's what the prosecutor of the district in New York said today about the case.

DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. Attorney of Southern District of New York: The indictment alleges that, through that relationship, the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, in exchange for Sen. Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt.

LISA DESJARDINS:

Menendez has fired back today in a lengthy statement, said that this is a smear campaign against him.

Here's some of what he wrote. He said: "Prosecutors have misrepresented the normal work of the congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for longstanding friendships she had before she ever met me."

Let's go through some of the details in that indictment, though, because it came also with photos that were significant. Prosecutors alleged that found at Menendez's home was nothing less than almost half-a-million dollars in cash and gold bars in some cases, I think two large gold bars, over $100,000 worth.

They said the DNA of one of the businessmen who is accused in this case was found on envelopes with that cash in hand. Now, this is the third investigation that we know of in Sen. Menendez's career. The last one in 2015 ended in a hung jury. He was not convicted. He kept his job in the Senate, as you know.

But now, tonight, the New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, is calling for Mr. Menendez to resign. He has, because of Senate rules for Democrats, stepped down from his chairmanship.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

A really striking, striking development.

Another major setback here that I know you're following is a major setback in the efforts to fund the government. Speaker McCarthy basically let all of Congress go home for the long weekend, even as we are on the precipice of a shutdown. What is happening on that front?

LISA DESJARDINS:

Much more to say, but here's going into the weekend what I want folks to know.

Essentially, House Republicans now have given themselves not just a week, because they have gone home, but the four days that they come back — they will come back next Tuesday and Wednesday — to try and figure this whole mess out.

They were not able to pass a short — or figure out a short-term funding deal that all the Republicans could agree to. So, instead, what are they doing? They're trying to recreate the entire appropriations process from scratch, working on the 11 different appropriations bills that are due.

That is something that takes weeks and weeks. Yet that is what House Republicans are trying to do in an effort to try and get a more conservative spending bill in negotiations down the road with the Senate. It's quite a wild idea. It's something we have never seen at this point in the process before.

So, a lot of folks are saying, all right, the shutdown is coming next week. Why not just agree with some Democrats on a clean, easy short-term deal? Speaker McCarthy was asked about that today. How about working with Democrats?

HOUSE SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY:

I believe we have a majority here, and we can work together to solve this. This is the same place you were all asking me during the debt ceiling.

So, you know what? It might take us a little longer, but this is important.

LISA DESJARDINS:

He, in other words, was saying, no. I think Republicans have a majority here. This will take a little longer.

What does that mean? I asked Rosa DeLauro, who is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and this is how I also figure — think of this. To do what the Republicans are trying to do with these appropriations bills, get the whole thing through, minimum of six weeks.

So think of what's going on here right now as this. I know you have covered hurricanes before. Think of the shutdown as a coming hurricane. We know it's coming. Republicans, instead of moving to a known shelter, instead of getting out of the way of the hurricane, they're trying to just start building a new house from scratch.

In other words, everyone is getting ready for a shutdown. They're sort of leaning into the shutdown, unless something dramatic changes, really by a legislative miracle next week.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

Really incredible metaphor.

Third development that is happening this week, there was action on something. The Senate was able to confirm a few military leaders. This circumvents the block that we have seen that Sen. Tuberville has been holding up on this. How did that happen? What does that mean?

LISA DESJARDINS:

Right.

This was significant. These are major military posts, two of which have been open for weeks and sometimes months. Let's look at exactly who was confirmed this week, so people understand the gravity here. Look at this, nothing less than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff nominee, the Army's chief of staff, the commandant of the Marine Corps.

Those two offices there on the right have been open, filled in acting ways until these confirmations this week. These are the top military officers waiting for a single senator to allow them to proceed. It's significant.

But what happened is Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, essentially moved around the block of Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. It's not a long-term breakthrough, to be honest. Tuberville, as we have discussed on this program before, is holding up these hundreds of military nominations because he objects to the military's policy helping to fund abortion and reproductive travel for people who are in the military and unable to get that care where they live.

Now, what's going on now? Tuberville still says he is not going to allow these larger blocs of military nominations to move. He is still daring Chuck Schumer to do them like he did this week, one by one by one. But I will tell you, Tuberville did allow these nominations to move a little bit more quickly than he could have.

That's very kind of Senate process thing, but it was notable. It was the first crack that we have seen. I know from behind the scenes Republicans are telling him, it's time to end this. This is a problem. And I know, in the military, it also is something we hear a lot about from those colonels and all of those levels that are waiting for their promotions and waiting to take command.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

Lisa Desjardins, as always, thank you so much for getting us through all this.

LISA DESJARDINS:

You're welcome.