Despite calls from fellow Democrats to resign, Senator Menendez continues to denounce the charges and has said he will not step down.

And now Representative Andy Kim is taking it one step further and calling for the US Senate to vote on Menendez expulsion.

Kim is also challenging Menendez for his Senate seat in the next election.

He joins me now.

You were one of the first to call on this senior senator to resign after the original indictment came down.

Now, these latest charges, you want the Senate to vote on expulsion.

What does that mean and how would it work?

Well, certainly with the first set of indictments, I felt like it was enough for the senior senator of our state to step down.

I felt like, sure, he had absolutely has the right for his day in court.

But these jobs in government, especially at this level of the United States Senate, it requires a higher level, a higher threshold.

Something that is up there in terms of the public trust.

And I think that that trust has been eroded most recently with these new indictments that are concerned about acting as a foreign agent.

That just takes it to an even further level.

He was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arguably the most powerful person in foreign policy on Capitol Hill.

And the idea that perhaps he was not acting in the United States best interests, potentially putting his own personal benefits above our nation, that is worrisome.

Deeply worrisome.

I mean, he is still on that committee, even though all of the chairman still on the committee still has access to classified information.

I do not have confidence that he can continue to do that job that requires a public trust.

Well, we know you worked as national security as an official.

How severe is this charge?

Very.

And I think my experience in national security is is what's really prompting me to have this level of concern.

I worked as a career official over at the State Department, the Pentagon, the National Security Council.

I was a career guy, not a political person.

And through that lens, I really had to trust that our elected officials, that our president and others were always acting in the best interests of the country.

And that was always a sacred trust that we would have.

It's an oath that we swear to defend our Constitution.

If there's anything that brings that oath into question, that is a very, very serious.

And for these allegations to be put for the senior senator needs to focus on his legal case.

And the answer to that.

But in the meantime, he does not have the bandwidth nor the confidence of the people to be able to continue to do his job.

Well, here's the thing.

Ousting Senator Menendez may be a tall order right now as the House struggles to find a speaker since Steve Scalise dropped out.

What happened?

Not only are we nearing a government shutdown, but with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and Israel, you know, you're I mean, look, you're right.

You know, we don't know exactly what the Senate will do, that they would be the ones that would vote or decide what comes next in terms of Senator Menendez is based over on the House of Representatives side where I'm at.

You're absolutely right.

You know, it is absolute chaos.

And this is just so worrisome.

The idea that the majority party is just unable to coalesce.

It's really bringing in the question, is the majority actually able to govern at all or is it ungovernable?

Right now?

I just don't see anybody in that caucus be able to get to 217 votes needed to become the next speaker.

What are the Dems doing to help secure a speaker then?

Look, we standby, ready to have conversations if they are willing to in terms of, you know, what would it take to be able to get Democratic support to do so.

Our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has made that clear that we would want to find someone we can work with, make sure that we can move forward when it comes to the budget so we don't have a government shutdown in about a month.

But honestly, all that effort has been pushed aside.

The Republicans have shown no interest in having that conversation.

As a result, you know, they they are more interested in going further to the extreme rather than trying to come to a place where we can come to some type of broader agreement.

And that's just going to further isolate them.

And as I said, I don't think the math is there for them to find someone in that direction.

So it just continues to put the country in limbo.

Congressman Andy Kim, thank you very much.

Thanks for having me.