well Governor Murphy was among the first of Democrats to call for embat tled US senator Bob Menendez to resign following his September indictment on federal corruption charges tonight we continue coverage of our exclusive interview with the senator senior political correspondent David Cruz pressed Menendez on his most recent charge accused of acting as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes all while sitting as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee let's talk about Egypt uh and the indictment related to your role with the government uh there on the one hand you had tough rhetoric on Egypt regarding human rights Etc but on the other hand you greenlighted from your chair on Foreign Relations arm sales and other considerations in exchange for what prosecutors say was money gold and a mercedesbenz for your wife was this constituent services or acting as an agent of a foreign government well first of all this particular charge is outrageous uh as it is absurd my parents came to this country in in search of freedom I have for 50 years in public service been loyal to only one nation the United States of America that's what I have given my life's work to and to improve the lives of people in this country and in our state the reality is it's more than rhetoric that I conducted as it related to Egypt I stood up to the president of Egypt in the presence of eight other United States senators and challenged him on human rights violations on political prisoners on press freedom on NOS uh and I've done that twice previously in the presence of our US ambassador with other staff present each time I have done directly face Toof face to the president of Egypt what no other member has done as clearly and the administrations both Republicans and Democrats have used both carrots and sticks with u Egypt as it does with other countries when it wants to induce that country to act a certain way it may give it some assistance when it's that country is doing something wrong like VI violating human rights it may use sticks uh but at the end of the day the ultimate decision maker as it relates to Aid to Egypt or any other country in the world is whatever the administration is and yes we have a uh impact on that but my impact has been clear and unequivocal uh and has not inured to the benefit of Egypt when it has not acted correctly that's that's just so crystal clear this is among the most outrageous uh of the the charges uh and it goes and flies in the face of a long history a long history uh of opposing human rights violations rule of law uh independent journalists and others inside of Egypt so the considerations that Egypt received including uh getting a green light from from your committee the quid proquo as it were were was Egypt behaving better in exchange for arm sales and other consider ations each consideration depended upon the nature of the sale whether it was for example defensive equipment whether it was equipment for the cyani uh where they are playing a vital role for security with Israel which everybody Democrats and Republicans have called for uh so these followed uh the the traditional uses of both foreign a and armed sales in a way to to ensure uh that the US National Security interest was pursued and that's that that's simply the case and in the case of one of your codefendants receiving a contract U to certify Halal I can't answer for my codefendant you'll have to ask him well the suggestion is that it was your relations with Egyptian officials that helped ease the way for him to get that contract David there's a lot of suggestions as a matter of fact as I read the indictment there's a lot of inferences but not a lot of facts at the end of the day those inferences try to play and create a storyline that is the most negative pajor storyline you can create but when those get challenged by the facts as we will in the legal proceedings that both motions and trials will allow was to do then we will see a totally different story