Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) mocked Sen. Bob Menendez on Sunday for what he described as the New Jersey Democrat’s legal strategy of “blaming his wife” in his bribery trial that began in Manhattan last week.
Fetterman responded to the trial’s opening statements on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, noting that he was the first senator to demand Menendez’s resignation after he was indicted last year.
He also criticized Menéndez’s legal team for trying to pin blame on the senator. wife, Nadine Menendez, who the senator said last week is battling breast cancer.
“And I really can’t imagine who — either it was his idea or he was convinced that blaming his wife, who suffers from cancer, is actually an effective strategy or how this is going to end,” Fetterman told co-host Jake Seringueiro.
Menendez, his wife and three New Jersey businessmen face charges related to an alleged bribery scheme in which lavish gifts were exchanged for political influence. Menendez and his wife will have separate trials due to her medical condition.
Opening statements in the trial began last week, where the New Jersey Democrat’s defense attorneys sought to distance the senator’s actions from those of his wife.
Defense attorney Avi Weitzman at one point showed jurors a slide that mimicked a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle, but was replaced with “Where’s Bob?” He implored jurors last week to remember that slide whenever prosecutors showed evidence implicating Nadine Menendez, noting that the couple lived “separate lives.”
Fetterman has been very vocal in his criticism of his fellow Democrat, raising some eyebrows as most of his other colleagues have muted criticism of the New Jersey Democrat and his legal troubles.
Fetterman, for his part, reiterated on Sunday that Menéndez should not receive confidential information about Egypt and Qatar.
“He’s entitled to his day in court, the way he’s having it now, but he’s not entitled to be a United States senator,” he said. “He certainly has no right to receive some sort of confidential briefing on Egypt and Qatar, as he has essentially been accused of being an agent of theirs as well.”
“I don’t understand why anyone would agree to this,” he added.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
