Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

How soon the writers may return to work. With these stories and more, im sara sidner with john berman and kate bolduan is off. This is cnn news central. And shortly, we will see new jersey senator bob menendez appear before the cameras, and his remarks in union city, new jersey, are the first since he was federally indicted on Bribery Charges late last week, and it should be noted that as a defendant, menendez has the right to remain silent, but minutes from now, he wont. He is going to speak, and we will bring you what he says live. Kara scannell is live at the location where this Press Conference is going to take place. And carkar kara, we can see the microphones set up behind you, and what is the expectation . Well, john, we expect the senator to give the first remarks since he was indicted on the Bribery Charges friday. They will begin in a half hour from now, and the senator has been defiant since he was indicted, and other democrats including senator phil murray said he should resign, but he said this he is not going anywher anywhere, and we expect he going to give those remarks similarly today. He is going to give the remarks in english and spanish, and we are at a Community College in union city, new jersey, and this where he grew up, and where he began the political career, and the place where he is choosing make the statements today. This is what is expected be a consequential week, because he and his wife and three new jersey businessmen will appear in Federal Court in manhattan where they will be arraigned on the charges, and first appearance, however, we will hear from the senator shortly and see what tone he is going to set coming into the big week, john. It seems as if he is going to be defiant based on the Paper Statement that he put on out friday. And Kara Scannell, he is going to be appearing right behind you, and so, keep us posted if you see or hear anything. And now, a Special Prosecutor and cnn special analyst john avalon is with us, and we have politics and the Law Colliding as well, and this time, democrat senator bob menendez, and looking at what was spelled out in the indictment, is this far from 2015 when he beat that case, bob . Well, it is different case, because it had to do with a friend of his, and someone he had known for a long time, and he had given benefits to along the way, and the government had a hard time connecting quid pro quo with benefits received and the favors extended. Here, it is not a close question. You have the government of egypt involved and you cant say that is a close friend. You have two situations where you have individuals under indictment by a Federal Grand Jury and another one in a state case, and these are the people who he just happened to meet through his wife after he met his wife and was dating her. So the arguments here are completely different, and the government is going to be able to show that he performed official acts in return for very specific benefits which were the gold bars, the mercedesbenz, cash, payments on mortgages, and whole series of things. And it just seems to me, and he has no place to go with this but to resign from office. He has known about it since june of last year when the government executed a Search Warrant on his home. Yeah, they know that he went in, and he knows that the government went in and he knows what they took. John avalon, i want to bring you into the conversation, and Kara Scannell said something in passing, and i dont want it to slip by, but it is going to be 5 to 10 minutes in english and in spanish, and the reason that jumped out to me is because of part of the Statement Last week when the charges were first brought, he said, it is not lost on me that a latino is being targeted by Law Enforcement here. So what is the takeaway . I think that trying to say that he is the victim of persecution because of his latino heritage doesnt hold any water at all. It sounds a little bit desperate, because the facts are so damning in the case, and the pattern of allegations are troubling over the course of his recent career, and there is apparently no learning curve. I mean, as just said, the details are so clear, he cannot be forced resign, but he is going to be apparently defiant and double down to make himself look like a victim which is what sometimes people do to not look guilty, and everyone is entitled to the Presumption Of Innocence, but i thought that tactic was not anything but divisible. What would you advise him to do in this Press Conference . I would tell him to keep the mouth shut and he has a right to go before the jury and they will determine whether he is guilty or innocent, and the part of him looking to be a victim is right out of the donald trump playbook, and that is the mirror image of the democratic side of the donald trump indictment, and if anything this indictment proves is that the Department Of Justice is an equal opportunity prosecutor. They prosecute republicans and they prosecute democrats equally, and if the facts and the law justify it. And just to jump in one more thing, you mentioned the fact that he is using a donald trump playbook, but what is different in this case is that many have come out to say he is needing to resign, but we are not seeing the same thing for donald trump so much. Correct. Only one u. S. Senator up to this point, and this is john fetterman, and that could change based on what we hear today. And john avalon, we were talking to john brisman from punch bowl news, and we do not expect him to say that he is stepping down, but the question that a lot of the democrats say is that he might use this News Conference to say he is going to announce reelection, and not only to say that i am not going anywhere, but iallin and he is up in 2024. Yes, and this is a clear contrast by the Democratic Party to the republicans tiptoeing around donald trump with the indictments, and clear course of condemnation from the delegation, and one of the members of the delegation of andy kim said that he is going to primary Senator Menendez which is significant and maybe more to come, but the senate does operate like a boys club, and they want to preserve the idea of innocent until Proven Guilty as appropriate and not forcing one of their colleagues out, because they did just that in effect with al franken, and to much regret down the line. But the core idea should be clear, as democratic crook is as bad as a republican crook, and you to uphold the equal standards above partisanship, and so it was good to see the democrats come out to condemn him when we are losing the moral clarity too often. And so, john, will this be used by the republicans going into the president ial race where one of the candidates donald trump has been indicted, i dont know how many times, and four separate times, and will this be used by republicans against democrats . Well, works both ways, and the troubling twotiered doublesided tier of justy, and the Justice Department under a democratic senator shows that this is equal justice under the law, and it does not ignore the facts regardless of the party, and so that is going to remove one of the republican Talking Points, and muddy it, but moral equivalencies between a senator, and the former president who tried to overturn the election who is now the front runner to be renominated, and they are in two different ball parks morally and practically, and so you have to keep in mind the difference of the responses and hopefully it is going to cut away from the Talking Point that says there is a twotiered system of justice and this is evidence that there is not. We are looking live at the setup in union city, new jersey, where senator bob menendez is going to make the first public statements since he was indicted on Corruption Charges last friday and a lot of anticipation of what he is going to say. And nick, while he is not taking your legal advice to stay silent. Obviously not. And he wont get into the details of the case or the charges here, but ei am curious here how viable of a defense for him to say, it was my wife. This is her money. These are her gold bars . Oh, that is a great defense when he has cash coming out of his pockets of the jackets. I went to high school, and i was holding it for my wife. It is absurd, and he is using position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help out egypt and providing them with information about people in the embassy of cairo and helping them to get funding on armaments when there was a real issue with egypt as to whether or not they were abiding by equal rights and human rights in egypt. I mean, there is no way he has any argument here. He is absolute toast on this indictment. There is no reason whatsoever for him to continue in this senate or be a candidate for senate going forward, and the democrats have to be extremely firm. This guy has got to go. Nick ackerman and john avalon, both of you, thank you very much for all of the insight this morning. All right. So inside of the republican food fight as the Government Shutdown is days away, can Kevin Mccarthy save his job . And the Writers Guild in Hollywood Studios have a tentative deal to end the strik strike, and when you might get your new shows back. Matlock. And some billion years old rock drop and some new details. This morning a Government Shutdown seems all but certain. The House Republicans walked through the weekend and worked through the weekend and still could not reach a funding deal. The government will run out of money in five days unless theres an 11th hour deal from House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy and his divided caucus which means millions of federal workers could be affected, and somes forred to work without pay. Lauren fox is joining us from capitol hill this morning, and you caught up with speaker Kevin Mccarthy this morning and what did he tell you . Yeah, right now, the options are really limited for the speaker of the house when it comes to averting Government Shutdown, but he is still pushing the conference to unite behind some sort sof short term Spending Bill to some spending package. This is what he told me about the members holding out against that idea. Well, you have to keep the government open, and i mean, if people want to close the government, it is going to make it weaker, and why would they want to stop paying the troops or the Border Agents or the coast guard. I dont know what point you try to make . We have a border wide open today, and it is getting worse each month under joe biden, and we have Border Agents who you saw this morning being blooded. Why would you want to stop paying those individuals . I would not want to understand somebody who would want to do that . And right now the Republican Leaders want to pass a individual oneyear long Spending Bills on the floor of the house that would Fund Agencies like the department of defense, state, agriculture and Homeland Security, but those bills have no chance of passing in the United States senate, and that why the Republican Leaders are rallying the members to try to get behind a shortterm solution, but say they cant get behind that solution, and that there is not time to negotiate with the senate. The senate right now is trying to work its way through to a stand alone shortterm spending measure, and negotiated between the Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell and minority leader Chuck Schumer to avoid a shutdown if they put out on the floor, because they have to pass it, and get it out of the house and give it to the senate, and he has the decide to put it into floor, and the tricky part of that is to put it on the floor with democratic support could imperial mccarthys speakership. Thank you, lauren fox. And now you heard of him talking about the coast guard not being paid, and the military, and if the Government Shutdowns, many more people would not be paid. 4 million federal employees would immediately feel the impact. Some are essential and would have to keep working, and not see a pay check until it is funded. The health care officials, Law Enforcement, park rangers and tsa agents and Social Security workers and they on average earn 55,000 to 65,000 a year, and some less than that which made the president s union say that most of the members live paycheck to paycheck and they cannot afford the miss one payday and we are calling on congress to do its job. As for the americans who dont work for the government, a shutdown can bring major Travel Disruptions and Public Health risk and hazard waste sites, and low income americans could see disruptions in services at Housing Sites and water facilities. Thank you, sara. As this congress is headed to the possible shutdown, chip roy spoke to the six or seven or eight Republicans Holding out, and he said, i honestly dont know what to say to the fellow republicans other than you are going to eat a ssandwich and rhymes with rich. And you are going to have to eat it. In this context, congressman, what is the ssandwich . Well, john, good to be with you this morning, and you know, that sandwich is getting a bill from the senate that tries to jam us to do a clean continuing resolution, but it is not just going to be clean, but it is going to have a lot of other funding tagged along to it. You know, a continuing Resolution Says that we keep spending at the same level that we spent last year. I dont know anybody in the republican conference that wants to spend at the same levels the democrats put in place last year. Speaker mccarthy is the only one who has articulated a path forward and he has articulated many paths forward and another one this week where we have four big Spending Bills that should be on the floor, and this would account for 75 of the funding through the normal appropriation process, and another thing that we can do is to pass our own shortterm funding bill and focus on an issue that is a huge issue in our country right now, and this is the southern border. Whether we do it through the Homeland Security bill or whether we do it through the short term funding resolution, this is something that has to be addressed. The Biden Administration right now is planning to build Migrant Shelters on Park Service Land in new york city, and they arare waiving environmental laws to do it, the Endangered Species Act to build the Migrant Centers and it has people in the outrage and even the new york democrats have joined the lawsuit to stop the Biden Administration for doing it. So we have to be focused on keeping the government open, but closing the border and we have a pathway forward. And you are articulating system of the arguments that House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy has himself, and in the face of that, you have the republican holdouts who are not concerned about the possibility of a shutout. And andy biggs, your colleague said, dont let the d. C. Unity party scare you into thinking that the Government Shutdown is the end of the world seeming to diminish what a shutdown would mean. Do you agree with that . Well, i think that the point that he is trying to make and others are making is that when we have a shutdown, eventually when the government opens up, people get backpay, but it creates a huge inconvenience and a huge chaos that doesnt need to happen. We can keep the government operating, and we can keep the Border Patrol agents working, and parks open, and we can work towards sol vlg this funding crisis, but if we dont keep working, and if we dont address the issues and then we let opportunities like closing the southern border and addressing some of the outrageous spending tickets that the democrats put in the Spending Bills last year, we let it continue on, and i dont see how it helps the conservative cause. I am all for being fiscally responsible for cutting the budget, but you have to have a plan. And the plan cant be that we will shut down the government, because it has to be proactive to get results. That is what we are all working for, and this is why Speaker Mccarthy keeps putting things forward the find a path to get to a good solution. One the plans that your quote, unquote moderate republicans have is to work with the democrats, and i have heard Tim Burchett Say that he would vote against Speaker Mccarthy if that is what it comes to. It is not working against Speaker Mccarthy, but if they saw the bill comes over from the senate, they may choose to vote with the democrats on a Discharge Petition to put the bill on the floor. I dont think that anybody in the republican conference wants to see that happen, and that is another reason that we need to work towards getting a real solution that doesnt involve shutting the government down, that doesnt involve some republicans switching over to vote with democrats, but pushing the conservative policies forward like Speaker Mccarthyar he is putting the solutions out, and Solutions Coming from talking to a vast majority of the members in the republican conference. Congressman, you forgive me for this, but you are the only person i am speaking to who has experience playing high level football, playing with the Arkansas Razorbacks and what happened with travis kelce up there on the field, and you have taylor swift up there in the box, and you have experience and how would you field and there is taylor swift up there in the box watching . Well, the chiefs were dominant yesterday, and so maybe a little extra motivation to have her up in the stands, but from my perspective, it was bad college and professional football weekend, because the razorbacks got beat in a heartbreaker in lsu, and the cowboys who looked so dominant and then beat. And then back to my Old High School team, and every team i have ever played for or cheer for got beat this weekend. I am sorry for your loss. Maybe taylor swift can show up next week to one of your games. Congressman bruce westerman, thank you for being a good sport. See you again. Thank you, john. Any moment now, Senator Menendez is going to speak for the first time on Bribery Charges, and you can see the live look there from union city, new jersey, and we will see him there in a little bit, and we will bring it to you when it happens live. Youre probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. 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The Southern District of new york has brought charges against me. I understand how deeply concerning this can be however the allegations leveled against me are just that, allegations. For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 years of public service, they know i have fought for what is right. My advocacy has been grounded, and from what i have known from the cuban refugees, and especially my mom, angelino, and everything that i have worked for, and despite the naysayers and everyone who was underestimated me, i recognize that this is the biggest fight yet, but as i have stated throughout this whole process, i firmly believe that when all of the facts are presented, not only will i be exonerated, but i still will be the new jerseys Senior Senator. For now, i want to address four things. First, a cornerstone of the foundation of american democracy and our Justice System is the principle that all people are presume innocent until Proven Guilty. All people. I ask for nothing more and deserve nothing less. The court of Public Opinion is no substitute for the revered Justice System. We cannot set aside the Presumption Of Innocence for political expediency when the harm is ir r r irrevocable, a sometimes the prosecutors get it wrong sometimes, and i know that. And sometimes others Rush To Judgment because they see a political opportunity for themselves or those around them. All i humbly ask for in this moment in my colleagues in congress and the elected leaders and the advocates of new jersey that i have worked with for years and each person who calls new jersey home is to pause and allow for all of the facts to be presented. Second, my long record on egypt. One fact is indisputable. Throughout my time in congress, i have remained steadfast on the side of Civil Society and Human Rights Defenders in egypt and everywhere else in the world. If you look at my actions related to egypt during the period described in this indictment and throughout my whole career, my record is clear and consistent in Holding Egypt accountable for the unjust detention of americans and others and the Human Rights Abuses, and the deepening relationship with russia, and the efforts that have eroded the independence of the judiciary among a myriad of concerns. In 2017, i led a bipartisan letter to then President Trump expressing grave concern with the worsening concern for human rights and Civil Society in egypt. That same year, i sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee supporting egypt as long as they had hered to the Camp David Accords and urged the Appropriations Committee to urge required assistance reforms outlied in the egypt reform act of 2013. In 2018, i urged secretary kilson to focus more on Human Rights Issues in egypt, and to urge that the electoral rights were not fair and equal. And i also met with president assisi to say that we have eroding cooperation, and my concern about egypts intent to purchase a missile attempt. On 2020, i spoke on the senate floor for International Womens day and spoke about a Human Rights Lawyer and also, a Human Activist Lawyer who were unjustly detained in egypt for fighting for democracy and a free press. Vi place i have placed holds on arms to egypt, and i have challenged president assisi directly for the arbitrary lists of freedoms and so on. In my years of the house and the senate, i have always worked to hold accountable those countries, including egypt, for Human Rights Abuses and the repression of the citizenry and Civil Society and more. Those who are attempting to malign my actions as it relates to egypt, simply dont know the facts. Third, for 30 years, i have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal Savings Account. Which i have kept for emergencies and because of the emergency of my family Facing Confiscation in cuba and maybe it is Old Fashioned, but these were monies withdrawn from my personal Savings Account from the Income Vi Lawfully that lawfully derived. I will defend those actions at trial. And fourth, you are the reason that i have dedicated entirety of my adult life for the hard working new jerseyians and american people. Some people say that i have lost the trust of the people of new jersey and that could not be more wrong. Today, i am surrounded by everyday people and constituents who know me, and they are here, because i fought for Important Health care policies like the Affordable Health care act, and access to reproductive care, and funding of Health Care Centers and lower prescription drugs, and they are here, because i have been fighting for those working people working 9 00 to 5 00 from those who work 9 00 to 5 00, and also looking for staunch Affordable Services for child care services. And they are here, because when new jersey was fighting super storm sandy, i never relented to make sure that new jersey had the services to rebuild stronger and more resilient than before, and they are here, because in the worst pandemic in a century, i went to bat for the Small Business owners to make sure they could keep the doors open and the employees on the payroll, anded they are here, because when the State Government was faced with the decision of laying off front line responders and police and firefighters, i delivered billions in federal funding and investments to keep our state, cities and towns and hospitals afloat. They are here because throughout my career and some may not like the positions i have taken, i have stood against authoritarian regimes in iran, and the desire to achieve Nuclear Weapons or cuba and the dictatorship or the authoritarianism in turkey, venezuela and russia and wherever in the world human rights and democracies have been threatened. They are here, because it is my lifes work to protecting refugees and immigrants who have come to our shores seeking a Better Future for their children just as my family did. They are here because in the past 30 years i have fought Tooth And Nail so new jersey would receive funding for the gateway project. I have repeatedly stood up to the gun lobby to stop destroying lives and communities. They are here because when tragedy struck one of the federal judges, i made a promise that i would not stop until i passed a law to better protect the protected servants in the judiciary, and last year i delivered passed legislation signed into law by the president to protect those judges. And they are here, because in never gave up on delivering services for those killed in 9 11 for those who were killed by statesponsored terrorism, and in december, i delivered billions of dollars in long overdue federal relief to that community and other u. S. Victims of terror. They are here because when other members of congress wanted to turn their backs on our veterans and not pass the pact act to provide health care for our veterans in burn pits, i was there, and they are here because i successfully passed legislation to better serve world war ii vets as well as those suffering from the gulf war illnesses. For now, i am remained focused on continuing to do the important work that i do every day on behalf of the 9 Million People who call new jersey home, and including everything we can this week to avoid a Government Shutdown and everything to avoid catastrophic natural disasters and ensuring that the people in ukraine have everything to defeat putin and i will return to washington to do that and i want to say a few words in spanish. [ speaking in a global language ] [ speaking global language ] [ speaking in a global language ] [ applause ] [ speaking in a global language ] senator bob menendez of new jersey making part of the statement in spanish after he told a gather of reporters that he firmly believes that he is going to be exonerated and that when all is said and done, he is going to still be new jerseys Senior Senator, and in other words, he is not resigning. He is not going anywhere, and he is fighting this. Yeah. There are several charges against him, and prosecutors put out several different pictures of the things they found in his home, and including gold bars, wads of cash and a fancy car for his wife. He talked about the wads of cash, which was surprising to a lot of folks, especially to those attorneys who wish he would not say that if they are defending him, but talked about the thousands of dollars of cash and where it came from. He said it came from his personal Savings Account. He said that he knows that he might be oldfashioned, but that is what he was doing. Thousands of dollars withdrawn from his personal Savings Account that came from lawfully derived income. Senator bob menendez says that he is braced for what he knows is the biggest fight yet. That is right, but he also said that prosecutors get it wrong sometimes and sadly, i know. He is referring to another bribery case that came against him that he beat in 2017, and he says that he will do it again. We go to Jessica Snyder right now who has also been watching all of this unfold. What stuck out to you . Well, you know, sara and john, after a weekend of these growing calls for Senator Menendez to resign, we saw the defiance from the senator, and pledging to continue to serve the new jersey people as he has for decades. He is speaking in union city where he was once the mayor and served in the new Jersey Legislature and the house of representative and now the senate. He is up for reelection in 2024 and we heard not only defiance, but also the senator beginning to mount his defense. Remember that indictment was brought on friday. He is scheduled to appear in Federal Court for the first appearance and likely an arraignment wednesday with his wife and the codefendants and we are hearing from two of them that he talked about all of the cash that was found in his home, and in some cases in the envelopes inside of jackets that bore his name. He talked about the fact that these were from personal Savings Accounts, a prnd prosecutors ha said it is from the new jersey businessmen who were bribing him to do the official acts to influence arm sales and military aid in egypt, and also accused of trying to influence the criminal prosecutions on the federal and state side from new jersey. The senator coming right out to defend against the nearly 500,000 that was found inside of his home. And also, talking about the record when it comes to egypt, and remember, another part of this very vast indictment, spanning 39 pages were allegations that he abused his power to influence arm sales, military aid, to new jersey and from kickbacks from the new jersey men, and the prosecution talked about how he had meetings with the egyptian officials spanning from 2018 to 2022, and what we are seeing from the senator is a defense and he has not appeared in court yet for his arraignment which is on wednesday. You know, the senator here talking, referencing that prosecution that he went through, you know, beginning in 2015, and he was eventually a mistrial in 2017, and the judge acquitted him in 2018, and the Justice Department deciding not the bring more charges, but the senator is facing a more difficult prosecution in this sense, and lengthy indictment, but he is pledging to stay on as senator despite the mounting calls for his resignation, guys. He calls it what is going to be his toughest fight yet, and he said when the facts come out, he is going to be exonerated and he will be the senior new jersey senator which says that he is not at all going to resign. I want to bring in the political analyst john avalon. So you had the political defense there where people are dancing on his grave where they see, quote, political opportunity and you can talk about that, but there also a little bit of the Legal Defense which we will get to more later. Yeah. Look. The first thing is that he is saying that people are rushing to judgment and ignoring fact that people are calling for him to resign from new jersey are predominantly democrats from his own party. And he has one political challenger, representative kim, and this is about substance and not expediency, and the details he offered were interesting and the litany of the defenses and the visavis the actions Against Egypt and thes assisi regime, and nothing about the details of gold bars showing up on the house. And cash, he says he keeps it under the mattress and jackets there as generational trauma with regard to cuba and land being possessed. That strange credulity, but the patterns are so troubling that it is easy to see why the democrats are saying enough is enough. There is the political issue where he has, he says, fighting for his political life, and then the issue of where gene rossi is here, the former prosecutor, and jean, we have heard from bob menendez that on the charges of why he has all of the cash, and he says is, look it, it came from my personal Savings Account, and it is what i did being oldfashioned from cuba, and this is how you protect your money, if even if it is Old Fashioned and he did not mention the gold bars or the car that his wife is accused of and indicted for getting as part of the bribe. What do you make of him touching on some of the evidence but not others . Well, he is putting the toe in the water. I am thinking back to Rocky Marciano who had a lot of cash, because he didnt trust banks, but that was in the 1940s. We are now fast forwarding to 2023, and mr. Menendezs argument is to as if William Jefferson argued that he put the 90,000 of cash in the freezer because he wanted to preserve the integrity of the dollar bills. That argument it is a foolish argument, and if i had been his attorney, i would have told him to pause. I am assuming forensic accounting, and a paper trail when it comes to money, and if that is the case, it is easily provable. And again, as interesting as the defense, and whether or not you believe it is Strange K Credkred Yule credulity, and decided to get it out there in front of the reporters and decided to do it today, and as his attorney, you would have said uhhuh, no. Are you asking me . Yes. I think that what Senator Menendez is trying to do is to get ahead of the curve and mitigate the allegations. I will have to stress this. These are allegations Presumption Of Innocence and the burden on the government and we know that. He has had a successful trial and hung jury and we have to give him the benefit of the doubt, and what is important here, and what your audience needs to understand is that this case appears to be allegedly far different from governor bob mcdonald, because in that case, there was and at ten tenuation, amorphous actions to do things for johnny williams, but here, allegedly, you have an official act and then you have cash, gold bars, checks or some other benefit or, you are about to do an official act and you have cash, checks, gold bars and other benefits. So there is a nexus between the actions that have occurred or will occur and the benefit that he got. The gold bars and the cash, it is just proof that there was some quid pro quo allegedly. We think that Senator Menendez may be close to being done here. We will listen in for a second. [ speaking in a global language ] thank you very much. [ applause ] are you running for reelection . Where did those gold bars come from . What about the mercedes, senator . Political sense, did he buy himself some more time today . Is there going to be additional members of congress, democratic members of Congress Calling for his resignation i think you framed it the right way, john. This is about buying time. By presenting evidence that he says could be exculpatory. Hes trying to say, look, my record shows im not a stooge for the government. And ive got an explanation for thousands of dollars lining my jacket. To create pause, i think democrats, this one of those Tipping Points in politics. Its a jumpball moment. Whether more members of senate come forward, that say, im sorry, the details are who disturbing and the pattern is too troubling, this is what we need. Its time to go. They cannot compel him to do that. When it becomes the consensus, that pressure ratchets up. But it buys himself little time. You know, we just heard him talk about his 50 years in office. This is going to be his biggest fight yet do we have Kara Scannell now or okay, jessica snide are. On your thoughts how he went down. He really jumped in on two different things, one, the cash but he also talked a lot about his relationship with egypt. And that particular charge seems to be one of the most troubling charges in this case. He was trying to have some influence, using bribery to help them, for example, with military aid. Yeah, and the thought that he pushed this military aid, despite the record of Human Rights Abuses in egypt. And thats what he really focused on in his defense, that he mounted there at the Press Conference. Talking about how hes long urged for addressing Human Rights Issues in egypt. He went down the list. He talked about letters that hes written to former President Trump, meetings that he had with the president of egypt. So trying to defend, right what you see in the indictment here, against what his record was in the senate, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So, yes, that, in terms of official acts what was spelled out in the indictment as to what he allegedly did to assist egypt. Whether it was having those meetm meetings with officials from egypt outside the presence of his staff. Theres also accusations in the indictment that he gave Sensitive Information to the new jersey businessmen who then related to egyptian officials, the Sensitive Information, being the number and nationality of u. S. Employees at the u. S. Embassy in cairo. So, there are a lot more specifics in the indictment that the senator really did not touch on in his Press Conference. Probably much of the relief of his lawyers. But he did talk about his rights, or his record, when it comes to looking at the Human Rights Abuses that have been alleged in egypt. So that was a big Talking Point that will likely be expanded upon in his defense when he does begin the proceedings in court and beyond. Im glad you pointed that out. In the allegation, theres the idea that he provided sensitive nonpublic information to egypt which has nothing to do with what he talked about behind those microphones today which was his long record as he says being tough on egypt and standing up to human rights. Jessica stand by. I want to bring in Kara Scannell in the room when he made this statement, kara, when all is said and done, he says he will be the senator for new jersey. He is not responding. What was it like to be there . Reporter yeah, john, its a packed room. Its filled with media. Youll notice there were some people standing behind the senator. Some of those people are members of the community. He made the point for saying those who thought he should resign hes lost the confidence of new jerseyans, he says thats not the case. When he was giving his remarks in spanish, the word at some point, it was met by applause in a certain corner of the room. Those were the supporters he brought in to stand behind him when he did the remarks. Now, in addition to believing that hes going to be exonerated, he asked people not to Rush To Judgment to pause before the facts are out. He said, sometimes, prosecutors get tr wit wrong. That was a reference to his indictment in 2014, when he went to trial, the case the jury couldnt reach a verdict. That was a mistrial. The judge acquitted him on some charges and the Department Of Justice decided to drop the case as it was. But the new allegations that hes facing are serious allegations, and he sought to address some of that in the statements. The big thing here, these photos that you see in the indictment having cash stuffed in envelopes, in a jacket pocket. A mercedesbenz that his wife allegedly received in exchange for favors. And the gold bars that she also allegedly received. Now, he only addressed the cash. He said that as an immigrant of cuba he has a Family History of fear of confiscation. He said he routinely withdrew thousands of dollars in cash. But prosecutors allege there was dna from one of the businessmen who allegedly gave him the bribe. Certainly, a first step of menendez trying to keep the support of his voters. But certainly, still a long way to go. And he will be in Federal Court on wednesday to face these charges. Let me quickly ask you the different about what his statement was a couple days ago, over the weekend, and what his statement was now. His statement a few days ago was he was being prosecuted because he was latino. You didnt hear that. Or did i miss that . Reporter no, you didnt hear that today, i think the tone has shifted a bit where he is saying, just take a deep breath. Dont Rush To Judgment. Let all of the facts come out, not quite as defiant as he was on friday. The one thing that is consistent, though, hes saying hes not going anywhere and he does expect to remain the Senior Senator from new jersey. Sara. Thank you so much Kara Scannell and others who joined us. We need to mention that Senator Menendez is is not stepping down, it was defending himself defense the surprising charges. He said he will be exonerated. Thank you for joining us. This has been cnn news central. Cnn cnn is up next