Democrats stood by Bob Menendez in his last corruption trial. Why is it so different now?

A mix of cynical politics, needing to win re-election and, of course, Donald Trump all play a role

Initially, when a grand jury indicted Sen Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on Friday, it looked like he might once again survive. After all, the last time he was indicted, a hung jury saved him. His colleague from New Jersey, Sen Cory Booker, even testified to his character in 2017 despite the fact that Mr Booker wanted to run for president.

When the trial was done, he returned to his perch atop the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and delivered a quintessentially New Jersey warning to his political foes that would make Tony Soprano tell him to tone it down.

“To those who left me, who abandoned me in my darkest moment, I forgive you,” he said. “To those who were digging my political grave so they could jump into my seat, I know who you are and I won’t forget you.”

That seems to have changed over the weekend. New Jersey’s Democratic Gov Phil Murphy called on him to resign, as did much of New Jersey’s Democratic congressional delegation save for his son, Rep Rob Menendez.

Unsurprisingly, the Senate is taking longer in showing Mr Menendez the door. Despite the partisan rancor, the upper chamber of Congress has always been clubbier than the rowdy House of Representatives. With only 100 members, they tend to see each other more and the existence of the filibuster requires them to cooperate more. Oftentimes, if a state has Senators from two separate parties, they won’t campaign against each other since it’s considered a breach of decorum.

As a result, it was no surprise that Sen John Fetterman (D-PA), a newly-elected Senator who has fewer ties to the body and therefore might not feel the same fealty to its traditions, made the leapn to call for Mr Menendez to go. The same goes for new Sen Peter Welch (D-VT), who joined the body earlier this year and is good friends with Mr Fetterman.

But since then, Democratic Sens Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jon Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jacky Rosen of Nevada all said Mr Menendez should step aside.

The ultimate humiliation came when Mr Booker said he needed to step down. The two are incredibly close and Mr Menendez endorsed Mr Booker’s longshot White House bid.

Mr Menendez’s changes in fortune might have multiple rationales, with some being more pragmatic and cynical than others. For one, during Mr Menendez’s last probe, New Jersey had a Republican governor in Chris Christie. Had Mr Menendez resigned, Mr Christie would have replaced him with a Republican Senator the same way Mr Christie replaced the late Sen Frank Lautenberg with a Republican before his frenemy Mr Booker won the seat.

In the same token, with the exception of Mr Welch, Mr Fetterman and Mr Booker, all of the Senators listed are up for re-election. Mr Brown and Mr Tester hail from states Donald Trump won twice and Ms Baldwin and Mr Casey hail from states Mr Trump won in 2016. Ms Rosen hails from perhaps the swingiest state in the union where Republicans are putting her squarely in their crosshairs. Creating a little daylight could never hurt when re-election is on the horizon.

But the other rationale is a lot more pragmatic: it allows them to throw mud at the Republicans. In her interview with Jen Psaki on MSNBC, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cited Rep George Santos (R-NY), the embattled serial fabricator who is also under federal investigation. So far, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has not pushed for the beleaguered congressman’s ouster (likely because he would be one less vote to keep the speaker’s gavel).

Democrats also avoid defending Hunter Biden and have instead said they believe the legal process should play out. In the same way, Democrats have said they want to see the legal process play out even as they call for the Senator to go.

By doing so, they get to create a contrast between themselves and the GOP, which has turned defending Mr Trump into a core tenet of Republican ideology.

Still the Club of 100 as a whole has hesitated to push Mr Menendez off the cliff. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made only a brief statement on Friday, calling him a “a dedicated public servant” when announcing he would step aside as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the same token, Sen Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who is retiring at the end of next year, could not bring herself to say that Mr Menendez should resign on Morning Joe.