Gov. Phil Mur­phy joins Demo­c­ra­t­ic calls for Sen. Bob Menen­dez to resign

Gov. Phil Mur­phy (D‑NJ) joined the grow­ing cho­rus of Democ­rats call­ing on Sen. Bob Menen­dez (D‑NJ) to resign fol­low­ing an indict­ment on cor­rup­tion alle­ga­tions.
Mur­phy’s state­ment echoed those of ear­li­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic fig­ures who had called on him to resign, acknowl­edg­ing that every­one is inno­cent until proven guilty but stress­ing the seri­ous­ness of the charges. He demand­ed that Menen­dez resign from his posi­tion imme­di­ate­ly.
ROBERT MENENDEZ INDICTED: DEMOCRATIC NEW JERSEY SENATOR FACES FEDERAL CHARGES OF BRIBERY

Gov. Phil Mur­phy (D‑NJ) deliv­ers his State of the State address to a joint ses­sion of the leg­is­la­ture in Tren­ton, N.J., Tues­day, Jan. 10, 2023.
Matt Rourke/AP

“The alle­ga­tions in the indict­ment against Sen­a­tor Menen­dez and four oth­er defen­dants are deeply dis­turb­ing,” Mur­phy said in a state­ment post­ed on the gov­er­nor’s web­site.
“These are seri­ous charges that impli­cate nation­al secu­ri­ty and the integri­ty of our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. Under our legal sys­tem, Sen­a­tor Menen­dez and the oth­er defen­dants have not been found guilty and will have the abil­i­ty to present evi­dence dis­put­ing these charges, and we must respect the process. How­ev­er, the alleged facts are so seri­ous that they com­pro­mise the abil­i­ty of Sen­a­tor Menen­dez to effec­tive­ly rep­re­sent the peo­ple of our state. There­fore, I am call­ing for his imme­di­ate res­ig­na­tion,” …