On Capitol Hill, embattled Senator Bob Menendez may be gearing
up for a surprising fight outside the courtroom.
NBC's Julie Serkin is there for us.
What's going on?
Yeah, Chris, we broke the news this morning that Senator
Bob Menendez is eyeing a run for New Jersey Senate,
his current Senate seat, as an independent.
You might be wondering why.
Well, if he runs as a Democrat,
he only has about two weeks less than that in
order to file to get those thousand signatures.
And remember, there's already a crowded primary heating up there
between Congressman Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy,
who's the first lady of New Jersey.
Senator Menendez certainly pulling terribly in the state after all
of his indictments and court battles,
but he still wants to remain on the ballot.
If he runs as an independent,
my sources tell me he will have until June 4th
and he needs less signatures.
And if he remains as a candidate,
he's able to fundraise. We've seen the former president do
this.
Spending more than $27 million on his legal fees?
Well, that's something Menendez might want to do,
too. I did caught up with him,
though. I literally chased him outside of the Capitol.
Take a look at our exchange.
Are you running as an independent?
I don't have to declare what I'm doing.
When I do, everybody will know is that,
but are you considering it?
When I decide to declare,
whatever my path is, I will do with that.
I'm not going to do it on television for you.
But could it jeopardize? We already reported this,
Sir, but could it jeopardize so?
Are we correct in our report?
As I said, are you going to ask your question
100 different ways?
I've given you an answer.
Yeah. So not really a surprising reaction from Senator Menendez
there,
but this is notable news.
And I also got on the phone Congressman Andy Kim
himself,
who responded to this, telling me in part quote this
news that senator is considering running as an independent is
really alarming.
It's something that if he were to do this,
it's just another clear example of putting his own personal
benefit ahead of what's right for this country.
Chris, great job. Julie Circin,
thank you for that.