TJ Walker breaks down Senator Bob Menendez's federal corruption indictment for accepting travel and gifts in exchange for lobbying. Walker argues the case is indefensible given New Jersey's corruption history, then pivots to the U.S. campaign finance system as the real culprit behind political corruption.
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Senator Menendez of New Jersey indicted on federal corruption charges. What does he say about that? Senator Mendendez has been indicted on federal corruption charges. The allegations are that he took first class or private plane trips from a contributor friend, that he had got a lot of other goodies worth a substantial amount of money. In exchange, he helped lobby the Obama administration to change the laws to make it easier for this particular constituent friend to make more money off of medical reimbursements. Those are the allegations. Now, part of the problem Menendez has when he faces his New Jersey voters is he can't say this is some sort of partisan witch hunt. Menendez is a Democrat. The current administration is Democratic, so that isn't going to fly. He's contending that what he lobbied for was good public policy and that this gentleman was a friend. And everybody takes some goodies from friends from time to time. Now, how you feel about that can obviously vary based on partisanship, your perception of Menendez and his career. It is a bit of a tricky issue to defend yourself in front of the media and in front of the voters when you've actually been indicted for corruption charges. And this is coming from New Jersey, which has an especially sordid, sordid history for decades, more than 100 years when it comes to corruption. So part of Menendez's problem is this really fits the profile of everyone's worst stereotype of a New Jersey politician. Now, is Menendez more corrupt than other politicians in the United States Senate? Perhaps. I don't really know. I can say this that the American people want to actually eliminate corruption in politics. One of the things they're going to have to do is create some sort of campaign finance system, because most of what politicians do, Senate members, House members, is they have to spend all day long begging rich people for money for their campaigns, and the money isn't going into their pocket. And most of the time, it's not going for vacations into the Caribbean, as was the case with Menendez. It's going to pay for TV commercials, polling, direct mail, digital advertising. So we, the American people, have created a corrupt system, and we can't really be surprised when we end up with corrupt officials. Politicians need to be able to communicate with voters. They've always needed that. They're always going to need that. They're always going to want to communicate the same or more as their opponent, because if you communicate a less, a lot less, you're virtually guaranteed of losing the election. So at some point, the American public, I believe, is going to have to cough up money to give to bona fide candidates, legitimate candidates, to pay for their communication. And if they don't do that, the candidates are going to find the money else other ways. And the way they're going to do that is by oink, oink, nudge, nudge, selling off their offices one vote at a time.
