Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) called fellow senator Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) a "senator for Egypt, not New Jersey" while reacting to the news of Rep. George Santos's (R., N.Y.) expulsion from the House.
"We have a colleague in the Senate that actually did much more sinister and serious kinds of things: Senator Menendez. He needs to go," Fetterman said Friday on ABC's The View. "And if you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate? And, you know, Santos's, kind of, lies were almost, you know, funny, and, like, you know, he, you know, landed on the moon and that kind of stuff. Whereas, I think, you know, Menendez, I think, is really a senator for Egypt, not New Jersey."
Fetterman also said he believed Menendez should face expulsion even though he has not been convicted of a crime, only charged.
"He has the right for his day in court, but he doesn't have the right to have those kinds of votes and things," Fetterman said. "That's not a right, and I think we need to make that kind of decision to send him out."
Prosecutors charged Menendez in September with bribery offenses. Authorities added a new charge in October, accusing him of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt by using his influence to benefit the Egyptian government. Menendez has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The House expelled the indicted Santos Friday over charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, that he laundered campaign money and defrauded donors. He has also admitted to falsifying much of the content of his biography.
At least 31 Democratic senators called on Menendez to resign when he was indicted in September. That number included Fetterman, who said on X, formerly Twitter, that Menendez is "entitled to the presumption of innocence, but he cannot continue to wield influence over national policy, especially given the serious and specific nature of the allegations."