Prior to Tuesday’s guilty verdict in the corruption trial of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (NJ), the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC spent only nine minutes (8:56) on their flagship morning and evening newscasts and Sunday morning political talk shows. But by Tuesday night, they came out of the wilderness with six minutes of coverage (6:08).
NBC, which had three minutes and 33 seconds on the trial (and was the only network to have mentions on each of their flagship newscasts), shockingly led Tuesday’s Nightly News with nearly three minutes (2:53) on the verdict, not the Republican National Convention.
Anchor Lester Holt didn’t mince words from the convention floor:
But first, the dramatic verdict in the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez. The New Jersey Democrat guilty of all 16 federal counts, including bribery, fraud and extortion. The evidence, including cash and gold bars. The verdict immediately increased pressure on Menendez to resign from the Senate before his term ends at the start of next year. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy among those calling for Menendez to step down. Menendez saying he will appeal the verdict.
Chief justice contributor Jonathan Dienst boasted “Menendez left federal court today a convicted criminal” as a jury found “him guilty of 16 counts, including bribery, extortion, and acting as a foreign agent” following a nine-week trial showing “Menendez accepted thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and a new Mercedes in exchange for actions that in part benefited the Egyptian and Qatari governments, all part of what the FBI says was a wide-ranging bribery scheme.”
“Prosecutors accuse the New Jersey Democrat of using his office and his power as then chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help two New Jersey businessmen secure lucrative overseas business deals...Photos the FBI took inside Menendez’s house showed cash stuffed in jackets, shoes, and bags, which last fall Menendez tried to explain,” he added.
Dienst acknowledged that, after having remained noncommital, “Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is joining a group of more than 30 Democrats calling for the senator’s resignation”.
Speaking later to Holt, Dienst said Menendez will be sentenced “in October, and he could face years in prison for what was a years-long scheme.”
The next most-surprising thing was that ABC even mentioned it all. Before the verdict, ABC’s newscasts combined for only 31 seconds. By Tuesday, World News Tonight mustered 90 seconds.
“We turn next here tonight to the other major political headline. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez convicted on all counts in his federal corruption trial. Tonight, new calls for him to resign,” anchor David Muir began.
Correspondent Aaron Katersky pivoted from the fallout of the Trump assassination attempt to this (click “expand”):
KATERSKY: Tonight, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez convicted of corruption charges by a jury in Manhattan federal court. And now the calls to resign from leaders in his own party. The jury deliberating 13 hours over three days to find the powerful Democrat guilty of all 16 counts he faced, including bribery, extortion, and being a public official acting as a foreign agent. While serving as the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez did favors for Egypt and Qatar, and assisted several New Jersey businessmen in exchange for lavish gifts. The FBI raiding his house, discovering gold bars and “envelope after envelope of cash” — wads of it, totaling nearly a half billion dollars, stuffed in a safe, his jackets, even his shoes. Prosecutors called it “corruption on a massive scale” by a senator who sold the power of his office.
U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DAMIAN WILLIAMS: This wasn’t politics as usual. This was politics for profit.
KATERSKY: Immediately after the verdict, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Menendez to resign, saying it’s “right for his constituents, the senate, and our country.” Menendez, who did not testify during the two-month trial, coming to the cameras outside the courthouse defiant.
MENENDEZ: I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.
KATERSKY: Menendez faces decades in prison when he’s sentenced in October[.]
CBS led the way going into the verdict with four minutes and 50 seconds, but were in the middle Tuesday with 105 seconds on the CBS Evening News.
Anchor Norah O’Donnell told viewers of “renewed calls for Bob Menendez to resign after he was found guilty on all charges at his corruption trial in New York”.
Congressional correspondent Nikole Killion strangely boasted of Menendez at the onset, bragging he “emerged from federal court undeterred”.
Only then she gave the details of what he had been accused of as well as reaction from the House Democrat looking to take his seat, Andy Kim, and how any removal of Menendez from the Senate would be nearly unprecedented (click “expand”):
KILLION: The three-term Democratic senator was convicted on 16 charges including wire fraud, bribery, extortion, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent. They carry potential penalties of more than 200 years behind bars. Federal prosecutors say Menendez wielded his political influence to help the governments of Egypt and Qatar, accepting bribes that included nearly $500,000 in cash and gold bars, a Mercedes, and other luxury gifts.
U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DAMIAN WILLIAMS: This wasn’t politics as usual. This was politics for profit.
KILLION: Immediately after the verdict, calls crescendoed for him to set down from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Congressman Andy Kim is challenging Menendez for his Senate seat.
KIM: It absolutely makes sense that he not only resigns, but that he doesn’t appear on the ballot.
KILLION: Some lawmakers say that if Menendez doesn’t to resign, he should be expelled. That’s a process that has not happened in the Senate since the Civil War. Senator Menendez is scheduled to be sentenced in late October, Norah?
O’DONNELL: Yeah, that’s why this is such a big deal.
To see the relevant transcripts from July 16, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
