"The View" co-host Ana Navarro defended her friend Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on Friday, claiming that the allegations of his corruption and bribery schemes while in office don't sound like him.
"This is not the Bob I know," Navarro said, also suggesting that the lawmaker’s wife, Nadine Menendez, may have been the instigator behind his alleged crimes.
Menendez has been federally charged with acting as a foreign agent and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz to benefit the Egyptian government through his power and influence as a U.S. senator.
He has also been accused of accepting bribes and gifts in exchange for helping Qatar as part of a yearslong corruption scheme from 2021 through 2023.
According to newly unsealed court documents pertaining to his upcoming federal trial, Menendez is expected to blame his wife as a defense strategy, introducing evidence to show he was unaware of the allegedly illegal activities.
Navarro appeared sympathetic to this defense. She cited their friendship to say she couldn’t view him as someone who would do these things, though she seemed suspicious of his wife. Still, she admitted she might be biased.
"I’ve known Bob Menendez for almost 30 years. I’ve worked with him on countless issues, Cuba, Nicaragua, immigration, Central America and free trade. This Menendez that I read about here just does not jive, does not square away with the man I’ve known for all of this time," she said.
"I went to him with 100 issues with very rich clients. He never ever did anything like this," she added. "And I will say this — and I don’t excuse him, I don’t justify him _ because Bob is one of the smartest people in Congress. It’s a low bar, but he really is one of the smartest people that I know, that I’ve worked with in Congress."
SEN MENENDEZ CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE IN ANOTHER SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT
She then opened up the blame for the corruption to Menendez’s family, saying lobbyists related to powerful politicians needed to be more heavily regulated.
"A lot of his friends, including me, when we saw this case, thought, ‘This is not the Bob we know. Who is this woman, and how is this happening?’" Navarro said.
She reiterated she didn't "excuse" her friend but again appeared to place blame on his wife.
"I think this woman — I think Bob was completely smitten, enamored," she said. "He was a lone wolf for a long time. This happened during COVID. Again, I don’t excuse him. He’s a smart guy. He should have known better. He’s not some stupid gullible ingénue."
"Gold bars for a gold digger," she added.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin later fired back that Menendez "knew what he was doing."
"Bob Menendez is incredibly smart," Griffin said. "He knows what he was doing, and he knows it was wrong. And the charges are serious. Eighteen criminal counts … I don’t think he should still be in the Senate."
Menendez was previously indicted for corruption charges in a separate case involving accepting lavish, unreported gifts from a donor in 2015. The jury didn't reach a verdict and the charges were dropped in 2018.
