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CNBC: Fetterman to return $5,000 Menendez contribution – in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills

  |   By Polling+ Staff

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 03: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in the old senate chamber for the Ceremonial Swearing on January 03, 2023 in Washington, DC. Today members of the 118th Congress will be sworn in and the House of Representatives will hold votes on a new Speaker of the House. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Say what?

CNBC headlines this: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/25/fetterman-to-return-sen-bob-menendez-donation-with-cash.html

Fetterman plans to return donation tied to Menendez ‘in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills,’ spokesman says

The story reports:

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., will return $5,000 in contributions from a political action committee tied to Sen. Bob Menendez ‘in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills’ because of the New Jersey Democrat’s indictment on bribery charges, Fetterman’s spokesman said.

Fetterman’s campaign received the donation from Menendez’s leadership PAC during the 2022 election cycle, according to the nonpartisan site OpenSecrets.

The Pennsylvania senator’s spokesman told NBC News, ‘We are in the process of returning the money in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.’

The news was first reported by The Messenger.

Fetterman was the first Democratic senator to call on Menendez to resign after he and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were charged with three bribery-related counts in federal court in New York.

On Monday, two other Democrats, Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Peter Welch of Vermont, also called for Menendez to step down.”

It’s no defense of Menendez to note the ancient American wisdom that an accused, whomever they may be, is innocent until proven guilty by way of a trial.

In fact, this little incident says more about Fetterman than the Pennsylvania Senator apparently understands.

So a little over five years to go in Fetterman’s Senate term. Maybe someday he’ll start wearing pants.

And by the way, the Pennsylvania GOP rumor mill has it that a likely candidate to oppose Fetterman down the road will be State Treasurer Stacy Garrett.

Now that would be an amazing race to watch.