AWKWARD: MSNBC Reports on New Bob Menendez Indictment While Daughter Is Hosting Show
MSNBC host Alicia Menendez teased some “breaking news” near the end of Tuesday’s edition of Deadline: White House. To say that information hit close to home would be an understatement.
The Department of Justice slapped Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) with a superseding indictment on Tuesday afternoon, adding to his legal troubles.
Menendez was indicted in September on bribery charges and pleaded not guilty. The feds say the senator and his wife took bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, and a convertible. They allege Menendez used his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to advance the interests of the Egyptian government. On Tuesday, the DOJ further claimed he received luxury wristwatches and Formula 1 tickets in exchange for promoting the Qatari government.
When news of the superseding indictment broke, his daughter Alicia Menendez was in her first hour of guest-hosting the two-hour program Deadline: White House on MSNBC. She host said back in September that she would not report on her father’s case. While that is understandable, those relying on MSNBC for their news had to wait for more than an hour to receive word of her dad’s indictment.
“We have to take a quick break, the host said five minutes before the end of Deadline. “And we’ll be back with some breaking news right after this.”
Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast noticed the unusual situation and posted a video online showing Menendez going to commercial, only to have Ari Melber greet viewers on the other side.
Melber reported:
Hello, I’m Ari Melber with some breaking legal news. New Jersey United States senator Robert Menendez now facing new allegations in a second superseding indictment which was filed by a federal grand jury from his DOJ prosecution. Those prosecutors there at the Justice Department now allege Menendez received gifts not only for allegedly helping the government have Egypt, but also for helping a developer – Fred Dabies get a multimillion-dollar investment from a company with ties to a government of Qatar.
Prosecutors also say Menendez introduced that same individual – Dabies to a member of the Qatari royal family. Senator Menendez has pled not guilty to all previous allegations in the original indictment. The developer cited in this indictment has also been charged and has also pled not guilty to those underlying allegations. This is a brand new superseding indictment. We’ll actually have more on the story in the next hour. And The Beat begins after this next break.
In September, Alicia Menendez told viewers, “I will not be reporting on the legal case. That said, my colleagues across MSNBC and NBC News, they have aggressively covered this story, and they’ll continue to do so, as they should.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
