Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said Monday that he sent “ethically-challenged” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) a Cameo video from former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who was expelled from Congress last week.
“I thought my ethically-challenged colleague @BobMenendezNJ could use some encouragement given his substantial legal problems,” Fetterman wrote Monday in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “So, I approached a seasoned expert on the matter to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice.”
Attached to Fetterman’s post was the purported Cameo video from Santos, in which the ousted New York Republican said, “Hey Bobby. … Look, I don’t need to tell you, but these people that want to make you get in trouble and want to kick you out and make you run away — you make ’em put up or shut up. You stand your ground, sir.”
“And don’t get bogged down by all the haters out there,” Santos continued. “Stay strong. Merry Christmas.”
The Hill reached out to Menendez’s office to confirm if the senator received the video.
Responding to Fetterman’s post on X, Santos appeared to be unaware of who exactly “Bobby from Jersey,” was, writing on X, “I love this! I wish I knew the Bobby in question! LOL.”
Earlier Monday, Santos launched a profile on Cameo, a platform where customers can request holiday messages, a pep talk, roasts, birthday wishes and more from a wide range of public figures. Santos, who calls himself a “Former congressional ‘Icon'” on his profile, is selling the personal videos for $200 each, an increase from his earlier $150 price tag.
Fetterman’s requested Cameo video echoes his past calls for Menendez to resign in the wake of the federal criminal charges against the New Jersey Democrat.
Fetterman’s calls were further fueled by Santos’s expulsion from Congress. The Pennsylvania Democrat argued the allegations against Menendez are “more sinister” than the charges that Santos faces.
Menendez, along with his wife, Nadine, are accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes from three businessmen in New Jersey in exchange for using the senator’s “power and influence” as Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair to benefit both the businessmen and Egyptian government.
Federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York charged Menendez with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent. He has denied the allegations.
“We have a colleague in the Senate that actually does much more sinister and serious kinds of things: Sen. Menendez. He needs to go. And if you are going to expel Santos, how can you allow somebody like Menendez to remain in the Senate?” Fetterman said last week in an interview on ABC’s “The View.”
Fetterman argued Santos’s “lies were almost, you know, funny,” like that he “landed on the moon and that kind of stuff.”
Santos faces 23 federal criminal charges. He is accused of misleading donors, misrepresenting finances to the public and government agencies, inflating campaign finance reports and charging donors’ credit cards without authorization.
He was expelled from Congress in a 311-114-2 vote last week, after the House Ethics Committee issued a damning report detailing “substantial evidence” against him.
While Fetterman’s calls for Menendez to resign are similar to the views of several others of the Senate Democratic caucus, few senators besides Fetterman have shown a serious interest in holding a vote to oust the embattled lawmaker.
Menendez stepped down from the Foreign Relations Committee but has rejected his colleagues’ calls to resign from the Senate ahead of his trial, dismissing the charges as “just allegations.”