Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), seen last year during a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus generously allows its members one act of corruption as a mulligan, it appears. The CHC has remained mostly silent about Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) second corruption scandal, which goes to trial next week. But with Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who was indicted for taking $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexico-based bank, the caucus is vocally in defense mode. Call it the first-timer’s allowance.
As Politico reports, a CHC spokesperson said that Cuellar is an “important voice” in the caucus, who “deserves his day in court.” The spokesperson accepted Cuellar’s contention that he did not engage in official acts specifically in exchange for money, and that he preemptively sought guidance from the Congressional Ethics Committee.
Menendez, of course, proclaimed his innocence too. So did George Santos (R-NY), another Hispanic representative—though not a member of the caucus—who was expelled from Congress amid his ethical scandals. Some Republicans want to turn the Cuellar episode into a replay of the Santos experience, asking what the difference is between misuse of funds and bribery. Santos has fittingly called for Cuellar’s expulsion, but only one Democrat has joined him, the thirsty-for-the-spotlight former presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN).
Part of this, of course, is a reluctance to admit a misjudgment, one that could literally cost the Democrats the House next year. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who campaigned with Cuellar in 2022 to help him squeak past a progressive challenger, asked, “Where’s the presumption of innocence?” in response to questions from NOTUS. Admitting that Cuellar did something wrong would be admitting that he did something wrong in supporting him.
In defending Cuellar, Democrats are aligning with Donald Trump, whose favorite members of the opposition party are the indicted ones. Cuellar, a conservative Democrat, “was for Border Control, so they said, ‘Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!’” said Trump in his usual understated manner. In order to keep the fiction going that Democrats weaponize the justice system to vaporize political enemies, Trump has to imagine some common heresy among corrupt Democrats that puts them on the outs with the deep state. He has backed up Menendez, too.
Trump’s situational ethics are well known, but that’s no reason for Democrats to join him. Cuellar truly threatens victory in the November elections; he’s already the nominee in Texas’s 28th District, and whether he steps down from that slot is his decision alone. As long as he maintains support within the party, there’s no pressure for him to do so. Maybe sympathetic members of Congress will give Cuellar a pass for a bribery allegation, but his constituents might not be so forgiving.
Moreover, Democrats are going to run in November in large part on Trump’s personal corruption making him unfit for office. Doing a bunch of handstands to claim that Cuellar’s corruption technically isn’t the same may help them sleep better at night, but it’s going to come off to voters as the usual lack of accountability. A little hypocrisy may be OK in the Capitol, but it steps hard on any attempt at differentiating the parties. This is not an election where you want voters thinking that everybody in Washington is the same.
