Well, you'll have to pry the Senate seat from his white knuckled hands.

Embattled senior U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez today privately addressed fellow Democrats from the upper chamber during a closed door meeting.

And reports say he again vowed to remain in his seat, casting votes on behalf of New Jersey residents.

That's despite federal corruption charges and a growing chorus of his colleagues calling for him to resign.

Well, in response, Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who was first to call for Menendez's resignation, skipped the meeting, writing on social media that he wasn't interested in hearing an explanation for the gold bars and cash.

Federal agents allegedly found in the senator's home.

Fetterman, adding he's open to pursuing an expulsion resolution to get Menendez out of office and called this a pattern of corruption from Menendez.

Our senior writer, Colleen O'Dea, dug into his past and put together a timeline from his first public office at the age of 20 to big time political controversies.

Colleen joins me now.

Colleen, you went way deep into the archives for this.

Take us back because you start in 1974, which was a tumultuous time politically in our nation, but that is where Senator Menendez, his career really kicks off.

What happens then?

Yeah, he's only 20 years old.

He's, you know, fresh out of high school.

Right.

And he somehow gets connected with the political machine of William Musto, one of the many, you know, infamous political machine leaders in Hudson County history.

And so he he allies with Musto's ticket.

He gets elected to the Board of Education.

He's on the board.

He winds up getting hired by the board to be the board secretary.

He's seen some irregularities in the finances.

And lo and behold, we wind up with a corruption trial against Musto, who, you know, was really his mentor.

Some were actually saying he was kind of like a father figure to him.

And Menendez winds up testifying against Musto in court.

How ironic, though, that his career starts out with him as a lead witness in a corruption case.

So when does he really get the bug for political life?

Was that what set him off?

I mean, how does he launch this really prestigious career?

So he actually runs against Musto in in that year and in 82 doesn't win again.

Musto, despite being convicted, wins.

But he tries again in 86 when the seat comes up again.

This time he does win.

And from there, it's just kind of like off like a rocket.

He winds up then moving into the assembly.

He then moves up fairly quickly when there's a death into the Senate and then redistricting happens in 92.

And suddenly there is a Hispanic, not a majority, but a Hispanic concentrated voting district.

And it's right in his backyard.

He runs for the house.

The incumbent decides not to run and he's easily elected.

Yeah.

Okay.

So take us up to when he has this first sort of run in with being investigated.

Jon Corzine wins the election for governor.

Senator Menendez moves into a Senate seat.

And is this when we start seeing federal prosecutors investigate him?

Right.

So his this is his first election on his own.

And, you know, in the couple of months before suddenly there's this this allegation about he's renting property to a nonprofit that receives federal funds.

Chris Christie, once our governor, now presidential candidate, happens to be the U.S. attorney, looks into it.

Nothing happens.

But it seems like every time he runs for election, something new comes up.

And in 2012 is when we had these allegations about prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

All of that was you know, none of that was found.

It never bared out to anything.

Sure.

But that is what led into them, that the investigation that in 2015 led to his first indictment.

So what does it tell us when you looked back at his entire timeline of being in politics about how this may set him up for another trial?

Nobody else has this kind of, you know, checkered background or these these investigations.

So, you know, if you look deeply at what happened in 2017, that the attorney thought they had a slam dunk case and it was a mistrial.

Everybody now is I mean, things are different.

People are now calling for him to resign, which they didn't in 2017.

But could he, you know, beat this?

Who knows?

Yeah, that's the question.

Colleen O'Dea for us.

Colleen, thank you.

Thank you very much, Bri.