On this week's edition of Up Close, we begin with Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We'll discuss the latest on the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, and the president's unilateral decision to pull US forces out of Northern Syria. That decision leaves the Kurds, who fought... Read More

Here's one sign of how toxic the politics have become surrounding a $30 billion bridge-and-tunnel rail project that has pit New York and New Jersey against the Trump administration: When Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao visited the project site, she didn't tell the four Democratic senators who had begged her to tour it with them. A year and a... Read More

Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is calling on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to fire a State Department official who was investigated by the inspector general for alleged retaliation and harassment. Menendez, in a letter to Pompeo sent on Friday, said the secretary should immediately fire Kevin... Read More

Sen. Bob Menendez tells WCBS 880’s Steve Scott that the U.S. is threatening Turkey with what it calls "very strong sanctions" over its attack on Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Read More

As the former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before a closed-door House session, Hallie Jackson is joined by Senator Bob Menendez, who says he will plead with his Republican counterparts to bring in Yovanovitch for questioning in the Senate. While Menendez says he already supports an impeachment inquiry, he states he will... Read More

  “Amazon’s Choice” is a label designed to convince customers to buy what Amazon says are “highly-rated, well-priced products.” Products with the designation see a threefold increase in sales, according to a 2018 study. But many Amazon’s Choice products sold by third-party sellers are not what they seem.... Read More

  A bipartisan Senate duo asked the Treasury Department on Tuesday to investigate a scandal-ridden Brazilian corporation’s rapid expansion into the U.S. meat processing industry. In a Tuesday letter,  Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to probe whether JBS SA poses a national... Read More

  Four top defense and foreign policy Democrats in the House and Senate are raising the alarm about the possibility of President Trump withdrawing from a multilateral treaty they argue is a "critical element" of U.S. and European security. At issue is the Open Skies Treaty, which allows the pact’s 34 signatories, including the United... Read More

  With the help of the U.S. Coast Guard, large boat traffic on the Hackensack River will — hopefully — never disrupt commuter train traffic again during peak hours when passing under the troubled Portal Bridge. A deal with the Coast Guard that was set to expire in September has been extended until Jan. 8, 2020 to keep ships from... Read More

  The U.S. Coast Guard has agreed to place permanent restrictions on when tall boats can pass under the Portal Bridge, a century-old rail crossing in New Jersey that has caused major delays for commuters and travelers riding on Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor. The regulations, which were published in the federal register on Monday, will... Read More

  The U.S. Coast Guard has agreed to place permanent restrictions on when tall boats can pass under the Portal Bridge, a century-old rail crossing in New Jersey that has caused major delays for commuters and travelers riding on Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor. The regulations, which were published in the federal register on Monday, will... Read More

  The U.S. Coast Guard will make its rush-hour ban on marine traffic under the portal bridge permanent, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez announced Tuesday. “This is fantastic news for rail commuters and I applaud the Coast Guard for taking this significant step, but this is by no means the end of the line in our efforts to ensure we have a safe,... Read More

  The cantankerous Portal Bridge, famous for getting stuck in the open position and delaying tens of thousand of rail commuters, will never have to open to let a boat pass during rush hour again. The U.S. Coast Guard will permanently ban opening the ancient Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River in Kearny during the morning and evening... Read More

  Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday he “absolutely” encouraged President Donald Trump to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July to discuss energy issues, but not to pressure authorities there to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, and said he was not resigning. Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, at an... Read More

  Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday he “absolutely” encouraged President Donald Trump to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July to discuss energy issues, but not to pressure authorities there to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, and said he was not resigning. Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, at an... Read More

  Democrats and Republicans in Congress rarely agree, but that changed dramatically on Oct. 7 after President Donald Trump decided to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, while allowing Turkey to move into the war-torn country and abandoning Kurdish forces that helped defeat ISIS. “The Syrian Kurds stood with the United States in the fight... Read More

  In a move rarely seen on Capitol Hill, both Republicans and Democrats are condemning President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. forces out of northeast Syria, apparently giving Turkey a green light to conduct a long-awaited strike on American-allied Kurdish-led fighters in the region. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican... Read More

   A bellicose Donald Trump unleashed furious attacks Wednesday on the impeachment inquiry launched against him by Democrats, amid an intensifying standoff between the president and Congress. Trump -- accused of leaning on Ukraine's president to dig up dirt on one of his main 2020 election rivals -- resorted to coarse language in his... Read More

  The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent letters to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Vice President Mike Pence questioning their roles in President Trump’s pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government, apparently in search of dirt on Joe Biden. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the committee’s ranking member, sent... Read More

  The State Department’s inspector general briefed congressional aides Wednesday about an apparent attempt to smear the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who is seen by House Democrats as a key witness in their impeachment inquiry. Sources who attended the closed-door briefing — deemed “urgent” when it was announced on... Read More