there's a number of competitive Congressional races on the ticket this November and as part of our election exchange podcast we're speaking with each of the candidates to drill down on issues Before You cast your vote earlier today senior political correspondent David crew sat down with Congressman Rob Menendez in his first interview since his father's decision to resign after being found guilty on federal corruption charges I want to start by by talking about um the senior senator uh from New Jersey who happens to be your dad I know that this past um primary was about separating yourself from him in the eyes of Voters so they can understand that you're this guy and he's that guy but I guess for me uh maybe curiosity more than anything how are things with you uh and him and him with you you know he's my father you know and um it's obviously been a challenging couple of months um but you know as I've talked about before with you and especially during the primary my focus was always focusing on what's within my control and you know each day I have the honor of doing two two things uh I love my role as a husband and as a father to my two small kids and I owe everything to my wife um for what she's enabled me to do and what she does for our family and then obviously to the residents of the eth congressional district and I found I find that so long as I F focus on what's within my control I can get the most done and be the best service to my family and to the residents of theen on the relationship though obviously right it's challenging you know but listen you know and I've said this before is it's a unique challenge no doubt about it but everyone's family has some sort of challenge they have to deal with and they do the best that they can and that's what we're trying to do just try to do the best that we can and you know understanding that yeah it's Unique but it's like any other family that has to face a challenge you navigate it you make the best and you move on still talking um and trying to work it out as a family absolutely yeah all right so on the campaign um a lot of people say once you get past your first reelection um that it becomes a lot easier uh in Congress um do you feel like it's a little easier right now well um I put a lot of pressure on myself and I actually like that we have twoyear terms I think it really requires you to go back to your residents to your voters with a case for why they should reelect you every 2 years um I'm proud of the work that we've done uh in our first term I think we've been incredibly productive not as just as a freshman Congressman but uh I think overall within the caucus but I want to do a lot more um and whether it's our first reelection second reelection or however far along we do this each each elections an opportunity to take our case back to the voters and let them know what we did that's what we did in this primary we focused on our track record you know and talking about what we did and we're incredibly proud of the work that we've done I'm incredibly proud of the team that we've built and frankly during the primary the greatest pressure I felt was making sure that I got through the election so I could keep this team together because this team has done great things for the district it will continue to do great things for the district and my obligation was to keep the team together to keep the band together as you because you're a music guy but um and so you know I don't know I think historically yeah you get through your first reelection but um um I believe it's incumbent upon anyone in elective office to make the case every single election as to why they should go back and do the job that they've asked to do [Music]