Phil Murphy, Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey, doesn’t want to “speculate” on whether Sen. Bob Menendez should resign if he’s convicted of corruption in his ongoing trial.

At the final gubernatorial debate Wednesday night, CBS2’s Kristine Johnson posed the question.

“If Senator Menendez is convicted of corruption, should he resign?” Johnson asked.

Murphy didn’t hesitate.

“Listen, I think any speculation on someone who is in the middle of a trial is a complete waste of time,” he said. “So the answer is he’s innocent until proven guilty, and let’s see how this turns out. Period.”

“But if he is proven guilty, and convicted, will you ask him to resign?” Johnson pressed.

“I’m not going to speculate. I’ll wait to see how this turns out. That’s what we all should do,” Murphy said. “The lieutenant governor is a lawyer and she should would also know persons are allowed their full extent of the law.”

Despite Democratic candidate’s attempt to put words in the mouth of his opponent, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, she offered a much different response.

“Mrs. Guadagno, should Senator Menendez be convicted of corruption, should he resign?” Johnson questioned.

“Absolutely,” Guadagno said. “It is an embarrassment that Phil Murphy has stood silently by the side of Senator Menendez for two years while he’s been under indictment. It will be an even greater embarrassment if we have a United States senator representing the State of New Jersey in the Senate in Washington D.C.”

Menendez is alleged to have used his influence to help Palm Beach, Florida eye doctor and co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a mega Democratic donor. Prosecutors allege Menendez helped to facilitate visas for the Melgen’s foreign girlfriends, meddled in a multimillion-dollar Medicare scheme and pushed to influence a port security contract in the Dominican Republic with links to Melgen.

In exchange, prosecutors allege Menendez lived a lavish lifestyle beyond his means with flights on Melgen’s private jet, luxury vacations in the Dominican Republic and Paris, and other perks of being friends with Melgen, the Associated Press reports.

Melgen has already been convicted of 67 counts of fraud in a separate federal trial in Florida involving the $105 million Medicare scheme, and is now awaiting sentencing in that case pending the outcome of the New Jersey trial, according to the New York Post.

As MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent Ari Melber put it, “the case against Menendez as a legal matter doesn’t look close, it looks overwhelming.”

Regardless of the overwhelming evidence, many on the left have refused to stand against the idea of a convicted felon serving in the U.S. Senate.

Vermont Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stuttered his way through questions about his friend Menendez during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month.

“Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is facing corruption charges in New Jersey. I want to show you a new poll from Suffolk University-USA Today. It finds that 84 percent of the people in New Jersey would want Menendez to resign if he’s convicted,” Tapper said.

“Where do you come down on this? If Senator Menendez is convicted, should he resign immediately?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sanders stammered, before going on to avoid the question entirely.

“I think in this country people are entitled to due process. I’m not into speculating what if. That will be Menendez’s decision. He has not been convicted. Let the process take its course,” Sanders said.

“In America, that’s what it’s about. You have a trial, and the jury makes its decision. They have not made their decision, so I think it’s a little bit premature to be talking about that,” he said.

Townhall points out that Chuck Schumer, Kamala Harris, Clair McCaskill, Jon Tester, Joe Manchin and others have also avoided the question.

Menendez’s New Jersey colleague, Sen. Cory Booker, went as far as to donate $20,000 to Menendez’s legal defense fund and sat in the front row to support him on the first day of trial last month.

“He’s innocent until proven guilty. So he is an innocent man,” Booker said, according to The Washington Free Beacon.