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News 12 Staff

NJPP1116B_2024-11-16-15-42-08

Welcome back to New Jersey. Power and Politics. I'm Eric Lands Krenner. Busy week for President elect Donald Trump. He met with President Biden at the White House learned Republicans kept control of the House of Representatives and was sending out rapid fire news releases naming his cabinet picks. Joining me now with some insight on those picks in the road ahead. Republican strategist and the CEO of Mad Global strategies, Mike Duhan and democratic strategist, Laura Matos, a partner at Mad. Thank you both so much for being here. It's good to see you. You as well. Thanks. All right. Listen, let, let's start with the cabinet picks here. Uh, Mike, some have been conventional. Some have been unconventional slash controversial talk about who you like who you don't. Well, I think the first round of picks seem to be some people that I think would give people comfort whether you agree with them or not. Uh Senator Marco Rubio, congresswoman Elise Stefanac, former Congressman Lee Zeldin. They're all people who had their own reputations and had been in government and politics for many years predating Donald Trump. They're loyal to Donald Trump, but they have their own reputations. And certainly have a lot of government experience then, you know, in recent days, RFK Junior. Um, Tulsi Gabbard, certainly Matt Gates. Uh those are, those leave a lot to be desired. Right. Those are, those are, those are problematic, will be problematic for many senators. I think we're gonna see or I hope you're gonna see is Republican senators. Uh basically say, hey, we need to follow these processes, we need to follow these protocols because they own those appointments as well. When they vote for those appointments, they own it. And I don't think, um, you're going to get unanimity among Republican senators because Donald Trump said Matt Gates is ok. I don't think that's going to happen and you saw Donald Trump's pick to be senate majority leader, Rick Scott came in third. So the, the, the Republicans in the Senate are exerting a little bit of independence and my hope is they will do their job in terms of advice and consent and try to weed out some of the picks that uh leave a lot to be desired. All right, Laura, I'll go to you now. I, I'd like to figure out if there are picks that you do approve of, but let's start with the ones that you find most problematic. Uh I mean, I think Mike the tail end of Mike's list. Um, you know, there's some, there's a lot of concern around, um, Matt Gates. Um RFK Junior. Um, uh, you know, I think I, I share Mike's hope that the, the Republican senators will, um, take this seriously. Again, it is a reflection on them. Um, but this is, uh, you know, the voters, uh, made their voices heard that they are voting for Donald Trump and these are his picks. And, um, so hopefully again, the rule of law and the, the established process will, um, make sure that we, um, are looking into these candidates and that their best uh best feet or forward. It, it does seem as though that at least the two most controversial over the past couple of days would again be Matt Gates for A G and RFK Junior for Health and Human Services Secretary. Uh RFK Junior uh has been grabbing a lot of headlines just over the past day uh mostly because of his uh vaccine skepticism over the years and, and where he's gonna fall on mandates, Laura, what, what are, how worried are you? I'm pretty worried. Some of the things that he has said, I mean, not even just in the past 24 hours but in, in the days and weeks leading up to the election are, are concerning about how he's even thinking to approach, potentially getting this job. You know, I think he uh said that uh staff at the FDA should uh save their do preserve their documents and pack their bags. Um You know, these are professionals um who are uh subject matter experts in in this field and to just openly dismiss something like that uh before the job is even tangentially yours um is concerning uh listen, since the election, I think we've all witnessed two very different reactions uh from Democrats in particular here, introspection in essence, where, where did they go wrong? And, and we've also heard a fair bit of scapegoating, placing, placing blame that said the New Jersey State Democratic Committee chair, Leroy Jones Junior had put out a statement which had said in part quote, there will be media pundits and armchair pundits who will spend a lot of time analyzing why this ticket lost nationally. But I strongly believe he goes on to say it comes down to a few key things, misogyny, racism and the undeniable fact that people simply believe Donald Trump's lies. Uh Mike, I, I, is it, is this the proper tack here? Given, given how many counties especially were flipped in New Jersey? Uh I think the Democratic Party needs a little bit more introspection than that. And I'm not saying that those are not some factors in that and in, in terms of Donald Trump being a woman for the second time. And I'm, I'm not saying there aren't any factors there, but also sometimes the simplest piece can be true. The president is unpopular, two thirds of the country think the country is going in the wrong direction and therefore generally the challenger wins. Now, we all didn't, weren't sure if that was going to happen because in this case, the challenger was Donald Trump who brings a lot of political baggage, as well as political passion and upside. But ultimately, that's what happens. People want change, they voted for change. You can't have more change than Donald Trump. So that's ultimately what happened. I'm not saying there aren't a whole lot of other factors. You know, Donald Trump obviously got a whole lot of um the Hispanic vote they hadn't got before African American men. But at the end of the day, I think the Democratic Party probably needs to look a little bit harder, especially at issues like affordability and where they place priorities of things like the Green New Deal above energy prices for the average working person. So I think they're probably Democrats are, are uh they have a, they have a large majority in New Jersey and they won New Jersey obviously on the presidential level. Um But I think probably looking in the mirror and understanding the affordability issues really matter. Here would be something that's helpful to the Democratic Party. Listen, I, I wanna shift gears very quickly. Uh, talk about the race for governor Congressman Josh Ghem just announced Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill expected to announce this week. Uh Laura, how do they shake up an already crowded field of Democrats? And what do they do to stand out in New Jersey right now? Well, I think they have uh the candidates who have not yet announced or going to announce. Um, you know, I think they have the opportunity to conduct some of that introspection that we were, you, you were just talking about, um, voters, uh, again across the country and here in New Jersey especially, were loud and clear with what they wanted. And I think a good way for these candidates, uh, who are, uh, just announcing this week and next week, uh, there's the opportunity to, uh, reframe a message and, and reframe how they're conducting their candidacy to, uh, maybe, you know, listen a little more, uh, and, and talk a little less because that's one big thing that I saw coming out of the election is that's what, uh, what we as democrats need to do. All right. Uh Laura Matos, uh Mike de Ha, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your time as always. Thank you as well. Appreciate it. I'll keep it right here on power and politics more coming up for you right after the day.

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Welcome back to New Jersey Power and Politics. I'm Erik Lanz Kroner with just over two months until president elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. What will a second Trump administration mean for the future of offshore wind power in New Jersey? Mr Trump had promised to cancel planned wind projects on day one news. 12, New Jersey's Jim Murdoch with the story, we are gonna make sure that that ends on day one. I'm gonna write it out in the executive order where president elect Trump's remarks this past spring in Wildwood, a campaign promise or hyperbole with his victory. A lot of eyes now shift back to the horizon off the Jersey shore and I think Trump's at least questioning it and causing did bring people out. Patrick o'keefe lives in Seger in a town unified against offshore wind. I think if you don't have federal support of this, it does make it difficult. I think there was a referendum here and I think a large part of the votes we received were because of this Siegert mayor Don Fetzer hopes the process will slow under a Trump administration. I think it will give us an opportunity to tap the brake a little bit and see where we end up following Trump's election victory. Governor Murphy's tone abruptly shifted on the future of offshore wind. That's going to be an interesting one. Offshore wind is going to be interesting again. Is he gonna do what he said versus prosecute a different agenda? One of the realities of winning both the White House and the US Senate is you get to put through your team uh with very little pushback when asked if Trump could in fact put an end to offshore win the New Jersey Dep and the Board of Public Utilities Tew 12. In a joint statement, quote, we look forward to discussing the benefits of this industry with the incoming administration so that we, he can create as much American made energy as possible. Well, I may personally not want the wind farms. I think there has to be the allowance for that conversation and I think this is a good opportunity in Monmouth County, Jim Murdoch news 12 New Jersey congressman Frank Pallone among Democratic House members calling on President Biden to permanently protect coastal waters from offshore drilling. Pallone and his colleagues sending a letter to the president asking that he permanently withdraw unleashed and at risk areas from fossil fuel development. The letter stating, quote, these coastal waters are too economically and ecologically important to drill and our coastal communities deserve protection from the known dangers posed by offshore drilling and that'll do it for this week. I'm Erik Lanz Krenner. As always, we thank you for watching New Jersey Power and Politics. We'll see you again next time.

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Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco, Republican strategist Mike Duhaime and Democratic strategist Laura Matos join the show. 

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