With the latest poll showing the undecided vote has shrunk to 7 percent, the motivation on both sides is to speak to their respective voting bases. For Kim Guadagno, the messenger of choice has usually been conservative talk radio. On the other end of the spectrum is public radio station WNYC, which is where Phil Murphy found himself Wednesday, on the Brian Lehrer Show, where he took phone calls from New Jersey residents on mass transit, taxes, legalizing marijuana and, one day after the attack in Manhattan, terrorism and immigration.
Lehrer asked, “For better or worse, terrorism incidents close to an election tend to favor Republicans. Why shouldn’t it in this case, in your opinion?”
Murphy replied, “Well, I don’t think there’s any reason to politicize it, Brian, in any way, to be frank with you. Lives were lost. This has to be at every step of the way. Public safety has to be out ahead of politics.”
Murphy said that as ambassador to Germany, he was accustomed to dealing with multi-state, multi-agency responses to terror threats, although he didn’t seem to have much background on the so-called diversity visas and was stubborn in his lack of specificity on his sanctuary state stance, which his opponent has used to repeatedly hammer him.
“If somebody commits a crime, regardless of their status, we should throw the book at them and they should pay serious consequences,” he repeated.
“But not including deportation, in the case of the crimes that she [Guadagno] listed?” asked Lehrer.
“If need be, yes, but first of all this should be left in the hands of law enforcement,” replied Murphy.
“But should those people, I’ll try one more time, who committed those acts, because she [Guadagno] was citing specific cases, be protected under sanctuary city policies, in your opinion, from being turned over to immigration?” asked Lehrer.
“Again, these folks committed a crime. If indeed they committed a crime, they must be dealt with from law enforcement,” replied Murphy.
When asked if they should be protected from immigration detainers, Murphy replied, “Protected, I’m not sure, is not the right word. This is a sequencing. We have to deal with keeping our community safe. That’s job number one.”
Murphy’s questioning was slightly tougher than what Guadagno gets on her radio appearances, but, given the mostly progressive audience for Brian Lehrer, it’s safe to say the ambassador didn’t hurt himself, which fits squarely into the ‘first do no harm’ strategy of the waning days of this campaign.
