- Hi everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with an important conversation with a member of the state legislature.

Assemblyman Brian Bergen is the assembly Minority Whip.

That means he's a leader in the state assembly.

And more importantly, no disrespect to your service in government, assemblyman, a West Point graduate, served in the US Army from 1997 to 2008 as an officer and Apache helicopter pilot in Iraq earning a Bronze star and a combat action badge.

Needless to say, thank you for your service, assemblyman.

- You're very welcome.

- Speaking of thanking veterans for their service, what the heck is the disabled veterans proportional property tax bill and why is it stuck in the legislature?

Please, Brian?

- Oh my God, I could yell and scream about this bill all day long.

It's a great topic.

- What is it and why is it so important to so many veterans?

- So I'll boil it down to this.

Disservice disabled veterans get relief from the federal government based on their disability rating.

So if you're a hundred percent disabled, let's say you get $3,000 a month.

If you're 90%, you get $2,500 a month, et cetera, et cetera, all the way down.

So they get relief from the federal government.

In New Jersey, a hundred percent disabled veterans do not pay property taxes, but everybody else pays the full boat.

So what happens is the federal dollars that are meant to give relief to these disabled veterans are eaten up by the highest in the nation property taxes we have.

So a solution to that would be, a hundred percent disabled veterans already do not pay property taxes.

Let's have the 90% disabled veteran only pay 10%.

The 80% only pay 20%, and so on and so forth.

That way, those federal dollars that are being allocated to them are being used to help them not to pay New Jersey property taxes.

And so the bill's been around the legislature for 16 years.

- How long?

- 16.

It's been sponsored by everybody.

It was sponsored by Speaker Craig Coughlin until he became the speaker.

It was sponsored by Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker.

It was sponsored by everybody in power.

The bottom line is they were doing it, in my opinion, they were doing it because it sounds good.

I want it to actually happen it.

- So why is it?

Hold on.

If two previous Democrats had sponsored the bill, now you as a Republican and a veteran who served our country is sponsoring the bill, why would anyone be against this and on what grounds?

- So they initially say cost.

Majority Leader Greenwald typically brings up the cost.

- Senator Greenwald.

Lou Greenwald.

Go ahead.

- Greenwald.

It'll cost $300 million a year, which is a lot of money.

But lemme put that in perspective for a second.

The average disabled veteran in New Jersey receives $23,000 in federal compensation for their disability.

That's on average.

It's $1.5 billion divided by 66,000 people.

So every disabled veteran who moves out of the state of New Jersey, 'cause they can't afford to live here, the property taxes, takes that money with them.

So it's advantageous for us to incentivize them to stay here in New Jersey because that's so... On a fiscal analysis, it makes sense to do.

So their arguments really don't hold much water.

The reality is, Steve, they prioritize the Stay New Jersey program, which I'm sure you're familiar with, which I've been pretty vocal, I think is a scam on seniors.

- What is it?

- So the Stay New Jersey program is-- - Oh, the Stay New Jersey program.

- Yeah.

- Why would?

No disrespect Assemblyman.

Why a scam if it gives money back to seniors?

- There's no way it's gonna happen.

No chance.

No chance.

It costs $1.3 billion a year.

In the first two years, they've only saved up 300 million to pay for it starting in 2026.

There is no chance, Steve, no chance that that bill ever materializes.

And if it does, I can guarantee it would only be for a year or two.

'Cause the senior population in New Jersey is gonna double by 2050.

Double.

So this bill that's $1.3 billion a year now, to give property tax relief to seniors is gonna double in costs over time.

And the reason why it's so egregious, and I was the only no vote in the state legislature, was because you could make up to $500,000 a year, be 65 years or older and get half off your property tax.

That's just stupid.

So what I think is gonna happen, and I'd bet on it, is that no senior will ever see this benefit ever.

And if they do-- - Hold on one second, Assemblyman.

You're saying the Democrats who advocate for this and the Republicans who voted for it are voting for something that's never gonna happen.

- That's a fact.

That's a fact.

And if it does happen, and I hope everybody and their brother watches this and hears this coming outta my mouth.

If it does happen, it may be for a year, may be for two years, it will eventually fail.

And that's even worse.

- All right.

Switch gears.

I've been wanting to have this conversation with you for a while because you understand the military better than most.

You understand public life better than most.

And I think my sense is you understand, Assemblyman, the connection between elected officials at every level of government in the military.

So, and again, we don't know what's gonna happen with the Department of Defense secretary on the federal level.

And someone could say, "Why are you asking the assemblyman that question?

"He's a state official."

But you understand these issues and your opinion matters and you're a leader in the Republican Party.

- Thank you.

Appreciate that.

- Well, it's just true.

It's a fact.

Question, what do you believe the appropriate role of the United States military is vis-a-vis as it relates to the mass deportation of those who are undocumented?

Does the US military in your position, knowing what you know, have a role in that regard?

And if so, what is it?

- In my opinion, no, they should not have.

They do not and should not have a role.

The role of the US military is to protect the nation, the borders of the nation and beyond.

It's not to-- - Against foreign enemies.

- Yeah, that's true.

Now, our oath does say foreign and domestic.

- Okay.

- We do take an oath to that.

We protect the constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic.

However, it's a very dangerous slippery slope to begin to do any military action on US soil.

It's very dangerous.

It should not happen.

It's reserved for the National Guard and disasters and that type of thing.

If you're talking to me, if you asked me do I think there's a role for the military to secure the borders, I would say yes.

That would be the extent of their-- - But deporting undocumented-- - No, I don't think that's a good use.

- No.

- No, no.

- Well, how about this.

Do you believe, and again, Pete Hegseth as we do this program, we don't know what's gonna happen.

Okay?

Let's leave it at that.

He's not the issue.

But you have a perspective that I, as a journalist, as a person who never served, I don't have any sense of this.

He has said publicly, unless he recants this, "Women should not serve in combat."

- Couldn't disagree more.

I think that is an absolute terrible and dangerous position for that man to take.

I mean, I respect his military service.

I don't think he'd be bad in the role.

I don't know a whole lot about him, but that one issue in particular, he is dead wrong.

Dead wrong.

And I gotta tell you, I have served with-- - Tell us why.

Tell us because of what you've seen, Assemblyman.

- Yeah I served with-- - As a military leader.

Go ahead, I'm sorry.

- Yeah, I've served with many women overseas in combat.

And this idea that women can't perform to a certain level or a certain standard as men, I mean, it's ludicrous.

Anybody who tells it.

And I do occasionally have people say that kind of stuff to me.

I'm like, hey, I'll tell you what.

Fine, let's go this weekend, run a triathlon together.

Or how about you come with me to my jujitsu class for tonight?

And I mean, come on.

You're gonna get smoked by all these women all over the place.

So it's not about competence, it's not about ability.

It's not about ability to maintain standards.

Some men do take argument with the fact that they see a different role, societal role.

Okay, I can't argue with them against their beliefs on that, whether or not women-- - But in the military and in combat, you say.

- In terms of of competence and ability and standards, definitely, a hundred percent.

Definitely.

- Okay.

One more on the federal level and we come back to Governor Murphy and COVID.

You're not giving him high grades for how he handled COVID during that time.

- No, not at all.

- I promise we'll get to that.

How about this?

Gotta get rid of quote, "the woke generals".

President Trump has said it.

First of all, do you know what a woke general is, A and B, how do you get rid of them?

- No, no.

I have complete total confidence in our military and in our military generals.

You don't just accidentally become a general, you don't necessarily...

There is some politics involved, of course, a little bit.

But you can't just purely politic your way up to becoming a general.

These are high quality military officers, many of whom, I know a lot of colonels now.

I'm of that age where my West Point classmates are all colonels.

These are incredibly competent people.

The military is not woke.

And when I go around to different places, I explain to people, our military is unbelievably effective, competent, and not woke at all.

- Hold on assemblyman.

I'll do a governor in a second on COVID.

Do you know you can get in trouble with some of your Republican compatriots for being openly critical on the merits of certain policies that are being advocated by the Trump administration?

A, do you know it?

And B, do you care?

- Yes, I know it and I don't care.

Because when it comes to the military, I'm just speaking reality.

So look, in the military, it is very important to be extremely well-rounded, particularly for leadership.

So I have read, before I deployed to Iraq, I read the Qur'an cover to cover.

I read as much as I could about ancient Mesopotamia to understand there.

I think it's important for military officers to read different points of view on different things.

And sometimes some of the further right folks point to those teachings as being quote unquote "woke".

And they're wrong.

What it's more about is having a well-rounded understanding of the world around you.

And that's important.

And look, that's just the truth, and I know it to be the truth.

- How dare you try to have a well-rounded understanding of things.

Real quick.

Governor Murphy not get a high grade for handling, five years after, the pandemic.

Why?

I got a minute left.

Go ahead.

- Well, I mean, it was a train wreck the whole time.

He abused his power, cut the legislature completely out.

It's not only his fault.

The legislature had a role here to play and an ability to do it legally and just abdicated all responsibility to the governor.

- But wasn't the governor flying the plane and figuring it out as it was happening?

I mean, who knew?

What was the game plan?

- Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Now we're talking first couple weeks.

First couple months.

Yeah, but after that, he should have relied on the advice and consent of the larger legislative body to get a more well-rounded view of what the populace needed.

And he didn't.

He relied on a small bubble of people in the governor's office to make decisions that ultimately weren't good for others.

- We'll continue the conversation with a whole range of people looking back at the governor's leadership and how the state handled it, its impact on us.

Assemblyman Brian Bergen, Minority Whip, thank you for joining us.

Thank you for your candor and your service to our country.

Thank you, Assemblyman.

- You got it, man.

Thank you for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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