[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - He is back by popular demand.

He's State Assemblyman Brian Bergen, a Republican, and the minority whip.

That means he's a leader in the Republican Party in the legislature.

Good to see you, assemblyman.

- Thanks for having me, Steve.

- And by the way, remind folks of your military background because it matters in the context of what we're going to talk about.

- Yeah, so I was a West Point grad.

I graduated in 2001 and I flew attack helicopters doing a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005.

- I say this every time you join us, you can't say it enough.

Thank you and everyone who has served in the military protecting us.

Thank you.

- You're welcome, Steve.

- Hey, Delaney Hall, moving target.

We don't know.

I shouldn't use that term.

Things are moving quickly.

Question.

- Yeah.

- ICE is not a military organization.

I guess it's a paramilitary organization.

Help us understand the challenges that you believe the officers who represent our federal government, ICE, those ICE agents, what challenges do they face, A, and B, are they trained and prepared for that, assemblyman, for incredibly difficult situations?

Not just at Delaney, but at detention centers across the country?

- Well, I don't know exactly what their training is, but that's a difficult situation for any organization.

I mean, you saw the state police there, you saw the Newark police there in riot gear prepared and even they were having issues because an event that's that big, I mean, really, I can't even imagine having to deal with something like that.

So I don't know what their training entails, but I highly doubt that they're specifically trained for an event of that magnitude at one of their facilities because, I don't know, I don't think it happens every day or even quite frankly that often.

So it's a shame, and honestly, on the political side of this, I don't know if we're going to head in that direction or not.

- You head wherever you want.

- Yeah, so it's a shame that it turned into this, Steve.

I mean, really, there was a lot of political grandstanding that happened at Delaney Hall, which in my opinion, was a direct contributor to it accelerating into what it became now.

Now, do I think that those people, the governor being one of them, in hindsight, knowing what would've ultimately happen, would they have done it?

I highly doubt so, but they did.

They did.

They grandstanded, they politicized it.

They made it political theater, and then it kind of incited people to act more aggressively than I think they would otherwise have.

- So let me play devil's advocate.

- Sure.

- I'm not here to defend or represent the governor or Senator Kim.

Check out our in-depth interview with United States Senator Andy Kim, who was there as well and was pepper sprayed.

He had his own perspective.

You call it grandstanding.

What about if someone says, "What do you mean grandstanding?"

They were talking about the conditions that they believe are going on in Delaney Hall and they believe those conditions were inhumane and they were protesting.

You say what?

- I would say, come on.

I mean, give me a break.

There are a million ways to handle that.

If you're the governor of the state of New Jersey or a US Senator, there's a million ways to handle it besides the way that they did.

In my opinion, it was showmanship.

They were there, it was showmanship.

They're nothing else.

And I think it contributed to the situation that we had there.

That's my personal opinion.

If I was the governor of the state of New Jersey, I bet there's a million people I could call to deal with that situation without having to go in front of a mic, in front of protestors at Delaney Hall.

- And you what I love about having you on, assemblyman, is people pick sides and their positions publicly are often dictated by "What side they're on."

Not the case with you, so I'll ask you this question.

I've talked to you about this before.

I'm going to go back to January 6th, President Trump on a microphone.

Did he contribute to the chaotic situation of a group of people assaulting police officers and attempting to overthrow violently the results of an election in 2020?

Or did he help?

- Listen, here's the ironic part of it.

Back then and still to this day, the Democratic Party will point very clearly to that connection.

But then when I mentioned the things like I just mentioned about Governor Sherrill and US, and Senator Kim, they're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, couldn't possibly be".

Listen, was Trump a contributor on that day?

The answer is yes, because he could have stopped it more so than he did.

He could have been at that mic and said, "Don't do anything like that."

Or when it started happening, he could have been more aggressive in his "stop it" stance.

I'll tell you this though, I was the first person on that day in the state of New Jersey to condemn the actions that happened on January 6th.

I think that's awful.

But here's a key difference, and I think this is what makes people upset about January 6th on the Republican side or Trump supporter side, is that every single person who was there, regardless of their impact on what they were doing, was fully investigated by the full force of the FBI.

Every law enforcement agency was called in to find out every single detail and prosecute every single person.

Here we have people running roughshot on Delaney Hall.

- You mean at Delaney Hall?

- Yeah.

In Delaney Hall, standing in front of cars, causing chaos, and they're just allowed to do it day in and day out and people are making excuses for them.

The difference there is huge in my personal opinion.

- Real quick, I'll get off this, but it feels like a lot of, I don't want to call it... Well, it is hypocrisy to some, but there's inconsistency.

Can I get a quick answer to this?

Why can't we just be honest and call it what it is?

Obviously is versus, no, but I'm on that side, so I can't say whether it's a MAGA person or a far left person, Democrat.

What is that?

It's intellectually dishonest.

- It's awful.

It's the worst part about being in this business.

It pisses me off.

It is what it is, just say it.

Like I told you before, when January 6th happened, I said this should not happen.

Delaney Hall happens, I'm saying this should not happen.

It's not rocket science.

And honestly, Steve, in politics, 99% of the people are scared to lose an election.

That's why.

That's why.

That is their primary concern and they don't want to off their base or people in power in their party because of that risk.

That's why.

- I'm so sorry for getting into this because now I want to ask you about the, about the anchor and the Stay NJ tax relief program.

What's your concern about those?

- I hate them.

I hate them because they're... - Why don't you say what you really think?

- Well, Steve, I mean, they are gimmicks.

They're gimmicks.

They're taking money from you and me by taxes, by sales tax, income tax, fee tax, every kind of tax you can imagine to accumulate $5 billion the state government does not need to function.

And then they're returning that to selective taxpayers, in my opinion, in order to buy votes.

It's a disingenuous thing to do.

They should just not tax us $5 billion.

How about that?

To me, that would be a much better way to do it, because number one, you're pulling all that money out and you run it through all this bureaucracy, you're losing all this money to government employees before it gets back in the hands of the taxpayers.

It is, to me, it is crazy.

That's why I don't like it.

Tax rebates are gimmicks done by the government.

- Do you agree with mid-tenure census redistricting?

"Meaning, well, it's five, six years in.

We can redistrict and get some more Democratic members of the House.

Texas, we can get more Republicans."

Or should we wait for the census?

- No, they should wait for the census.

How stupid is it to do it any other time?

I mean, the whole point of this, the whole point of redistricting is to redistrict because of population shifts, and we determine that through the census.

Doing it any other time is just, I don't know, it's stupid.

- I love having State Assemblyman Brian Bergen, the minority whip.

- I'll be here.

- Well, we love having you because you say what you think and people can decide for themselves, but you never hold back.

Assemblyman, as always, it's an honor having you with us, thanks.

- Thanks, brother, appreciate it.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato That's somebody who says what's on his mind.

You don't have to try to interpret it.

See you next time.

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