Governor Phil Murphy says his office is working around the clock to help New Jerseyans whose loved ones are unaccounted for in Israel and trapped in the Gaza Strip.

The tensions from the Israel-Hamas conflict are playing out in Jewish and Palestinian communities throughout the state as the situation grows more dire on the ground.

That coordination from the Murphy administration is also playing out amid a statewide legislative election that's just days away, an election some analysts say could bring a red wave flipping seats Republican after years of a Democratic stronghold.

So how is the governor balancing it all?

He joins me now to discuss.

Governor Murphy, thank you for being with me.

I don't have to tell you, New Jersey has one of the largest Jewish populations in America, the largest, I believe, Palestinian American populations in America.

And tensions.

Obviously, emotions are high.

What is your message to those communities?

Because we've seen in places like Teaneck and Englewood, where there have been clashes, council meetings that have been shut down, arrests.

What is your message to folks who are feeling unsupported, both Israeli Americans and Palestinian-American?

I'd say that we're here for you.

The good news is overwhelming.

Early members of both two Jewish or Israeli specific communities and the Palestinian communities in New Jersey are responsible folks trying to wake up, do the right thing by their families, by their faiths, by their communities.

And that's a good place to start.

But you cannot underestimate the tension.

Hamas perpetrated a barbaric assault.

We have to call that out explicitly and unequivocally for the innocent lives lost and killed in Israel.

And by the same token, we're now seeing innocent lives lost on all sides of this.

So I want to make sure folks know that we're hear from them for them, particularly as it relates to using our bully pulpit, as well as our security presence, protecting houses of worship, daycare centers, schools, etc.. We're spending an enormous amount of time focused on that.

College campuses are another hot, hot spot.

And secondly, just putting my old diplomatic hat on, praying for a peaceful, comprehensive, ultimately that elusive two state solution where everyone can live peacefully side by side that cannot in any way, shape or form include Hamas.

Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas.

But let's please hope that cooler heads prevail in New Jersey and elsewhere.

Let me ask you about the bully pulpit you mentioned.

Are you in coordination with federal authorities?

We have, at least as we know, one New Jersey American unaccounted for.

He's a member of the IDF.

Alexander family from ten a fly and at least two New Jerseyans who are in Gaza.

Correct.

Have you been in communication with their families and what's being done in an effort to this?

So first question is, are we in touch with the feds?

Yes.

Largely through our Office of Homeland Security and Protection.

So our coordination with the feds is a is a very good one.

And I wouldn't trade it for any other states relationship in America.

And yes, we've been in touch with families, both Israelis, who have missing family members or whose lives have been taken.

And speaking to those families and Palestinians who are either in our community or trapped in Gaza or or folks in Jersey who have family members trapped in Gaza.

And none of it's easy.

None of us none of it is easy.

One guy, for instance, an intermediary, reached out to me and begged me if I could help, try to get him out of Gaza.

And between getting that outreach and taking any steps, it turns out he wanted to be with his family.

I believe it was his mother.

So these are heart wrenching stories.

I spoke to someone today, Israeli whose dad was killed, murdered on October seven.

War is hell.

And let's never forget that.

Begin those conversations.

I mean, I tell them that they're in our prayers.

God bless them.

They're not easy, but they're a lot harder for them than they are for me.

Not easy.

Yeah.

Your attention, of course, is often split as it is as the governor.

But we sit here, we're a little over a week out from elections.

Republicans that we spoke to feel very optimistic that they have the winning issues, you know, parental rights, budget affordability, etc.. Should they feel as optimistic about gaining a majority in at least one of the legislature of two minds to answer that?

One is, I couldn't disagree with them more on the issues.

I'll come back to that.

But on the other side, this these will be close elections.

This is a low turnout election.

No governor, no senator, no members of the House.

So Democrats take these elections for granted at their peril.

So I want to make sure everybody is out there taking this seriously on the edge of their seat, because, again, I think enthusiasm will decide this in a low turnout election.

With all due respect to parental rights, parents have always mattered.

They do matter.

They always will matter.

They're making something out of frankly, I believe that's that's that's not in their court.

Affordability.

We've had 28 tax cuts for middle class families and seniors, especially directed towards seniors and I'd say thirdly, what's also on the ballot and I can say this not as speculation, but because Minority Leader Bucco has said it, that abortion and reproductive freedom is also on the ballot.

They've said explicitly if they get the car keys, they would defund things like Planned Parenthood as they did under the Christie administration.

I know they would restrict abortion rights with him this week about that.

Yeah, he's he's saying that that was mischaracterized, that they wouldn't have the ability to do that, but that they would look at the funding and the fact that even look at it.

And by the way, the ability means that he doesn't think he's going to win the majority.

The fact of the matter is they've done it.

They did it under Governor Christie, eight straight years.

They zero funded Planned Parenthood.

They will do it again if they get majorities.

There were minutes from the Turnpike Authority Commission that you vetoed this week.

It was looking at a toll hike.

Some of those same Republicans and critics have called that a pre-election ploy, that these minutes that you have a full rundown of what's going to be discussed in those meetings and the budget.

Why veto them now?

Yeah.

Frankly, this is the first year that we're back on our feet since I signed that in 2020 through the pandemic.

I think we owe it to ourselves to look at revenue and traffic traffic statistics to make sure we still need this.

The last thing a commuter or a consumer needs right now, with inflation still in our midst, interest rates still high is another tax or another toll increase.

We want to take that very seriously.

And that's what that's what we've done.

All right.

You are back from a pretty big trip to East Asia.

Nine days you were in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, which was initially unannounced for security purposes.

Your team had told us what's the economic benefit for New Jerseyans who are wondering about the ties?

First of all, not one taxpayer dollar goes toward those trips.

It's all privately funded.

So a taxpayer out there watching this should know that their tax dollars aren't funding the trip, but we behave like they were.

And that's an important point.

They're really sort of three paths to this.

We meet with heads of state, in this case, the prime minister of Japan and the presidents of both Korea and Taiwan and their foreign ministers.

There's a huge higher ed component to this.

Research, collaboration, exchange of faculty and students that's already had a big benefit in New Jersey.

And thirdly, and most importantly, it's a huge jobs and investment opportunity for us.

Jersey plays very well on the international stage.

Some of the benefits are felt immediately for the Korean community.

Watching immediately.

Your driver's license from Jersey works in Korea and vice versa.

That was a big that didn't exist.

And did not exist till we signed it out in South Korea.

And a couple of academic partnerships, more than a couple we probably did with Rutgers, N.J.

I bet you Princeton, N.J. at Rutgers, Rowan, Montclair State were all on that trip.

Stockton all signed a memorandum of understanding or exchanges.

And again, some of the benefits from a trip like that are immediate, literally jobs created within a week or two.

Others are in the medium term while we're still in office and other seeds were planted.

Probably won't come home to roost until long after we're gone.

And that's okay.

As long as it's good for Jersey.

I'm good with that.

Governor Phil Murphy, thank you so much for your time, sir.

Thanks for having me.

Good to see you.