>> Major funding for reporters roundtable with data -- David Cruz.

Rowan University, educating New Jersey leaders partnering with New Jersey businesses, transforming New Jersey's future.

David: President Trump, the sequel, are you ready for week two?

Are you ready for reporters roundtable including Kenneth Burns a New Jersey reporter WHYY Sean Sullivan with NJ advanced media and political columnist for the record USA Today network.

We will hear from them in a few minutes.

We begin withLots of activity.

Let's bring in the chair of the New Jersey Republican Party to talk about it.

Look about -- welcome back to roundtable.

I have to start with the raids in Newark.

We are waiting on details.

What do you think about that, chairman?

Chairman Hugin: the American people spoke in the election clearly that they want a secure border and the criminals out of the United States.

We need to do what the people elected Trump to do, secure the border, eliminate criminals, that the economy grow, and bring inflation down.

David: the additional reporting about that we have heard is there were no warrants, no activity, no active crime.

Are you OK with agents of the Federal government coming into your law office, your accounting office, or any other place of business and detaining people, in some cases, actual citizens of the United States?

Chair Hugin: we can talk about hypotheticals all we want.

I am a believer in the rule of law and I give the presumption that what the government does is correct and lawful.

I am assuming they are abiding by the law.

I am a strict believer in that, whether you are Republican or Democrat, American citizens deserve the full protection of the law.

Every resident deserves that.

If things are illegal we need to stop them.

If they are illegal, we have to keep them going.

David: From what we know --.

Chair Hugin: We don't know.

We can guess.

I am assuming it is legal.

David: The crux of my question was to juxtapose how this is likely to take place.

Rating -- raiding a 7-Eleven visually is different than raiding a lawyer's office, no?

Chair Hugin: Wherever the criminals are, we should get them.

There are some protections we should afford people, but I have seen so many cases where illegal immigrants have murdered, raped, and been released.

The American people say, we are fed up.

It's time to move on.

Let's secure the border.

Let's eliminate criminals.

Let's let the economy grow and bring inflation down.

That's what the government should be doing.

The government has to act illegally.

I would not condone any illegal actions.

Lets get the job done moving forward.

David: I am sure we can both agree reports of criminality among immigrants, undocumented and otherwise, has been a little bit exaggerated.

Chair Hugin: I don't know what has been exaggerated or not.

I know --.

David: [Laughter] I have to interrupt you.

You say you don't know.

But you say as if it is fact.

Chair Hugin: I don't know the totality.

I don't know if it has been exaggerated or not.

I don't know if it has not been exaggerated to be as either.

I don't know.

David: Let's talk about the first week come outside of the raids what did you think of the president's speech of the first week this has unfolded so far?

Chair Hugin: I was in Washington for the inauguration and it was incredibly exciting and exhilarating to feel a weight lifted off of people's shoulders that they can operate their businesses without free -- with freedom not worried about government intervention.

It was enthusiasm for the rebirth of the culture of American to do things right.

It was more like a state of the union then an inaugural speech, but I have to tell you, he is a man of action.

The guy sleeps like four hours a night and is busy all the time.

I think a little bit it is his strategy of letting people be unnerved by him saying, not knowing what to expect from him so they give him a lot of leeway.

He has negotiated a lot of good things already.

I have to tell you, I was in Princeton for a board meeting a week ago and you could feel the spirit is there.

People have felt the society had gone too far with identity politics.

We need to move back tomorrow -- to more of a normal time.

I think President Trump will bring more normalcy to America.

David: That is a bold statement, chairman.

Chair Hugin: It is.

David: I am sure you saw, from Inauguration Day, this gesture from Elon Musk.

I mean, do you think people should be concerned when they see that?

Chair Hugin: I have to be honest with you, what does that gesture mean?

David:[laughter] It looks to a lot of people, chairman like a heil Hitler salute.

Chair Hugin: I have a hard time believing that is what it is.

David: You'll see that?

-- you don't see that?

Chair Hugin: I spent seven years in the Marine Corps defending his country and I am proud of this country.

I would never allow something to be done in a Nazi-like way.

Maybe he is suggesting he is taking his heart outside.

I do not know his intent.

But we should find out and clear that up.

I think he really cares about this country.

I have met him.

I don't know him well but I think he is well-intentioned and a brilliant guy.

But if he is mistaken and confusing two actions we should let him know.

If that is what it is, you should not be doing it.

David: Let's switch to -- I am running out of time.

I want to talk about New Jersey.

Chair Hugin: a good state.

David: A great stage.

Some of the issues the Trump policies are having an impact on .

Offshore wind, gone.

Of course.

The regulation crackdown.

What do you think his impact will be on New Jersey's economy, culture, etc.?

Chair Hugin: A couple things are very important to think about here for New Jersey.

First, the energy policy.

The offshore wind.

I am a big believer in renewables.

Onshore wind makes a lot of sense.

The damages the onshore wind it did in Nantucket and other places, economic strategies is that it made no sense.

Offshore wind is very different from onshore wind and solar and other renewables.

Energy policy has to stand on its own.

Let's be clear.

I am personally invested in data centers all over the country.

New Jersey cannot have a data center 143% of the electricity comes from one nuclear plant in Salem County and the restroom natural gas.

President Trump's energy policy would allow New Jersey to open data centers, do things it never could have done before under the previous administration.

I was very optimistic that we will see good things for the economy of New Jersey.

David: By encouraging nuclear, coal?

Chair Hugin: Not coal.

We want natural gas, which is very efficient compared to coal.

I want to transition to renewables over time.

We have to do it economically and soundly.

We cannot destroy people's lives when we do it.

We need to work on the economy, absolutely.

We need to do it in an economically sound way.

I want to tell you whatever the -- one of her thing -- other thing.

The Republican party of New Jersey is on a roll.

We just hired a Hudson County got Kenny Gonzalez to be our executive chairman.

We are going to turn New Jersey read, you had better be ready.

David: Guys from Hudson County don't all know each other.

Chair Hugin: Were going to make it happen.

David: All right.

Really quick before I let you go.

It started to get a little heated on the Republican gubernatorial side.

Some of finger pushing, some finger-pointing.

And junk talking as we like to say in Hudson County.

Does the chairman have to step in here and reiterate the Reagan mantra of thou shalt not speak ill of fellow Republicans?

Chair Hugin: I have several velocities -- philosophies.

I admire Ronald Reagan and his philosophies but I also say, don't say you are going to do something cannot enforce.

Make sure to be smart about what you do.

I think compared to the Democratic primary the Republican primary will look like a bunch of people at a ladies tea.

I see what is having -- happening with Philip and Cheryl and all those guys.

I am excited to watch that from the sidelines with about 200 million dollars is spent tearing each other apart.

I am a big believer that we should talk about policies and not affect -- attack people individually.

We flowed -- a show to talk about the issues and how we will govern for people in Jersey.

Republican policies make so much sense for New Jersey.

With the structural deficits the next couple weeks of a billion dollars.

The economy here needs to be revamped.

E we need a Republican governor and we will make it happen.

David: It has begun.

State Republican chairman Bob hugin always great to have you want.

Panel, Ken Charles, Sean, good to see well.

Charles, you wrote about the first week.

What is your sense of things?

Charles: I think it is shocking, as he alluded to.

I think that Stephen Miller, his henchmen on immigration made this a very clear early on that there will be so many executive orders, particularly with immigration that the immigration defense, social justice advocacy groups are just not going to be handle it all.

They will be on their heels.

I do not know if that is entirely true.

But they are certainly flooding the zone.

There is also the concern with some Republicans about overreach, particularly, on pardoning January 6 rioters that attacked police officers.

I heard the chairman saying he is a defender of the rule of law.

But there is some concern Donald Spartans will do reputational harm long-term to the party has a party of hypocrites.

David: Kenny, do you have a take away?

Ken: 30 years ago, around the time I had a birthday we had the Republican Revolution at Cambridge and company and they talked about the rule of law, about respecting institutions.

They talked about good moral character.

They went after President Clinton for lying under old -- oath about having an affair.

Fast forward 30 years.

President Trump pardoned and basically let Free a bunch of lawmakers.

We have no real respect for institutions on the GOP side like we used to.

I could go on and on.

If Mr. Hugin was still on I would ask to him how he expects to the party over the next 30 years when people are using their regular eyes and seeing what is happening.

David: Good point.

I should have had you jump in there.

We got a little sidetracked, but good point.

Sean, it feels to be a little bit, and I am not a constitutional historian or scientist at all, but it seems to me like the executive branch is taking every advantage of everything in the Constitution that says, hey, you can be a dictator if you want.

Sean: Yeah.

This is the playbook we saw them presage before the election.

This is an unprecedented re-examining of the functions of Federal government even -- everybody puts in their guys when they come in at the top.

But, there have always been protections for the civil servants, then long-term functionaries of government.

Those folks are also feeling the squeeze.

That is something we have not really seen before.

David: Does anybody have anything to say about Elon Musk's salute at the inaugural?

Chuck, I was kind of taken aback by the chairman's reaction, to be honest.

Charles: I was too.

You have to take that salute in context.

Look at his tweets over the past couple weeks.

He has been making a lot Nazi jokes and pond -- puns.

It is part of his whole troll and persona.

It is hard to believe it is a salute to the faithful in the crowd.

If you put it in that context of what he has been saying, it is more of an attempt to set the liberal world's hair on fire by pushing the envelope.

David: Kenny, I am taking my heart out.

Kenneth: sure!

When is the Nazi salute not a Nazi salute?

Charlie is right.

Elon Musk's troll game is ongoing and probably continuing up to this very minute.

But to my point earlier, who are we supposed to believe?

Somebody saying I am not sure or "lighting eyes."

David: We have seen immigration raids across the country, one year in Newark.

Sean, do we know any details about this?

Sean: I think we will learn a lot more over the course of the weekend.

What we know now is there was a raid at a fish market in Newark.

I think they questioned as many as eight people and detained I think three folks that did not have documentation on them.

We are hearing reports one of them may have been a U.S. military veteran that just did not have identification on them and they did not accept the military ID.

We are short on details.

Keep in mind, I am not an expert on the daily operations of ice.

But I am an expert on political theater.

This is the sort of -- I don't look at what they did in Newark as that out of the ordinary.

This sort of stuff ice was doing frankly under a Biden administration, and Obama administration.

This is what ice was.

Normally they would do it with less fanfare.

This is an agency that has been politicizedq, both byd size to both by the left and right and they like Donald Trump and trying to impress the boss.

Charles: There was an ice raid in Princeton last year that caused a lot of alarms.

Sean is right.

What we do not know is whether this is a Trump raid, and aggressive Trump raid, or just routine ice enforcement.

Kenneth: the Trump Administration is a little bit better about publicizing their initiatives than the Biden administration.

David: Good point.

Let's get some more jersey connections on all this.

Killing offshore wind, making Doug Steinhardt the U.S. attorney, even Murphy at trying to suck up to the president for help on congestion pricing.

Charles, which of these has the most jersey impact?

Charles: First, canceling the wind, which, I would like to see how that is squared with the drill baby drill promised to start drilling off the eastern seaboard and how just Andrew, particularly, that Republican Congressman.

But, congestion pricing was interesting.

I think it sort of illustrates what I call the two face strategy.

You have Murphy being the X ambassador currying favor where he can with the president on things of jersey interest.

Which, frankly, that is congestion pricing.

Killing congestion pricing really harms most commuters in the long run.

But that's another argument.

On the other hand, going to court trying to fight the constitutional shredding of the 14th amendment.

So you have this one throwing a jab and in the other one sticking out the hand for a handshake.

David: Talking about birthright citizenship, Plotkin and other attorneys general across the country.

Sean, should we take anything away when we hear that Doug Steinhardt is the president's choice for U.S. attorney?

Do we know anything about Doug Steinhardt's judicial philosophy, any of that?

Sean: I do not know if Mr. Steinhardt would agree with this comparison, but he really gives me U.S. attorney Chris Christie vibes, a guy that did not have a prosecutorial background, had a legal background.

But he was in the political mix.

It certainly sets up an interesting relationship.

00 Steinhardt isn't0 the Trumpiest Republican in jersey.

He hasn't really gone to war with Matt Alaskan for example.

It will be interesting to see how the relationship develops because U.S. attorneys and attorneys general work closely together and there is oversight stuff.

It's not impossible to see a scenario where the Trump administration is ordering U.S. attorney Steinhardt to go after Attorney General Platkin and that would definitely create tension.

David: Kenny, what are your thoughts on Stein --Steinhardt and offshore wind?

Kenneth: two things will have an impact immediately.

Congestion pricing and the executive order on birthright.

Just how New Jersey is and we attract as many immigrants as New York City.

Long-term, I am thinking of offshore wind.

Particularly, since the main focus was South Jersey, my main coverage area.

And particularly, Salem County were all the parts were supposed to be made.

In at least three counties, and Salem was one of them, pours them into the state and they are hurting for jobs.

Jersey got hit Rio evenly handed for now and in the future this week by the Trump Administration.

David: Let me stick with you, Kenny.

When you think of George Norcross, Camden city, when you think of Camden city, what do you think?

What happened with that hearing this week and what is going on with the administration of the city that they are shaming you and WHYY so ferociously?

Kenneth: I'm trying to figure that last question out.

The story I did last week was reaction from longtime advocates in the city of Camden that have raised concerns about initiatives George Norcross was championing behind-the-scenes and publicly and how they feel like to be in diamond that dropped last year was vindication for the issues they raised.

They talked about stuff that came out under the press conference last week that I did cover.

We did a story about the 55 year low in crime in the city of Camden.

But -- well, I have a clue about where the mayor gets his talking points from.

But I can't go too much further than that.

All that to say, they need to read my story.

I do not think they read my story.

I am learning that the criticize Norcross's to criticize Camden.

But I was not criticizing Camden at all.

I really wasn't criticizing anything or anyone for that matter.

I was amplifying the voices of people you normally do not hear in the news.

David: Sean, I think it is the highest compliment when public officials write letters to the public.

Excoriating your reporting.

I would love that, frankly.

Sean:[laughter] I have a couple of those myself.

David: Send your critical letters to Dash.

Did anything happen with Norcross this week?

Was there a hearing scheduled?

Sean: I don't think we will hear action for a while.

It is a fairly lengthy hearing.

It will really be tough to see exactly how this plays out.

I think we are kind of at a crossroads here where the government needs to put up or shut up with their evidence.

Because there is a lot of questioning over sources and methods here.

The court documents themselves, I have read through them and they are vague about how they know what to say no.

If there are recordings, if there is evidence, it is time for the public to see that stuff.

A lot of the behavior that is documented here is, as Kenny and his colleagues have pointed out, a little sketchy.

Is it legal is another question entirely.

Kenneth: keep in mind this is RICO normally used in Mafia and organized crime cases.

Whatever the state has not shown, they must know something.

They must have something.

Whether it will see that light of day at this point remains to be seen.

The judge put the next court date as February 27.

He even said it is movable at this point.

Stay, everybody.

David: You say RICO, I say Sauve.

Charlie, you and I first met many many years ago when door -- George Norcross was walking away for me and I was trying to ask him questions.

This guy is either like the greatest fire Godzilla.

-- greatest guy or Godzilla.

Charles: Well, I've never heard it framed that way.

But I know he has been a dominant, aggressive, and pugilistic presence.

One who has had a tight grip on the Democratic Party and the legislature, to a certain extent, the governor's office, for a very long time.

And, the city of Camden has become, as Kenny has witnessed, his public relations arm.

Maybe that is a little strong, but I would say, attacking Camden is attacking George Norcross.

You framed it the other way.

I think that is the way that is probably more accurate.

David: Sean, you are still getting your sea legs back after some dad leave.

As we say around here, how is the kid doing?

Sean: She is doing all right.

Like her dad, she is very vocal.

That is her skeptical face that she got from me.

David: What a cutie.

That is the round table for this week.

Sean, can, Charles, good to see you all.

Thank you.

Thank you to NJ GOP Chairman Bob Hugin for joining us.

Follow this show on X @roun dtablenj.

For the crew at the Gateway Center in downtown Newark, thank you for watching.

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