[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by State Senator Jon Bramnick of the 21st District, considered to be the funniest lawyer in New Jersey.

He has a comedy act.

You can check him out.

He doesn't do it in the state legislature though.

How you doing, Senator?

- Not considered.

I won the contest and I trademarked it.

So let's rephrase that.

"He is the funniest lawyer in New-" I'm like the Muhammad Ali of funny lawyers in New Jersey, okay?

- Yeah, do not throw the name Muhammad Ali around easily.

But I will say this, what was funny about the election, we're taping this a week after election, maybe nothing funny, but what was significant, Senator?

- What was funny is everybody thought it was close, and the Republicans go, "Oh, Jack's gonna win, Jack's gonna win."

I go like this, "He ain't gonna win."

I mean, stop, okay?

You know, Republicans had an echo chamber.

They must have forgotten that Donald Trump wasn't popular here.

And they must have forgotten that, you know who wins governor races in New Jersey on the Republican side?

Moderates.

- Name them, Tom Kean.

- Christine Whitman, and your friend Chris Christie ran against Steve Lonegan.

He was the moderate, at least at that time, before he ran for president.

- Hold on, Jack Ciattarelli, I've interviewed him a dozen times.

You've known him for years.

He's not a moderate Republican?

- Well, maybe years ago.

But then, hey, President Trump said he's 100% MAGA and he gave Trump an A, and he didn't deny he was a MAGA guy.

So how are you gonna win, okay?

- Do you think it's true that Jack Ciattarelli gave, and I don't like doing political insider garbage, but I've heard this by many sources, and I knew you heard it as well, Senator, that even though Jack Ciattarelli gave Donald Trump an A, Donald Trump was peeved, because he didn't get an A+ from Ciattarelli, and then was upset with him.

Could that possibly be true?

- Look, anything could be true with Donald Trump.

I don't know.

But that wouldn't-- - But you heard the same thing?

- Not officially.

I mean, look, that had nothing to do with the outcome of the election.

- But does it have to do with the loyalty the president expects from, or the fealty, whatever you wanna call it, of everyone around him, including Jack Ciattarelli?

He expected that.

- I'm not arguing with you.

I mean, that might be true.

I just don't know officially, right?

So that may be true, I don't know anything about it.

- How did it hurt Jack being so tied to Trump?

- Well, it's pretty simple.

President Trump is not really well liked in New Jersey, let's start with that.

He generally lost independents.

Now, when you run in New Jersey as a Republican, not only do you need some Democrats, but you need to win the independents big time.

So I always look at unaffiliated voters, right?

If unaffiliated voters are not voting for a Republican, you're going down.

So bottom line was, you know, this idea of a MAGA candidate is gonna win in New Jersey, I mean, that's as insane as you can get.

- Mikie Sherrill, new governor, top two or three issues she faces starting on January 20th, 2026, as governor?

Go ahead, Senator.

- Affordability, affordability, affordability.

Look, she talked about it.

Everybody knows that people are struggling.

You know, I know people who have really good salaries and they can barely make ends meet.

Everyone knows that's the most important issue.

Well, it's almost the most important issue.

The overwhelming problems with the Republican brand is why she won so well.

But what's most important to people is affordability.

- Connected to another issue we're involved in, the graphic will come up, it'll say Start Strong NJ, it's part of a public awareness effort we're involved in around childcare.

Affordable, accessible, quality childcare.

We've talked to you about this issue before, Senator.

How should the governor attack and deal with that, together with the legislature, starting in the new year?

- Well, you have to prioritize.

And working families need the most help, because they need childcare, they need housing, they need reasonable property taxes, meaning they can't continue to go up wildly.

So I have to tell you, there's no question that there's a big burden ahead of the new governor, whether it be Democrat or Republican.

So it's going to be a slow process to try to change the affordability situation in New Jersey.

But how do you solve that problem?

I guess you gotta do your best to stop spending, and it's very difficult.

She's got a lot of challenges, and I like her personally.

- So, let me ask you, you and Senator Cryan, Joe Cryan, have been out there on a civility campaign, if you will, talking in college campuses around the need for civility.

Help us understand, Senator, why demonizing those who disagree with you, calling them your enemy, no disrespect to President Trump, but he has called those of us in the media, "the enemy of the people," why is that a problem?

And why the heck are you and a Democrat, Senator Cryan, promoting civility in politics?

Senator?

- Well, you just said it.

Let's start with the fact that now we have the media, which is either on the left or the right.

It's very difficult to be in the middle.

- You know we're not.

- No, no, no.

Yeah, of course.

I get that.

But most of the time people turn off the TV unless it's exciting.

They wanna see a blog that tells them what they think their politics are or is, right?

So bottom line is, we went out there because, after Charlie Kirk was murdered, it was actually Senator Cryan who called me and said, "You know something?

We gotta go onto college campuses and say we don't hate each other."

And we talk about everything from the death penalty to guns, we talk about taxes, and the kids or the students ask really good questions.

We need so much more of that.

Because if you look at your own app, or you look at only your station, you know, Fox versus MSNBC, you're gonna never hear the other side.

So we go out, and I can't tell you how mesmerized students are.

They go like this, and you could drop a pin in the room, 'cause they don't see that anymore.

What they see is us versus them, and I'm tired of that nonsense.

- They are not our enemy, those who disagree, those who have different points of view.

They're just other Americans who have a different point of view.

I'm not on my soapbox, I'm just saying if we debate that or argue that, we're gonna be in serious trouble, which is why the graphic democracy and danger was up when the Senator talked about that.

- We're in serious trouble.

We're in serious trouble.

- As we speak?

- Absolutely.

This is really dangerous times when people say, "I hate my opponents."

Let me tell you, the future, if we continue down on this road where Democrats and Republicans hate each other, can't talk to each other, they can't compromise, that's not what democracy is.

There'll be a point where, you know, it will get really, really bad, in my opinion, unless somehow some great leader comes along and says, "Stop," and we're gonna need that.

- We'll keep talking to Senator Bramnick, as we have before, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald and others, both parties, different points of view.

Thank you, Senator, we appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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