[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with the second most powerful person in the state of New Jersey politically.

He is the Senate president, Nick Scutari.

Mr. President, good to see you.

- Good to be back.

Nice to see you too, Steve.

- You got it.

Hey, Senator, let's do this.

The greatest concerns you have about the Trump administration's policies as it relates to New Jersey and is it cuts in programs?

I'm sure you hate to answer the question I asked you.

Is it cuts in certain programs that impact state funding?

- Well, that's certainly a big concern.

I mean, my biggest concern is a national concern where we don't follow the rule of law, we don't follow court decisions anymore.

If that really happens, we don't have democracy anymore.

That's the biggest concern I have, that the whole democracy goes down to tubes, which-- - Oh, really?

Seriously?

Because that's real stuff.

So for people who think seriously, Senator, "Oh, come on.

"The Senate president is engaging in hyperbole.

"Democracy's not at risk."

You say?

- It is if you don't follow the rule of law anymore, if you just say, I'm doing this no matter what a court says, I'm doing it anyway.

Because the court doesn't have the power to have the police come and stop the administration from doing something.

So that's how you end up with no longer a democracy, with a dictator, essentially in charge.

And that's my biggest concern.

I mean, the cuts are the cuts, that'll be difficult as well.

That'll be huge.

But if we don't have a democracy anymore, then I don't know.

None of this means anything.

- And along those lines of cuts, let's talk specifically about Medicaid.

Is it fair to say that of 9 million people in the state, 2 million people currently rely on Medicaid, A, and B, how concerned are you that the federal government through the Trump administration could be cutting those Medicaid benefits to those people?

- Close to 2 million.

It's about 1.8 million.

And yeah, it would be devastating for those folks, elder folks, folks with disabilities, seniors, children that rely on this for their healthcare.

It would be completely devastating.

There wouldn't be anything the state could really do.

We can't plug the hole of the federal government.

That's part of what the federal government's supposed to do.

- What would happen to those people, Senator?

- They would be uninsured.

They would not be able to get their necessary services.

They would not be able to go to the doctor.

They would not be able to go to the hospital.

They would not be able to get potentially lifesaving care when they need it.

And the state couldn't really do anything about it.

- If Elon Musk and the Republicans in Congress and President Trump say, "We are not cutting Medicaid, "we are not cutting Medicare.

"We are just cutting waste, fraud and abuse," you would say?

- Well, tell us what that is and we'll cut it.

I mean, no one's interested in having waste or fraud or abuse of these programs or any programs.

We've got more watchdogs in New Jersey than most states.

We've got the state auditor, we've got the state controller, we've got the Office of Public Integrity.

We have State Commission of Investigation, we have every county prosecutor's office, the special prosecutions unit.

We have more folks looking at waste, fraud, and abuse than I think probably any other state in the union.

So we've got probably more than we need.

So I think New Jersey doesn't have a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse in terms of what their spending is.

- Senator, to what degree do you believe that the goal of the federal administration, Trump administration is to quote, as some have said, "Privatize Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare," meaning move it out of the government and have it handled by the private sector.

To what degree do you believe that's really what's going on?

- Well, it's certainly possibility for sure.

I don't know for sure that's the end goal.

I'm a state legislator, not federal one.

- But if that were to happen, what would that mean?

- It would be dramatic changes for folks and it would be probably much more difficult for folks to survive in a situation like that.

I don't disagree with streamlining government.

We've had our own issues with state workers here.

But I think we're being surgical would be more appropriate than firing folks.

And then having them realizing that the federal atomic stockpile is no longer guarded because we laid off folks that are supposed to be guarding our nuclear weapons.

So, I think they've gotta be a little more...

I would appreciate if they were more surgical because the stock market's been crashing, prices have not gone down.

There are significant issues since the new administration came in for sure.

- We're actually taping on the 18th of March.

This will be seen later.

But to put things in perspective let's talk about education cuts.

What connection from your perspective, Mr. President, do you see between the Trump administration saying, we wanna do away with the Federal Department of Education, or at least cut it in half or slash this percentage or that percentage, get rid of the percentage of the workers, et cetera.

Cut back on many programs.

How much is the state of New Jersey and the children of New Jersey and public schools dependent upon the Federal Department of Education, Senator?

- Well, they set a lot of guidelines.

We obviously have, and I would say one of the best teaching workforces in the country.

Partially because we have a strong board of education in the state of New Jersey.

We've got strong union that provides really good teaching.

But guidelines that come from the federal government are essential, especially when it comes to funding of certain things.

If they're gonna cut the funding, that's gonna change education as we know in New Jersey.

- Shift gears.

So I'm curious about this.

You've been a leader in the legislature well before you became president of the Senate in the fight to legalize cannabis.

Where are we and where aren't we?

- Well, I think we've done pretty well with getting a legal industry stood up and running.

You can now buy legal marijuana in a variety of places.

More places are opening and they're real.

Most of them are very nice locations, nice places.

They're providing excellent products.

We are also continuing to provide medical marijuana for folks with significant disabilities.

But we've got a lot of work to do because we've got a really vibrant illegal market still out there selling marijuana illegally.

Not product that's tested, not product that's regulated.

Obviously, there's a lot of reasons why we put all these rules in place that makes it expensive for business owners to open up cannabis shops.

And there's a whole group of folks that are just not following those rules that are continuing to sell it illegally.

- How are we dealing with that?

With the illegal trade?

- I recently introduced new legislation to crack down on, because I think right now there's not a priority amongst law enforcement to do anything about the illegal sale of marijuana.

And that's something we really need to do before something goes terribly wrong.

Their product is not tested.

It's out in the stream.

People are still purchasing it, utilizing it.

And because it's less expensive and it's less expensive because it's not regulated.

They don't test the product.

You don't know what's in that product.

- It's dangerous.

- Yeah, it's dangerous.

And there's a reason why you can buy it legally and you shouldn't buy it illegally.

And we're going to crack down that.

- Senator, let me ask you this.

We're involved in, and for several years we've been involved in an initiative to help folks better understand the need for accessible, affordable childcare.

A graphic will come up, it's called the First 1000 Days Policy Coalition.

And here's the question.

From your perspective as president of the Senate, what is the highest priority?

And I know Senator Teresa Ruiz has been a leader in this front.

What is your highest priority as it relates to childcare as New Jersey elects a new governor in 2025, taking office in January, 2026.

But as a president of Senate, what's your highest priority?

- Well, I depend a lot on Senator Ruiz as my majority leader and the number two in the Senate.

And she's been a leader in childcare issues and childcare tax credits, helping parents get to work and not having the burdens of childcare as a continuing.

It's a lot of responsibility raising children and working at the same time.

Folks don't have the luxury to be able to stay home anymore.

So the state has to continue-- - Is that legislation moving Senator?

- We've moved several pieces.

We've increased childcare tax credits over time and we're gonna continue to work on those things if we can afford them.

I'll tell you one of the other things, and I thought it's not related, but I mean, the population of our country and our state is growing dramatically.

And folks of our age group are now being the caregivers.

We're not even young anymore.

And we've got folks that are still alive.

Our parents and our grandparents and our uncles and our aunts.

And we have that responsibility.

The state has to do more to try to help folks.

'Cause this is gonna be, as the baby boomers start retiring and are not able to take care of themselves, but are not passing, this is going to be a real big issue for folks that are of working age, but are not really young anymore with trying to balance the needs of their continuing careers and taking care of the elderly.

- Last issue I wanna raise with you, and you understand this better than most.

The so-called magic mushroom issue.

You're leading an effort that would legalize the production use of, I don't wanna mispronounce it.

- Psilocybin.

- Psilocybin, right.

What the heck is a magic mushroom and why should it be legalized, Senator?

- Well, psilocybin is proven to be very successful in treating a variety of conditions: PTSD, depression, even alcoholism.

And I'd like to see New Jersey be at the forefront, one of the first states to legalize it for medical purposes so we can test it and utilize it and see how it can be done under strict doctors' guidelines to see if we can help it get through and get it past the finish line.

Maybe by the end, by the summer break, so that we can see doctors being able to utilize this in the treatment of patients.

- But only.

Senate President Scutari.

Only medical use, correct?

- At this point, yes.

Only medical use.

- How hard has it been to move that initiative?

- I think people are reasonably open-minded after how much work it took me to get marijuana legalized.

This is a little bit-- - How many years?

Let everyone know, Senator.

We must have done a dozen interviews over the years with you.

- Yeah, I don't even know if it-- - Was it at least, was it a decade?

- It was more than a decade.

- More than a... - Yes.

I introduced it in 2006, I believe, and by the time it's now really opened up, it's been almost 20 years.

And when I started, it was me.

That was it.

- Yeah.

It was just you.

Senator, give me 30 seconds on the cost of energy in the state.

- We've been conducting hearings in terms of that.

I mean, energy costs has to be at the forefront of the legislator's minds.

Not that we can do tons about it, but we certainly wanna find out why.

And the blame lies in a variety of different places.

But we've gotta continue to make sure that we analyze how we can produce energy in New Jersey for folks that is affordable.

- Senate president Nick Scutari, dealing with a whole range of issues.

There'll be a new governor in New Jersey in January, 2026.

We'll follow the election and continue talking to the Senate president.

Thank you Senator.

- Good to see you, man.

Thanks a lot.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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