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♪, ♪ >> Welcome to "chatbox."

It feels like events here have been moving at hyper speed and that's because they are.

We are going to dig into what's happening, why and what's next for New Jersey and the country.

My guest is New Jersey Senator andy Kim.

What I have heard most recently is your visit to Delaney hall and detention center in Newark which has been a hot spot.

What did you find there?

>> We went the day after there was four detainees that broke out of it.

I wanted to be able to go and Congressman Menendez and I went and we wanted to know what happened and how is this unfolding and these detainees were able to get out as well as what comes next.

What we heard is that the outside wall of this one detainee unit, unit five was drywall and mesh and shows you shoddy construction.

And tried to get it up as quickly as possible and didn't let the City of Newark inspect it or have a spption to see if it was up to standards.

People broke out.

The community concern about that.

But it shows you what happens and in particular when you have a for-profit company that has over $1 billion contract and they are trying to turn a profit and cutting corners and that's not going to keep our country safe or the using taxpayer dollars.

>> This company contributed a million dollars to the President --'s.

>> Surprise, surprise.

>> The policy changes and the contracts are let out and that is a pretty good return on investment.

So was there a riot there?

>> I don't know -- what the right term nolg was.

Certainly there was unrest inside in part because they were doing something inside that prevented the detainees from getting to get meals, upwards 20 hours went without meals, and not just an isolated incident.

I have been hearing people not getting portions to the size they should be getting.

And again, there needs to be oversight and accountability.

Right now I believe they have moved, if not most of the detainees out because it is basically a crime scene because of the incompetence and neglect.

>> Out of the facility?

>> We are trying to get answers but they are not giving us direct answers.

But again they need to be upfront to the American people about what is happening.

I certainly don't think that facility should be operating anymore.

>> How was it to get access?

Part of the flash point a few weeks ago who had access, who didn't have access, what was the procedure.

>> This time, it was a crime scene.

They literally just had detainees break out.

The police were there.

Not a lot we could see but we could talk to the officials there, including the warden which they call facility administrator.

But I didn't have expectations that I would be seeing it all given they were trying to investigate.

At that time, they were at large still.

And they didn't know where they were.

There is a lot of concern in the community.

>> Our understanding is that Members of the House and Senate had the ability to inspect whenever they wanted.

Is that still the case?

I guess there is nobody left in there so nothing left to inspect?

>> Not just about that facility.

I did a tour of the site in elizabeth.

Look, I don't have to tell you how concerning it was to see Senator Padilla thrown to the floor in a Federal building when he was escorted to that press conference by an F.B.I.

agent and a Marshall and they knew who he was.

This is an alarming of disrespect and lawlessness from the top to the bottom.

It has been challenging to get information out there despite the fact in a hearing I asked secretary noem about the right to Congress to investigate and she confirmed that.

But that is something that isn't followed through on on so many different fronts.

>> You mentioned Senator Padilla and mayor of Newark arrested and Congresswoman indicted and mayoral candidate in New York City just a couple of days ago.

This arresting of public officials is the thing that concerns a lot of people because these are peaceful demonstrations or incidents that turn violent when they start arresting people.

Do you feel like this administration is targeting elected officials to send a message not only to people in general, but to Members of Congress and others who have authority and responsibility to challenge and question?

>> This is an administration that wants to suppress dissent on every single level and want to make examples of certain people to have a chilling effect.

Look at what they did to law firms that stepped up against them or they are deporting people who have raised different political perspectives that are out there.

They are going after elected officials.

They are kicking news agencies and outlets out of the press briefing rooms at the White House, State Department and Pentagon because they don't like their reporting.

It is on so many different levels.

That's one of the things that should be a bedrock of our democracy, the right to be able to ask questions, to be able to have transparency and raise different perspectives without the worry of retribution.

And that level of dominance and revenge that we are seeing is unamerican and something that needs to stop and one of the things that I find most disgusting about how this administration is operating.

>> Then you see taking away grants and so on for universities across the country, medical providers.

>> Another thing I see in my perspective in the U.S. Senate, I see the opposite side.

The ingraish yaiting of companies for being loyal and being supporters.

The corruption we see left and right.

Right now, they have a nominee to the third circuit court who is a personal lawyer of President Trump's who I think is wholly unqualified but has taken steps for instance in trying to drop D.O.J.

's efforts against mayor adams in New York, something that appears to be a quid pro quo.

That isn't someone that should be on the bench.

It's just not about the squashing of dissent and criticism but the lifting up and supportive of those whose number one quality is just belying loyalty to the President.

>> That reminds me of the U.S. attorney of the district of New Jersey.

Her interim term is about up soon.

You would not approve of her being made permanent?

>> No.

The thought of that makes me just sad for our country that someone like her who is trying to weapon niez and politicize that job.

>> If you were a -- I guess you are a partisan obviously, but anybody else looking at it objectively could look at it what she is doing is so obvious.

>> Correct.

It is something so blatant.

She basically said she wants to help turn New Jersey red.

She clearly wished she was running for governor or wants some other job.

She is thinking about this as a means and trying to set it up in that kind of way.

That is a blatant opportunity that is out there.

But these are serious jobs and threats that we face in safety and security.

This administration that they promised, top issue was about lowering costs.

Well, what is this administration doing to lower costs while they are administering tariffs.

This is a free-for-all for those closest to the President and those who voted for the President, take a look at what's happening and share some concerns that I do about what is unfolded and how much damage that has done to our country and democracy.

>> The President performed better than expected in New Jersey this last election.

And we hear about buyers' remorse, folks that voted for him and now wondering, what did I do.

Have you seen any evidence of that.

You have been at town halls a lot.

>> I hear it.

And one thing that feeds to happen, there should never be an effort to shame people in terms of their beliefs or who they voted for.

No, I told you so.

That's not going to do anything.

Trump won twice.

I have learned that we need to approach with humility and have the biggest coalition possible.

And so, yes, I think in particular, small business owners, business people, that are affected on so many different ways, especially the tariffs, I think that has been absurd and what they see on immigration.

Yes, we want to make sure -- there is wide agreement we can have control over our borders in this country but trump promised to go after violent criminals.

But we have someone like a restaurant owner who has been in the elizabeth detention facility for months.

I visited him and he is someone that I. C. E says he doesn't have a criminal history.

He has a wife and two American citizen kids.

That is hafort breaking.

>> The G.O.P.

meanwhile here in New Jersey, Republicans we talk to and others say, this is what you voted for.

Aren't they right about that?

No.

No.

People voted to be able to lower costs.

That was by far the top issue.

I'm sure you heard it from everybody.

Lowering costs, what is happening right now when we are seeing these tariffs when costs are going through the roof.

That is not what people voted for.

They didn't vote for this blatant corruption we are seeing left and right.

That is something that needs to be exposed and especially with this reconciliation bill, the effort to gut health care for millions of people including hundreds of thousands in New Jersey.

That would be devastating.

>> You teed up my next question about the budget, where is the process right now?

>> Right now with the budget reconciliation and those that may not have been paying attention, this is what I would say is the most dangerous piece of legislation that I have ever seen in my time in Congress so far that would be the largest single cut to health care.

16 million people would lose their health care.

>> Where does that number come from?

>> C.B.O., Congressional Budget Office.

Not a partisan office and estimate 16 million people would have their health care cut.

Not just people on Medicaid or marketplace A.C.A.

I had hospitals tell me if there are major cuts to Medicaid, their hospitals could close.

Rural hospitals could very well close because of this.

Right now, we saw this past week, the House of Representatives and all three Republican Members of Congress, Chris Smith, Jeff Andrew and Tom k Arch ne voted to support this.

They are trying to push it forward.

We are going to be coming to a vote, I can't tell you when when.

If it passes the Senate and it goes back to the House of Representatives.

Let those three Members of Congress who voted for it know how they feel about it because it is very dangerous and going to hurt a lot of people in this State.

>> At the risk of sounding self-serving, there are planned cuts to N.P.R.

and P.B.S.

which keeps this place going, it's across the country, not only arts and culture and arts and public affairs which are an important service to the American people.

>> We are in a country where we should be having more news outlets and abilities to have opinions raised, not less.

And again, especially like the reasoning for this isn't a budgetary reason.

This administration is expressly going after public media because they believe that it is against their political beliefs.

And that's the kind of targeting that people are seeing throughout.

And all of these cuts, whether it's whether DOGE was trying to do or the cuts to Medicaid or to food assistance through snap, there is gutting of Pell Grants which I benefited.

I was work study and Pell Grant.

They are gutting these as well.

For what purpose?

>> That was my next question.

>> It's not because they are trying to pay down the deficit.

Our deficits have ballooned by trillions of dollars, this is going to pay for the task cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

>> What does that mean when tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans -- I remember the first round of tax cuts in the first trump administration, there were tax cuts, temporary tax cuts and others that were more permanent.

What's the middle class person who is so concerned about being able to pay for groceries and gas and child care, what are they going to see?

>> They are not going to see much if anything.

Middle class are going to see their taxes go up.

What we are seeing is upwards of $400,000 or more for the top 1%.

You know -- really, are they the ones that are struggling.

I don't think we should be supporting tax cuts to people who are so wealthy that they have their own personal space program.

That's not who needs this kind of relief right now.

There are people who are struggling.

When you think that health care costs are going to up, it's going to be raising health care costs not just for people who are getting their health care but for all of us.

In general, this effort to gut our health care, food assistance, so much education support, it's going to make it harder for the middle class and families struggling to get by right now, this is irresponsible and just outright dangerous.

>> What about the salt reduction and we have heard there are negotiations going on.

Any portion of that will be restored?

>> Tom ka nmp e said that's why he is supporting this legislation and criticizing me and Senator booker.

You want to know something, if all we did is nothing, if we just let this tax cut expire at the end of this year, it would go back to where it was where we have no cap which is what we should have.

This is Donald trump's making he imposed the salt tax on us in the first term.

All we have to do is let it expire.

Tom kane are making this worse by -- they keep saying we are raising the cap.

All you have to do is nothing.

Let it expire and people in New Jersey will be able to move forward from this and not be burdened by these salt caps again.

>> We don't know in terms of a final vote on this budget to send it back to the House for further reconciliation but there are serious implications for New Jersey because Medicaid, if there are cuts in Medicaid, it could impact the State budget that's a little iffy as it is right now and who knows what the future holds in terms of a recession.

You are hit by the cuts themselves and your State also takes a hit.

>> The Federal Government wouldn't provide the matching funds for the States as well when it comes to Medicaid.

So there would be all sorts of problems.

And we know no State in America has the ability to fully close the gap of Medicaid cuts.

And we see with the revenue loss because of these tariffs and the challenges that people are facing left and right.

That's going to hurt.

Revenue and income coming in.

Just so many different places getting hit.

>> How about the international U.S. profile I don't know if we are supporting Ukraine or supporting Russia.

Where does that stand now?

And we'll talk about Iran in a second.

>> The United States should be standing by our partners in Europe including Ukraine.

It shouldn't even be a question about which side we are on and the fact we are even there.

President Trump has had difficult discussions with putin in recent weeks and putin isn't somebody who is seeking peace.

Many of us knew already and hope we can take a united stand against putin.

We saw it enormously successful operation by the Ukrainians and still have the fight in them.

We need to give them the greatest possible chance to preserve their country and we have to give them the strongest hand.

>> I wanted you to give us some context on the Israel and Iran kon conflict.

But the President making news saying he is going to give two weeks for diplomacy to work before he makes a decision on whether or not to join Israel in its offensive.

What is happening there?

You have experience in this region.

Dangerous what's happening.

>> I spent a large part of my life working in national security, counterterrorism and countering Iranian violence.

So I have a lot of concerns about their efforts to try to get a nuclear weapon and we need to be taking steps there, but diplomacy needs to be tried especially since there is a natural opening on that front.

And I was frustrated that there are efforts to close that window and yes, I do think we need to have a push.

I hope that President Trump follows through on that and really tries to see if there is a way for an agreement.

Not only is that the better route but also the one that has greatest chance of being able to stop development towards a nuclear bomb.

>> It's unlikely that the israelis are going to be able to bomb Iran to submission, whatever submission means in this case.

>> That's correct.

They don't have, Israel doesn't have the military capability to destroy the three nuclear sites.

The United States has greater weaponry but no gar and tie that it could completely destroy that ability to manufacture.

The only thing we can do that has the greatest likelihood to stop this in the long run is through diplomacy.

It is a shot and conflict should be a last resort and I say this as someone who saw other problems fail to stop north Korea from achieving a nuclear weapon but has a nuke car that weapon pointed at my family.

I get it.

I don't want Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

And I feel very strongly but because of that, I want to make sure we go the diplomatic route before we go down other paths.

Plus making sure that the American people have a say in this and this is something that President Trump can or should be able to do unilaterally.

>> I want to pivot from the doom and gloom and going into summer now.

It's a different ball game being in the U.S. Senate as opposed to being in the House.

We were talking about that.

Don't you like take eight weeks off?

>> I wish it was time off.

What it means, it is time back in our States.

We have been overwhelmed in terms of the number of days we have been at the Capitol because the Senate confirms new administration's appointments and have been there nonstop.

>> Does it allow you to work on the new legos project with the Kim kids?

>> We got a couple of new "star wars" lego sets.

I'm a big star.

I have been able to spend some good time with them.

They are seven and nine years old and grown up with me being in politics.

But I'm hoping that now, you are having them there at my swearing-in.

It was the first time I could see they were again inly proud of something I was doing and that was a touching experience.

>> That was the greatest gift.

>> I didn't say they thought I was cool, but I could tell -- they didn't know exactly what I had done but something big and was special.

And that meant a lot to me.

>> Senator andy Kim, I appreciate your time.

And that's "chatbox" and we are on blue sky now and keep up on the latest from the newsroom when you subscribe.

From the entire crew here, I am David cruz.

Thank you for watching.

We'll see you next week.

>> Major funding is provided by the members of the New Jersey education association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support for ""Chatbox" is provided by a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey political news and committed to giving serious political players a forum for ideas, discussion and insite.

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