Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support is provided by Insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey's political news.

Insider NJ is committed to giving serious political players an interactive forum for ideas, discussion, and insight.

Online at insiderNJ.com.

♪ David: Welcome to "Roundtable."

Happy new year.

I am David Cruz.

A little more than four months to the U.S. Senate primary, and in politics, that is early and late.

It may seem a ways off to you, but for the political class, four months is a blip.

There are four candidates on the Democratic side, the incumbent has not said if he is running but more on him later.

We are endeavoring to talk to all four candidates over this week and next.

We had invitations to Larry Hamm .

Today, we begin with two.

I would like to start with the incumbent.

He gave a spirited defense of himself on the floor the other day.

Let's listen to that.

>> After 50 years of public service, this is not how I wanted to celebrate my Golden Jubilee.

But I have never violated the public's trust.

I have been patriot.

David: A patriot?

Would you call Bob Menendez a patriot?

Guest: I will not spend my time deciding the right word to describe him.

That is for the courts to decide and for the voters of New Jersey to decide, but, look, I think there has been an erosion of trust.

That is something that none of us can control.

I work a job, he works a job, and the job descriptions are in the Constitution of the United States, and that should hold us to the highest of standards.

He will have his day in court, but when it comes to being in a position of making decisions over the lives of millions of families in New Jersey, we have to make sure that that trust is there, and I want to restore the trust that I know has been eroded.

I want to restore the integrity.

David: He has not been found guilty, and he says he should be afforded his due process.

But others have been expelled from the Congress, and not entirely similar circumstances, but with charges pending.

Did I hear that you recommend TB expelled?

Rep. kim: I think the expulsion vote makes sense.

We are talking about the charges related to his job.

It is about him being the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

That is, in my opinion, the most powerful foreign relations job on Capitol Hill.

If there are allegations and charges that he misused that position and intentionally did things that were favoring other nations, that is a serious -- I see that as someone who worked in national security before, I was a diplomat and worked on embassies before.

Our understanding is when you work abroad, our leaders back home are looking out for our national security, and if that is not the case, that is something that rises the most serious concerns I would have when it comes to our government.

David: Let's talk about there are four of you in this race right now.

The second one in the race was Tammy Murphy, who attracted a lot of attention for any number of reasons.

She is raising a lot of money.

Does that concern you as an opponent?

Rep. kim: [LAUGHTER] Look, I am the only candidate in the country who has run against three self funders and three basis, so I have been outspent before and have had concerns.

I need to run the race I need to run, and we are raising strong resources.

In three months and one week since I jumped in, we have raised $2.57 million from thousands of people all across New Jersey and this country.

The latest polls have me 23 points up over the first lady so we are in a strong position.

I am going to run my race, and I get that I am going against wealthy competitors, but I know how to win, and that comes with being the only candidate that is declared that has actually run and won three of the toughest races in New Jersey history before protect never lost one, and I don't plan to David: David: Start.

We should say -- and I don't plan to start.

David: We should say that this is a poll that your campaign commissioned that you are referring to.

Rep. Kim: We did it to build dynamics for the race, and what we are seeing is exciting.

David: Are you running as a front runner?

Rep. Kim: I am running as me, someone trying to connect with the voters.

Let them decide what is happening here in New Jersey.

David: Their campaign tweeted after you got the endorsement of the college on Dems, I think it was, that you opposed the president's student loan debt relief plan.

Do you want to clarify your position?

Rep. Kim: I did not see that response.

What I was trying to push for is that we need to have a legislative fix in this.

The problem when it comes to D.C., because of our broken legislative system, we have executive and presidential orders, and the next administration comes right in and overturns them.

Then we have a pendulum swing and seesaw effort.

We need real solutions to address the high cost of higher education and to have a legislative fix.

It is hard, but I want President Biden to come and try to see what we can do to be able to do that rather than just come in with an executive order.

David: Is there a legislative fix in your mind?

Rep. Kim: Yes, that is something we could have worked on to try to do in that capacity, and if it doesn't -- David: What kind of legislation?

Rep. Kim: We have legislation now that would dramatically lower the interest rates for student loans, for instance, to bring that as close to zero as possible, to be able to increase dramatically Pell Grant's.

Something that has not kept up for a long time, be able to allow students to refinance their student loans when they can get better rates.

The main thing is that we should not be profiting off of students and interest rates.

What can we do to make that more available?

The broader question is, why does education cost so much to start within America?

Not just how you pay, but what is surging prices beyond the rates of inflation?

That requires real legislative cases.

David: Let's talk about the migrant crisis that was brought to jersey because we saw busloads of migrants coming through the state, theoretically, and then moving on to New York.

Should New Jersey accommodate some of these people?

Rep. Kim: What I will first say is that all across the country, what we are seeing, this is the result of the failure of the federal government to be able to address comprehensive immigration reform.

We'll get to that, but that being said, federal government should be able to provide support to cities and states around the country that are facing this.

The challenge we are facing -- look, these are people, we are a nation that is going to always protect the dignity and decency of people, at least that is what we should be doing, so, yes, look, we need to provide some measures.

The challenge is that a lot of states, a lot of cities have not planned for this level of challenge.

That is what is causing the problem and squeeze.

That is where the federal government continues to drop the ball.

David: Has the president failed on immigration?

When this administration began, the first or second day of the administration was a big announcement about reform to the country's immigration laws.

Since then, crickets.

Has this administration failed on that mission?

Rep. Kim: The way I see this is that there has just been failure for decades on this with presidencies of both parties, so this is compiling and compounding, and that is what I find frustrating.

Let me tell you what I learned in my five years in Congress.

A lot of the people you hear from the most, arguing about immigration, as I have talked to them, it has become clear to me that they do not actually want to solve this problem.

That is what I find frustrating.

People I work with, colleagues of mine who moaned about this, when you confront them, they don't want to solve it because it is a good political weapon.

David: It is too easy to find fundraising off of that.

Rep. Kim: They want to point fingers and blame, so we don't have serious legislators or people who actually want to solve problems.

As I have tried to engage as someone trying to solve the problems, I get frustrated.

It was 11 years ago that we had 69 senators actually vote to pass conference of immigration reform.

Was it a perfect bill?

No, but it was substantive.

Our Congress is so far from that, and I hope people see that we have got to have serious legislators with experience.

David: We have two wars, the Israeli-Hamas conflict now in the front burner for us, Ukraine moved to the back burner, are you someone who supports Cease Fire?

Rep. Kim: I am someone who first of all, things what happens on October 7 was a horrific terrorist attack, and Hamas is not an organization that seeks peace or to solve the solution through diplomatic means, and we have also seen this war unfold in a way that has been devastating to Gaza and the whole region.

And I support bringing the conflicts to a close, and I supported a bilateral Cease Fire effort that would have that negotiated element to release the hostages.

What I worry about is that this is on the cusp of becoming a wider regional war, we see the potential of Hezbollah and Iran getting involved, so I think there could be efforts right now , sourcing humanitarian support, create the conditions for lowa State to create a bilateral Cease Fire to bring this to a close and have the security for Israel and the Palestinians.

David: I see you treading lightly there.

One, you talked about a bilateral Cease Fire, but I also did not hear criticism of the Israeli government.

Rep. Kim: Well, look, when I hear certain Israeli leaders talking about movement and pushing people out of Gaza, you know, perhaps for younger German not permanently, that does not stand for what I believe in.

That is not the right steps to be taken.

As someonein to think through how you go about doing this.

Is this conflict taking place in a way that is going to create and breed more hatred and violence going forward generations?

I worry about that, so I do have concerns.

To go back to your earlier point, Cease Fire, by definition, is negotiating.

Someone who worked in diplomacy before, I have seen that.

You have got to make sure that there is that recognition across the board of that, otherwise, we will have cycles of violence, so, yes, I will try to bear the coalition internationally needed to solve the problem, and I would like to see a long and durable peace.

A permanent peace.

An actual two state solution.

Hopefully, if anything comes out of this horrific crisis, it is a greater push to that permanent peace.

David: Congressman Andrew Kim -- do you prefer Andy or Andrew?

Rep. Kim: My mom only calls me Andrew.

David: And when you are in trouble.

Rep. Kim: Exactly.

I go by Andy.

David: Congressman andy kim, I am sure we will see U.S. and four months unfold.

Thank you.

Patricia Campos Medina joins us now.

I know you saw the clip that we played from Bob Menendez, where he calls himself a patriot fork and of the country, is he a patriot?

Guest: this is a case where he has to demonstrate his innocence to the voters and the courts.

I wish him well.

He is innocent until found otherwise by the courts, so I wish them well to him and his family.

As a Latino community and Latino leaders, I am disappointed we find himself in this moment because he had a good legacy of working for key issues, so we are disappointed and wish him well, this election is about the future political leadership for New Jersey, Latinos, and political representation that continues to do their hard work of advancing creative policy solutions, so there are some difficult issues New Jersey and Latinos are facing.

David: We had andy kim on earlier in the show, and he said that --Andy Kim on the show earlier, and he said he supports explosion.

Do you?

Ms. Campos-Medina: I will say something that Michelle Obama said recently, that as how as political leaders, we have a responsibility to lead by example and the character matters of the people who represent us, so I believe that it is time to move forward and move beyond Senator Menendez, and acknowledge the good work he did.

Now it is time to move forward, and just like we want to hold political system accountable for Donald Trump, we also need to hold every other political representative who fails to live up to the code on ethics the same way.

David: So explosion or note exposing?

-- no expulsion?

Ms. Campos-Medina: The Congress should act, just like they held Congressman Santos accountable for his lies, we should also hold Senator Menendez accountable.

David: Four candidates in the race right now, not counting Senator when end who has not yet said if you will run for reelection.

Why you?

Are you the underdog?

Ms. Campos-Medina: I am the underdog, I am.

This is not new to me, being the underdog.

I have worked to represent low-wage union workers for 25 years.

I have pushed for policies, which is slated solution for working families for the right of workers to join a union.

None of those fights are easy.

I always said that low-wage workers were always the underdog, so I have the experience of building clinical coalitions and building stakeholder support -- building coalitions and building stakeholder support, and I am ready to take the helm and continue building coalitions, advancing policy solutions to economic issues that at the end of the day, that is what New Jersey voters want to see, real solutions to the bread-and-butter issues.

David: So you are an organizer involved in politics.

You know that the party line system in New Jersey gives great advantages to those who happen to get the party line.

Are you one of those who is for abolishing the party line, number one?

Number two, are you going to try to get the party line?

Ms. Campos-Medina: I have a long record as a political activist as a woman in New Jersey politics calling to abolish the line.

We have trained hundreds of Latino women, Black women, women of color to run for office, and the number one discouragement that Latina women and Black women faces the line because it is antidemocratic and it gives an advantage to the incumbents now.

I am not new to the calling to abolish the line, but I know that is the system we have.

This system does not work.

I will never say that the system worked and we should use it.

This system works against Latina women and Black women, and Democratic voters or Republican voters, this is an issue for both parties, so I am running because we need to be voters choice, and I am speaking to every Democratic voter, reminding them that my activism on behalf of building the Democratic Party that is inclusive of urban and Black and Latino voters and remind the party that they don't win elections if they don't include Latino and Black voters in their formula.

And they are failing to win democratic elections in the state.

David: Let's get to a couple of issues you would be dealing with has a senator.

Let's talk about the migrant crisis which came home to New Jersey because we had busloads of migrants who were sent to New Jersey and in theory to New York.

Should New Jersey provide aid, comfort, services to these folks?

Ms. Campos-Medina: Immigration reform and the issue of the refugee crisis is a personal issue to me.

I am an immigrant woman and came to the knighted states at 14 from El Salvador.

I was separated from my parents for eight years, waiting for a solution to their refugee request in the 1980's, so this is an issue that I have lived and know personally the impact it has on families.

I live through a time of crisis through refugees from Central America in the 1980's.

I have real solutions that I have been working for for a long time.

We have got to remember that this country is founded by immigrants, and we have the ability to invest in a resettlement program for refugees.

Once they have applied for political asylum, remember, these refugees that came to New Jersey are following the law and have applied for political asylum and are trying to be resettled.

What we need to do is what Congress has failed to do for 30 years, reform our refugee and political loads and asylum loads, and fund a program so that when refugees are going through the process of resettlement, federal government can work directly with states to provide the support they need to provide services for resettlement, and, frankly, if we do not want refugees to end up waiting to work, we actually need to give them a permit to work because it is part of something that Congress can do and the Biden administration can do because while refugees wait for their political asylum, they want to be together with their families, provide for their families, and we have practical tools and solutions that we can get done, but Congress needs to act and fund settlement programs and reform refugee laws.

David: That is not too dissimilar from what other Democrats and some Republicans have said, but crisis is now.

New Jersey does not get any federal funding for resettlement efforts, but they are going to become instances where people want to be here and stay here physically.

What responsibility does the state have for providing help for them?

Ms. Campos-Medina: New Jersey is the fourth largest recipients of immigrants in this country.

We are a very diverse state.

We have resources to provide resettlement.

That does not mean we don't need additional help from the federal government or better coordination from them.

But that is something that I am prepared to enter into and to lead and lend a voice because this is where we like federal leadership on immigration policy.

It has to be a more proactive effort from federal elected officials to actually get the Biden administration to coordinate better with states and target support for where immigrants are going.

Now, remember, this has become a political game by Republicans and sending refugees unannounced estates.

We have stopped.

Immigrants and refugees are human lives, and we have to focus on the humanity of what they are leaving behind and how they want to keep and provide for their families.

We also need big solutions in that we need a national voice for the issue, and we need actual coalitions with the southern borders, and we will not stop the immigration crisis by building the Trump wall.

We need to engage in real negotiations and discussions with southern partners, Mexico, Central America, Haiti.

A lot of the crisis is coming from the Caribbean.

To actually put solutions on the table.

David: Has this administration dropped the ball on immigration or is there plenty of blame to go around?

Ms. Campos-Medina: There is plenty of blame to go around of inaction by 30 years from the U.S. Congress to actually enact immigration reform.

For 30 years, we have not done it.

We have let the problem build up, and we need real leadership.

This is one of the areas where Senator Menendez -- David: I was about to say this, ironically.

The last attempt came from Senator Menendez.

Ms. Campos-Medina: The recent solution is from him, and this is what I said as Latinos, that is why we are disappointed with where he finds himself now because he had a solution.

And he had effectiveness to lead with an ethical position to move the discussions forward.

That is why we have to claim this spot and continue that legacy.

David: We are running out of time.

Of course, we have two major conflicts going on now.

I want to talk about the one on the front burner now, which is Israel and Hamas.

Are you someone who supports a Cease Fire, and how to get to peace in that region?

Fix it for us in the 60-seconds we have.

Ms. Campos-Medina: I am the only candidate who actually lived in a war zone.

I was a child in the Civil War of El Salvador and I suffered the impact of violence of war.

I was separated and displaced from my family for a long time, so I know personally the impact that war has on families, and that is why I issued a statement, calling for a permanent cease-fire so we can focus.

I condemn the attacks by Hamas on Israel, but Israel must comply with national law to protect civilian women, children, and it breaks my heart to see the level of violence happening in positive right now, and as the most powerful country who has the military power, we must be calling for the protection of civilians, and we must call for a Cease Fire so we can focus on a diplomatic solution for peace.

That does not escalate the war in the region.

David: Patricia Campos-Medina, thank you so much.

Ms. Campos-Medina: Thank you for the opportunity.

David: That is "Roundtable" for the week -- that is "Chat Box" for the week.

You can follow me on X, and you can scan the QR code for a full content on episodes.

From all the crew here in downtown, thank you for watching.

We will see you next week.

Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support is provided by Insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey's political news.

Insider NJ is committed to giving serious political players an interactive forum for ideas, discussion, and insight.

Online at insiderNJ.com.

#*#*reporters roundable#*#* >> Major funding for Reporters roundtable with David Cruz is provided by RWJBarnabas Health, ♪