BREAKING: Trump gets BAD NEWS about ICE

I'm joined now by the new governor of. New Jersey, Mikey Cheryl. Thanks so much. for joining me. >> Thanks so much for having me. >> So, I want to talk about uh about what. you've been doing in New Jersey. But. first, uh some national news is that we. have seen Trump kind of take his revenge. against any blue cities and blue states. by going state by state and sending in. ICE. We've seen it happen in my state, in Los Angeles. We've saw we've seen it. happen in Chicago, in Portland, in. Washington DC, in Minneapolis. And as. the governor of, you know, a true blue.

state in New Jersey, is there some. concern that uh that Donald Trump is. going to, you know, eventually turn his. attention into New Jersey where there's. obviously a flourishing immigrant. community and kind of do what he's done. everywhere else and seek vengeance upon. the people of your state uh uh on behalf. of the Republican party? >> Well, he already is doing that. not do. with ICE in this instance, but he's. actually targeting quite a few blue. states, 11 or 12 blue states, including. New Jersey, with spurious investigations.

to root out fraud. So, his typical use. targeted investigations against his. political opponents, contrary to really. all the values of our democracy. So, he's already started on that. And then. the question becomes uh again and again, how do you continue to fight back. against this completely outofcontrol. president who is as you mentioned. putting a protoilitary force in ICE on. the streets of our nation against the. will of the people of this nation and.

then targeting them politically in every. single way acting as if sort of a real. lawless dictator. and how do you push. back against that? And that's exactly. what we're working to do here in New. Jersey is find a better path forward. Uh. work hard for those values of liberty. and prosperity that have been in our. state seal and our state motto for. almost 250 years. That is what I'm. fighting for and that's what the people. of New Jersey resoundingly said they.

wanted last November. >> Can you talk a little bit about. cooperation with ICE? I know that for. example uh Governor Spanberger in. Virginia immediately ended uh a contract. that would force uh the cooperation with. ICE uh in in you know different. municipalities across the state. Can you. talk a little bit about where New Jersey. stands in that whole process? >> Again it should be striking to people to. see uh someone like Governor Spanberger. or myself people who have worked in the.

military and in law enforcement in her. case in the CIA. We I think deeply. rever public service and those people. who serve the public. This ICE agency is. different. This president is uh really. putting together his private militia. I've been flagging this for months now. as we started to see them on the streets. with masks and no insignia acting. outside the purview of their duties.

We've seen it as they've picked up. people who are here legally and yet they. refuse to allow them to prove that. We've seen it as he's put ICE agents in. areas not to keep the peace but to. actually incite. um the people of that state in a in a. maneuver to attack them politically. And. so to see someone like Abigail. Spanberger who's former law enforcement. herself come in and say this is we are. not working with them. They are that bad.

to see someone like her who has a lot of. federal workers in our state say we. cannot work with this federal agency. Certainly here in New Jersey we have the. immigrant trust directive which I will. continue to carry out to ensure that our. public safety officers are police. officers are acting in the interest of. the public. >> So I want to switch over to a little bit. about what you've done in just the few. days that you've been governor of the. state. Can you talk about the first. state of emergency that you've declared? >> Yes. So I said, you know, I made a.

commitment during my campaign as I was I. was focused on lowering costs. immediately that the minute I got in. office, I was going to declare a state. of emergency on utility cost, freezing. rate hikes, and then working over the. long term to drive down costs by. expanding power generation. And I. stopped in the middle of my inaugural. address to do just that, to sign these. two executive orders, which will do. that, because I wanted people to know I. was every bit as fed up with business as. normal and the status quo. I was going.

to get to work. I was going to hit the. ground sprinting and make sure I was. addressing those key needs right away. So, we did just that. >> So, can you talk a little bit about. about the extent to which renewable. energy is going to be uh a part of, you. know, this whole energy infrastructure? uh that you're looking to to deal with. in New Jersey, especially in light of. the fact that Republicans have really. just completely turned their back on. renewable energy being any facet of of. you know this formula moving forward.

>> Well, certainly it's noteworthy that we. were moving forward in all kinds of. power generation here in New Jersey and. across the country. And part of the. reason our rates are so high is because. a lot of the oil and gas companies spent. about $250 million on Trump's campaign. and he rewarded them by uh shutting down. a lot of other power generation because. again he's always focused on lining his. own pockets at the expense of of the. American people and our costs going up. So I am focused on all the above. generation meaning that we are going to.

expand solar and battery generation. immediately. That's the cheapest easiest. way to do it. We have about 40% of our. mix which is gas generation but some of. them are older. We're modernizing that. to drive down carbon emissions and. increase efficiency. And then over the. long term nuclear power generation to. build out our power needs. We would love. to move into other ways to drive down. costs like wind power, but the president.

uh has stopped all of the federal wind. farms and the land uh and the leases so. we could move into that. So again, costing New Jersey rateayers a lot of. money as he is picking uh his friends. over the people he should be serving. >> Were there any projects that New Jersey. was involved in that were stopped mid. build uh when he decided to do that? Yes, we were um working. We were still. moving ahead on one wind project that um. because he wouldn't uh give us the.

federal leases, we had to we had to. stop. So, we have now moved to fixing. some of our transmission across the. state so we can get more power into the. grid, move to solar and battery storage, uh, and moving long-term to nuclear, as. I mentioned, modernizing the that gas. generation to drive down carbon. emissions. And then uh we are also. taking on PJM. That's our grid operator. which has really again favored some of.

the dirtier fuels instead of getting new. clean power generation into the grid. driving up costs for everyone. And so. I've already been working with Governor. Shapiro and Governor Moore on how we are. going to better hold them accountable. >> And is that something that you can that. you have uh oversight over at the state. level? like are you able to tell the. grid operator the the the cap that you. want dirty energy to be um in terms of. the formula you know in terms of the the. the total combination of of uh different. energy sources. >> So we are able to tell the grid operator.

our expectations but again PJM that the. real threat is pulling out of that grid. Um, and so should PJM decide they are. not going to run the grid in a way. that's going to drive down costs for. everyone and drive down carbon. emissions, then in concert with other. states, we may make some choices about. how we're going to manage our grid. And. that might not include PJM running it. >> Okay, got it. Now what what are a. broader goals for your administration. that you know you can look back uh years.

from now and say you know if this was. accomplished then this administration. was a success or vice versa. >> If I can ensure that we are better. holding BPU accountable that's a or we. are better holding our utility companies. accountable but BPU the Bureau of Public. Utilities has been charged by my. executive order with looking at the. business model of our public utilities. We know they've made billions of dollars. while the rate payers have paid more and. more and more. Um, if we can get a.

better business model in place, if we. have our grid operator that is more. quickly putting power into our grid, especially the clean renewable power. that we want, if we have already gotten. to work on a nuclear plant that is going. to add power to our grid, um, along with. of course as a baseline growing out our. solar battery storage and other uh, new. ways of generating power. If we are. doing that that is going to be. successful. If I can look at third grade. reading store scores in my state and. know that we have phonics education.

implemented that we have actually done. something um I think new and meeting. children's needs in our school system. for the first time in decades here uh. and that we are you know competing for. that top spot which New Jersey has. traditionally held as the best education. system. That will be a big win if our. kids have access to better mental health. resources and we take on online safety. in my kids online safety agenda and we. have the center of excellence I'm going. to build out at one of our colleges or. universities so that we have better data.

on those algorithms um and better data. on the mental health because we know. every time big tech studies it studies. it it is so bad they stop the studies so. as a state we are going to invest in. that um that will be a success And if. the people of New Jersey who want to. start a small business, want to get a. real ID, want to engage in any way with. our government feel really well served, if they feel like the interaction. they've had with state government, um. that at in that interaction that they.

know every single person in my. administration is truly there to serve. the public, which I believe is a a. really noble calling. if they feel that. kind of service, if they know that in. New Jersey their government cares deeply. about them, that'll be a huge win to me. as well. >> So, I want to switch gears a little bit. here. Uh, I spoke with Governor Moore. from Maryland just a couple of days ago. He announced the introduction of an 8 to. nothing map and that was passed by the. the GRA, the governor's uh uh. redistricting advisory commission.

Similarly, in Virginia, we're speaking. about Governor Spanberger. In Virginia, they're looking to put forward a 10 to1. map. That's obviously in the aftermath. of California passing its own map. And. all of this is in response to what. Republicans have done in Texas, in. Missouri, in North Carolina, in Ohio, and now in Florida. So, in the event. that um that New Jersey, you know, the. the legislature reconvenes and has the. opportunity to redraw maps in New. Jersey, is that something that you've. seen any interest in from legislators?

So it would take there are certain ways. we we have bipartisan redistricting or. nonpartisan redistricting by. constitution. So there's certain ways in. which we have to go to the people to ask. that question. I'm very interested in it. because I think we are going to see a. lot of malfeasants by Trump. Certainly I. was there on January 6 on the floor of. the house as he tried to stay in office. So why anyone thinks as he's already. said he's going to try to stay in. office, he won't? That's um I think. wishful thinking. >> Yeah. So, I'm expecting a great deal of.

malfeasance and I want to make sure that. New Jersey is as strong and resilient as. possible in accordance with the will of. the people. So, can you talk a little. bit about the mechanics of what that. would look like? Virginia, for example, needs two consecutive legislative cycles. where where uh the legislature votes to. approve the constitutional amendment, then it goes out into the people. Um, California obviously did Prop 50 and got. this thing on the ballot in five minutes. basically. What would the process be. like in New Jersey? Uh similar to what. you mentioned with Virginia, there needs.

to be two legislative cycles. The. earliest we could get it on the ballot. um with our process uh would be in the. November 20 26 election so we could get. a ballot measure on there. What I think it would do though is alert. people to our concerns and to the fact. that we think there is is going to be a. big fight coming. And I think that would. make voters really think twice about how. important their vote is and how.

important it is for them to get to the. polls and how important it is for them. to support their democracy. In the event. that we see the Cala decision, section. two of the Voting Rights Act go the. Republicans way, which is to say that. section two of the Voting Rights Act is. gutted. There are no more protections. for these uh black opportunity districts. or minority opportunity districts across. the country. We could see anywhere from. 10, 20, 30 seats get redrawn out of. these Republicanled maps so that they. can, you know, obviously favor.

Republicans instead of Democrats. Would. you preserve the ability for New Jersey. to counter some of the map redrawing. that we may see in the event that the. Supreme Court strikes down the Voting. Rights Act? >> So, we will work to do that. As I said, the first time we could get that on the. ballot um constitutionally would be this. November. I also will tell you as I know. you know and your your listeners know, we are are already seeing in Texas for. example redistricting with complete.

disregard for the Voting Rights Act and. um majority minority districts. But what. we are also seeing is when Republicans. take these measures, the American people. come out in force to try to register. against them. So, what I'm very hopeful. of is no matter what Trump tries to do, that we are going to see a not just a. blue wave, but a blue tidal wave. And I. say that with some level of of hope. here, not just wishful thinking. I I. think there's a good chance that's where.

we're headed given what I saw in my. election. So, there were only two. statewide elections in the entire nation. in 25. And what we saw were huge swings. and in New Jersey huge swings 22 point. swings for example uh for lat and Latino. heavily Latino populations we saw swings. we saw u urban black voters coming out. to vote in a force that we haven't seen. in probably over a decade. We saw I want. a generally Republican county for we won.

it for the first time since Watergate. We saw the traditional white. workingclass men come home a little bit. Not all the way. Not what I'd like to. see. My grandpa is a union guy. It's a. little offensive to me that I work my. butt off for union guys and sometimes. they vote the other way. So, >> yeah, >> you know, trying to get those guys back. We are seeing the I would say the. traditional democratic coalition of.

working people which I think is our. strongest coalition coming together and. then some some of the new coalition. suburban women for example we are seeing. that coalition really strong. I saw that. in 25 and I think that has only the. ability to grow that has only increased. since then. So in 26 I am anticipating. that there is not much Trump can do. other than not count votes which is. possible with him uh to to hold on to. the house.

>> All right. Well, we will leave it there. That seems like a good place to leave. off. Uh Governor Cheryl, thanks so much. for taking the time. >> Thanks for having me. I really. appreciate it.