Lieutenant Governor’s Departure Sparks Questions Over Transparency and Accountability

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, let’s go to New Jersey right now. And with us today is Christine Hanlon, the new Jersey GOP chair. Well, Christine, so many things are happening in New Jersey. You had the resignation of your lieutenant governor. Would you give us an update what the heck is going on?

0:17 Speaker 2 Yes, it’s quite unbelievable that we already have a major failure of the Sherrill administration with the resignation of our governor. Lieutenant Governor, who just took office not that long ago, this is a debacle, one of many messes that has been going on in the Sherrill administration, and this is the latest example.

0:43 Speaker 1 And tell us, there was rumors that he mishandled certain things. In other words, there’s other rumors that they didn’t want him around because he had certain allegations that he was making. Do you know anything about any of that?

1:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, this has been. Been really lately looking like a, he said, she said, um, you know, we got wind, uh, a couple of weeks ago, uh, it was reported in the New Jersey globe, uh, that there was a month long investigation, uh, behind closed doors, hidden from the public of the Lieutenant governor for certain ethics violations and inappropriate behavior with women. that was being

1:33 investigated by the administration. This was all being done in secret. The public was not aware. And while this was going on, the governor left the state to go campaign for Democratic congressional candidates all over the country. And here we had somebody who was under investigation without the public being aware, without people in the workplace being aware of of allegations

2:02 of misconduct toward women and these ethics type violations. Once it was leaked to the public, uh, you know, all of a sudden things changed, you know, the governor was like, oh, I’m going to take this seriously and I’m not going to travel. But meanwhile, for months she was traveling and leaving the Lieutenant governor in charge. He has been fighting

2:26 these accusations, saying, you know, it’s not accurate. But the other day, she said, oh, hey, we have this report, and now I want you to resign. Now, mind you, the NJGOP two weeks ago called on him to resign.

2:43 And then I guess the governor followed suit just the other day, demanding that he resign. And within 24 hours, even though he said... He wasn’t going to resign. He then resigned last Friday.

2:58 Speaker 1 Are you saying that the New Jersey GOP was calling on him to resign, too?

3:03 Speaker 2 We did several weeks ago. As soon as we found out about the investigation and the allegation. Now, mind you, this whole thing was a failure of the governor’s office because, you know, they picked him as the candidate, perhaps didn’t vet adequately enough. But once we heard the seriousness of the allegations, we called on him to resign. You know,

3:32 the governor at that time was like, I can’t speak about ongoing investigations, et cetera. And then two weeks later, she then asked him to resign. So it’s been so much drama, a big mess here in New Jersey. And, you know, that’s what we’re doing right now.

3:53 Speaker 1 Well, anything else? What else is happening in New Jersey? Anything else? Anything good? Well, yes.

4:00 Speaker 3 Well, we are fighting really hard to keep control of Congress, as you know. We have some really big races here in New Jersey. The biggest race is Congressional District 7, which is Congressman Tom King Jr. We are fighting to keep that seat in Republican hands. The road to keeping control in Congress runs right through Congressional District.

4:24 Speaker 2 7 in New Jersey. I know there’s some really important races in New York that we’re fighting, you know, to keep our Republican congressional members, you know, in office. And, you know, we’re doing that here, too, in New Jersey.

4:38 It’s an important election cycle. We need everyone to get out and vote. Keep Tom King Jr. in office. He’s a great congressman. really has served his district well, and we are fighting and putting a lot of resources into that race to make sure we keep that seat.

4:57 Speaker 1 Okay, understood. Well, there’s three weeks to the election. I hope socialists lose no matter what party the socialists are at, and I guess they’re mostly Democrats that are trying to take over the Democratic Party, but I pray for common sense for the For our country and for New Jersey and all America, thank you so much for coming on

5:20 this Sunday morning.

5:22 Speaker 2 Thanks for having me.