CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript Interview with Phil Murphy

Interview

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Joining us now, the Democratic Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy.

Governor Murphy, I want to get your reaction. The president is being released from the hospital, even though the doctors there say he's not entirely out of the woods. And he put forward this tweet saying that people should not be scared of COVID, they shouldn't let it dominate their lives.

Your reaction?

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Well, first of all, he's in my prayers, as the first lady and everybody else who's infected, including, by the way, my predecessor, Governor Christie.

I will tell you something, Jake. I speak almost every day with family members who have lost a loved one. I just got off the phone three calls like that in a row. Let me tell you something. We have lost over 14,000 people in our state, confirmed. These real lives that were lived, all ages, extraordinary human beings.

They put up incredible fights. They were tough as nails. And they lost out and passed because of the virus. So, I think any amount of -- from bully pulpits, any amount of sense that we can let our guard down, don't let this thing bother us, don't let it dominate your life, is counter to what the facts suggest and counter to the lives that we have lost.

TAPPER: So, Governor, on Thursday, after the president learned that his top aide Hope Hicks, with whom he had been in recent close contact, after learning that she had not only tested positive for coronavirus, but was showing symptoms, was sick -- and Hope is young and healthy -- President Trump nonetheless boarded Marine One, then Air Force One, and then attended a fund-raiser in your state, in New Jersey, with more than 200 attendees.

You have called on all these attendees to quarantine. How big of a potential outbreak are you bracing for? And what do you think of the president's behavior.

MURPHY: I mean, the decision to fly, Jake, was a reckless one. It's plain and simple.

We want a therapeutic. We want a vaccine. God willing, we will get both of them sooner than later. In the meantime, we're left with a very small set of very basic things. The good news is, if we follow them, we will be healthier, social distancing, face coverings, wash your hands with soap and water.

And if either you're positive, you have got symptoms, or you come into contact with someone who's positive, take yourself off the field. It's that simple, for 14 days. They flew, literally and figuratively in this case, in the face of that.

And they came in, and we're in the midst of a couple of hundred people, plus staff members. I don't have an answer for you in terms of how widespread this is, but it was a national group of attendees. So the staff was all Jersey. Some number of the folks there were from Jersey, but there were folks also from around the country.

So we got on it first thing Friday morning contact tracing. But we can't do this alone. We need more federal help. And it is a concern, and there should be concern. But it was a reckless decision to go ahead with that event.

TAPPER: Well, I talked to Governor DeWine of Ohio yesterday. And he said, even though President Trump had been in Ohio for the debate on Tuesday and was likely infected and may have been contagious when he was there, he said he didn't hear from anybody at the White House to let him know about the diagnosis or to reach out to start working on contact tracing.

Have you? Has anybody from the White House or the Trump campaign reached out to you and said, these are the people that are infected and let's work together on contact tracing? Because now it's not just New Jersey fat cats, of course, also. It's bartenders and waiters and other people, working people in Bedminster.

[16:50:02]

Has anybody reached out?

MURPHY: Well, I first heard the news, by the way, not from any official source on Friday, early Friday morning, when I woke up.

We have been in constant touch with the White House, with the CDC, with the Republican National Committee...

TAPPER: OK, good.

MURPHY: ... at least initially to get the list.

But we haven't -- the feds need to do more on this. We have been shouldering the lion's share of this, by the way, not even just for the New Jersey folks, who are our main focus, but we have been communicating with folks from around the country.

We need -- we need more information. And we need more partnership from the federal side.

TAPPER: And you said there are reports that organizers in the Trump campaign may have not followed the emergency order in your state, and that that would be reported to the attorney general of your state.

Are you theoretically going to press charges against the individuals who violated the orders, including President Trump?

MURPHY: I mean, I can't say for sure one way or the other.

The attorney general in our state is looking into it, as he should. I'm focused in particular not just that the trip shouldn't have happened, period, but that, as part of the trip, there was an indoor -- part of the event was an indoor event.

So, we have got pretty strict measures on things like capacities, no buffet food lines. You got to have the food served to you. We're sensing that maybe both of those were violated.

But, again, I will leave that to the attorney general. But the whole thing should never have happened.

TAPPER: Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.

We will be right back.

MURPHY: Thank you, Jake.

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