Trump's pick for New Jersey governor pledges support as he seeks to lock up the primary
"I'm going to continue to work with the president. We spoke about that last week when we spoke about making the country and New Jersey safe again. We do that by getting rid of sanctuary cities, by getting rid of our sanctuary state status," Ciattarelli said during an exchange on immigration policy.
'I told him my attorney general will not be suing the White House for executive orders. We're not going to waste taxpayer dollars,' Ciattarelli said, later adding that he is going to "follow [Trump]'s lead" on deportations and that criminals should be deported.
"At the end of the day, if he's going to deport all 14, 15 or 16 million, I support the president," Ciattarelli said. "He was elected on the promise of making the country safe again."
Ciattarelli went on to defend his support for giving drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, saying, "If by chance there are people he is not going to deport, we have to know who they are."
Ciattarelli touted Trump's endorsement multiple times throughout the debate, where he faced off against former radio host Bill Spadea, a staunch Trump supporter, and state Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Trump critic. Two other GOP candidates are on the ballot for the June 10 primary, though they did not meet the fundraising threshold to qualify for the debate, which was hosted by On New Jersey, the New Jersey Globe, Rider University, and Save Jersey.
A former state assemblyman who narrowly lost in the general election against Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021, Ciattarelli has been leading the primary field in limited public polling and campaign spending. Ciattarelli's campaign also launched a new TV ad on Tuesday that highlighted Trump's endorsement.
Spadea acknowledged during the debate that Trump opted to endorse Ciattarelli, but he suggested the president was swayed by skewed polling.
'The president endorsed a poll — a poll that was conducted and paid for by Jack's campaign," Spadea said in his opening statement. "The president did not endorse a plan. The president did not endorse a set of principles.'
The candidates were asked during the debate how, as Trump allies, they would navigate Republican-led cuts to federal programs that could negatively impact New Jersey residents.
"Did not the recession back in 2011 impact our ability to do this and do that, but yet we met that challenge? And I believe we can meet this challenge," Ciattarelli said. "But the first job of any governor is to provide for health and safety. And that believes taking care of our most vulnerable people, whether it's people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, people on Medicaid, we will find a way."
Spadea noted he has disagreed with Trump on "multiple occasions."
"Disagreement is okay. You have to protect this state," Spadea said.
Bramnick pledged "to fight for New Jersey, even if it means disagreeing with Washington Republicans. New Jersey's got to come first, it's simple as that."
Ciattarelli ultimate pitched himself as the candidate most likely to win in November. He lost to Murphy by 3 points four years ago, and this year's gubernatorial race is expected to be competitive. A crowded field of Democrats are competing in next month's primary to replace Murphy, who cannot run for re-election due to term limits.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
Texas Democrats end walkout as Republicans try to pass redrawn map
Aug 18 (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers in Texas returned to the state on Monday, ending a walkout that broke quorum and blocked Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump. Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Gene Wu, chairperson of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement that Democrats had returned and had "rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation." But Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday already called a second special legislation session in another attempt to rework the state's congressional maps in an effort to give Republicans another five seats in Congress. Trump believes redistricting would help maintain Republicans' slim control of Congress in midterm elections next year, but the plan has many vocal naysayers with Democrats threatening retaliation. Gavin Newsom, California's Democratic Governor, on Thursday unveiled his own redistricting plan that he said would give Democrats there five more congressional seats. Texas House Democrats left the state earlier this month to deny Republicans the quorum needed to vote on redistricting legislation - a tactic taken several times, mostly without success.
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Cristian Romero ends transfer speculation by signing new Tottenham contract
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.
BBC News
14 minutes ago
- BBC News
European leaders rush to US to help Ukraine avoid 'capitulation'
European leaders may have rushed to Washington ostensibly to throw a protective arm around President Zelensky and head off any repeat of February's Oval Office their real aim is to stop US President Donald Trump threatening long-term European security after his abrupt change of course over how best to end the war in only did Trump drop calls for a ceasefire as a prerequisite for talks about long-term peace, he also - diplomats say - made clear he had no intention of imposing further economic sanctions on short, the travelling European heads of government – plus EU and Nato leaders - want to avoid not just confrontation, but also capitulation. President Macron of France was the latest to use the C word, saying on Sunday: "There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia."Follow live updates on this storyIt takes a great deal for heads of government to upend their schedules at short notice – especially in August – when some are on holiday. The French leader was enjoying water sports on the Riviera. The Italian leader, Georgia Meloni, had been in such was the scale of President Trump's change of strategy after meeting President Putin – and the consequent potential threat to Europe – that the European leaders changed their plans say Meloni was first to invite herself along, followed closely by Macron, after which it became inevitable others would have to go leaders spent the weekend working the phones, holding no fewer than five separate group concern was Trump's decision to change the diplomatic goal posts after meeting the Russian leader in officials think the huge impact of these two decisions – which overturned months of western strategy – has been under-priced. Both moves shifted the US position more closely in Russia's favour. "Things have moved very significantly and quite quickly to a timetable that no one was expecting," one European official said."The US sees this as a moment to strike while the iron is hot. Our question is what are we trying to achieve here?"They added: "The European position has long been that Putin needs to show a genuine desire to get around a table and stop the war, and that would involve a ceasefire. But since Friday we have moved on from that. The question now is how we can get out of today without a blow-up. This is a moment of extreme jeopardy."The aim for European leaders, diplomats say, is to shift White House thinking on two the idea that peace can be achieved simply by Ukraine ceding the Donbas to Russia. And two, that this is not just about the future of Ukraine."This is fundamentally about the security of our continent," one British diplomat other words, any discussion about security guarantees – as part of a final deal – would be about ensuring the wider security of Europe and not just means convincing Trump of two things: one, that questions about territory and security guarantees cannot be separated, and two, that security guarantees must be about more than verbal or textual negotiators have talked about giving Ukraine as yet ill-defined Nato-style assurances that the west would come to Kyiv's aid against future Russian aggression."Nobody is clear what Trump means about a security guarantee," one official said."He believes that him simply saying to Putin "don't attack" is enough. That's not good enough for Ukraine or us." The Europeans, instead, are expected to argue that Ukraine's security will be guaranteed only by allowing its army to remain strong, with long-term and substantial allied military and financial would include American weapons bought by Europeans and gifted to Ukraine, plus continued Ukrainian access to US intelligence. By definition, all that would exclude Russian demands for the demilitarisation of risk for the Europeans today is that they push Trump too hard, that he thinks he is being bullied, and that the meetings go European delegation has been thrown together at the last is – one official said – "quite unwieldy", and some differ on how much Europe should commit to Ukraine's future role a future European-based "reassurance" force might play in a post-conflict Ukraine remains the European aim today may be to slow things down and calm fevered talk about land-swap deals that should really be part of the endgame of a some, that would be putting the cart before the the European leaders may look for progress on a possible trilateral summit with Trump, Zelensky and Putin; the carving out of some broad principles of any future deal; and how to have talks about talks deciding the location and framework of any above all, whether this can happen only when a ceasefire of sorts has been agreed.
