[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by Assemblyman John DiMaio, who's the assembly minority leader.
Good to see you, Assemblyman.
- Good to see you too, Steve.
- We're taping this on the back end of November 2023, Republicans lost several seats in the senate, more seats in the assembly, heavy focus on a variety of so-called culture war issues.
How much did quote "the abortion issue" hurt Republicans in this legislative election, their position on abortion?
- Well, you know, Steve, it wasn't an issue for us, but apparently that's some way to motivate their voters or somehow scare them to vote.
- "Their" meaning?
"Their" meaning?
- The Democrat voters, because obviously it must have worked to some degree.
Listen, we called it a non-issue, frankly, because there's a 1982 supreme court ruling that, a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling, that says that anyone could do what they want with their body, including an abortion.
So it's not really an issue in New Jersey, but they were effective in making it an issue.
- But, Assemblyman, isn't it true that if Republicans had gained control of the Assembly and/or the Senate there are some of your colleagues, you may be one of them who said, "You know what?
We don't like the current law in New Jersey that a woman can have an abortion in the ninth month.
We want to change that."
Do I have that wrong?
- Well, listen, I have my own beliefs, but I also pretty good at math.
I can say that there would not be adequate Republican votes unless the Democrats had something in mind that they were gonna provide votes to put it all together.
- But you wanted to do that.
- I never said I wanted to do it.
- Would you wanna change the New Jersey law that currently allows for a woman to have an abortion in the ninth month?
If you were in control, if the Republicans had control of both houses, if you were able to get it on the ballot, excuse me, on the docket to vote on, would you want to change the current New Jersey law regarding a woman's right to an abortion?
- It's impractical, but let me say this, would I like to see fully developed babies?
Of course.
But there are limits.
There would be exceptions, frankly.
I mean, the health of the mom would be number one, rape, incest, maybe, you know, others.
The reality is it is pretty rough to think about a full-term baby being taken out of the womb and destroyed very late in pregnancy.
And I think there's a lot of people, including pro-choice people, I think that they took advantage of this issue.
It's difficult for us to enumerate it during a campaign, apparently, because it wasn't in mind because it wasn't an attainable goal.
It still isn't.
And even something changed, the state supreme court ruling from 1982 would still uphold it.
So therefore, what's for us to do unless they want to get together to somehow do some constitutional amendment on the issue.
And that would take Democratic votes to do.
- Sure.
Let me ask you this, Assemblyman, every time you've joined us, you're always upfront, you never duck any question.
So this is an interesting one because it's not a state issue per se, but it's a legitimate issue.
We do a series called "Democracy in Danger."
The graphic will come up.
I've asked virtually every Republican who's been on, I'm gonna ask you again, questioning the results of an election, the peaceful transition of power in the presidency or the governorship or whatever, 'cause there's a governorship election in 2025, and the legislature is up, many seats in the legislature.
Do you believe that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election and that Donald Trump, the leader of Republican Party, lost?
- I believe that the election results reflected the people's votes, so yes.
- So this quote, "stop the steal" and that the election was stolen, you don't buy into?
- I can't see how that many votes were stolen.
It just doesn't make sense.
Again, I'm pretty good at math.
- Yeah, you are.
- The reality is, if I win, I win.
If I lose, I have less votes unless it's very close and there's something that, mistakes made.
But that's a lot of mistakes.
- But Assemblyman, this is a symbolic and an important issue as well related to democracy, related to who people are and what they believe in.
In a recent... As we do this program, Chris Christie's still in the presidential race, we don't know what's gonna happen moving forward, but in an early Republican debate for the presidency, every candidate was asked if Donald Trump were in court and convicted of a crime, would you still support him?
Everyone but Chris Christie said they absolutely would.
Would you?
- You know, as a personal opinion, you know, the reality is that would be difficult to do.
- So you would, you're good at math.
You're also good at saying what you believe.
Would you support Donald Trump to be the nominee of your party if he were convicted in one of these four or five cases going on right now?
- I honestly can't tell you at this point in time, but, you know, the reality is that's a bad situation to be in, so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
- Got it.
Let's come back home.
Talk about the Orsted deal.
Orsted pulls out, wind energy, the governor's Clean Energy plan.
Huge question mark as to what's gonna happen moving forward.
What is the significance, from your view, Assemblyman, of Orsted pulling out of the wind energy program in New Jersey and in other states across the nation for the Murphy Clean Energy Plan?
- Well, first of all, the governor's energy master plan is far too aggressive.
You know, it's kind of like they do jump feet first into some issues without really thinking them through and getting a longer, broader view of a lot of things, including spending increases, they come back and cut taxes later, after they raise them to try, I don't know what that act is, we shouldn't be doing in the first place.
This is an impractical plan, what he's talking about.
I think Orsted pulling out for whatever reason that it was a business decision, it's just a symptom of the overall problem.
And the problem is, this is a rush process.
This is not gonna happen in 12 years.
God, the lines along the roads in front of your house, the gauge of that wiring is not heavy enough to carry the additional load of electric if you're gonna fully electrify all the houses in New Jersey.
So there's so many other issues that need to happen before these things, like alternative and more development of electric.
You know, there's other methods too.
Nuclear is out there.
It's been safe in South Jersey since the mid-70s, for God's sake.
So they need to step back, think this through, and come up with more deliberate, long-term over several decades.
It's not gonna happen in 12 years.
- Assemblyman, make it clear for us what your point of view is on so-called quote, "parental rights" as it relates to children in the fourth, fifth, sixth grade.
What parents can know, must know, and what should be kept from parents in what kind of cases?
Complex question, I know.
Please.
- Nothing should be kept from parents.
I mean, this governor operates under a presumption that all parents are somehow gonna abuse their children if they come to them or find out that they're going through a difficult emotional time or dealing with a question about anything in their lives.
So for the governor to think that all parents are gonna somehow beat their child or do something... - But the governor never said that.
He said...
I believe the policy is if school officials believe that the child is at risk, who may be talking about a potential gender change, then they're less likely to want to talk to the parents.
Not that every parent would do that.
Is that... - Well, first... (speech overlapping) But, he in general terms, he has said that I'm not outing kids to their parents and putting them in a bad situation.
And that's his quote.
And I've heard that quote many times before.
The reality is, listen, there's no one better to nurture a child.
I know how I would react to this.
Listen, I would help my child.
I would get therapy.
I would get my child to be an adult, and then if they choose, eyes wide open, as a mature adult, passed all of the emotional things we all went through, we all grew up, we all went through those times when hormones were wild and ideas, you know, who knows?
You know, but we survived it.
- But parents should know everything.
- But I don't like the idea of government stepping in, Steve and taking control of my child's body.
I mean, it's just not right.
- You made yourself very clear.
State Assemblyman John DiMaio, who is the minority leader in the Senate, excuse me, in the Assembly.
Assemblyman, thank you so much for joining us.
We appreciate it.
- Thanks, Steve.
- I'm Steve Adubato.
More importantly, that's the assemblyman.
We'll see you next time.
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