If A Group Of South Jersey Women Show Up To Protest Gov. Murphy And The Press Ignores It Did The Protest Really Happen?

Gov. Phil Murphy

Earlier this week Governor Phil Murphy found his way to South Jersey, specifically Cherry Hill, to outline his tax incentive policy.

The claim was he chose Cherry Hill because there is a business incubator, 1776, in the Cherry Hill Mall. The business incubator may do a good job, but what do we know?

We knew Murphy was coming to South Jersey and were a little offended that his staff didn’t think to invite two guys with a political talk radio program in South Jersey. Maybe he was afraid of the questions we might ask.

What we do know, and everybody with half a brain knows, is that Murphy chose the location because it’s in the heart of “Norcross Country.”

Don’t take our word for it. NJTV News was very direct about it:

Gov. Phil Murphy and South Jersey power broker George Norcross have been locked in a battle over tax incentives.

The latest salvo came Wednesday as Murphy visited a business incubator in the Cherry Hill Mall, Norcross country, to lay out the broad strokes of a new tax incentive policy.

“Instead of a system that benefits only a few actors and the unsustainable rates that hurt our ability to invest in our core values, let’s enact a new system that works for the broad array of businesses, but even more for the broad array of our communities,” Murphy said.

While we are happy that NJTV News, and others, picked up on the obvious, they all missed something we feel was important.

A group of ladies showed up to protest Murphy over complete with signs with messages that included, “We believe Katie,” “Fire Matt Platkin” and “Shame, shame, shame Murphy failed women.”

We have no idea who these protesting ladies are. We don’t know their political affiliation. We are proud of these ladies for standing up to the Governor.

Here at the Bob & Steve Show we’ve mentioned the mistreatment of women on Murphy’s professional soccer team close to 40 times and have dwelled on the fact that Murphy’s rhetoric doesn’t match his actions when it comes to women.

We think it’s wrong that the mainstream press ignored these women protesting the Governor. Of course, if we had been invited they would have had a voice.

Murphy Chooses Staff Over All New Jersey Women In The Workplace

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt blasted Governor Phil Murphy’s defense of staffers handling of sexual assault allegations against Al Alvarez. The Chairman’s press release follows:

Trenton, NJ -  At a press conference yesterday, Governor Murphy defended members of his staff for their handling of sexual assault allegations against Al Alvarez. The protection of his aides comes in executive defiance of the findings of a report released earlier in the day by a bipartisan panel of state legislators. 

Governor Murphy's exact quote was, "I believe that the team in my office did what they believed was the right thing, and I stand behind them. That has been the case and will continue to be the case."

NJGOP Chairman reacted to this with the following statement:

"Members of the Murphy administration showed up to testify before a panel of legislators and lied through their teeth and under oath. Governor Murphy siding with his political aides and allies over the well-being of a potential rape victim sets women’s rights back eons and sends a message that women don’t matter and aren't safe in the Governor’s workplace. New Jersey must come to terms with the sad fact that they elected a Governor who put his political patrons’ job protection ahead of the personal well-being of potential sexual assault victims.

"It's a strange time in New Jersey politics when the New Jersey Republican State Committee is this closely aligned with Senator Loretta Weinberg, but this is about human decency, not partisan politics."

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Legislative Select Oversight Committee Report: So Much For A Stronger And Fairer New Jersey

Gov. Phil Murphy

Remember that time we wrote: “What we do wonder is who will Murphy blame for the lack of action he took in dealing with the Brennan situation. He can’t blame Christie for this one. Maybe, he’ll try to blame his staff, but he can’t. Remember, he did reply to Brennan’s email regarding a ‘sensitive matter’ with ‘Hang in. We’re on it.’ That response, at least to us, proves Murphy knew exactly what the ‘sensitive matter’ was that she wrote him about.”

Only in New Jersey can a single mother of four be sentenced to go to jail for emailing that it was “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” but absolutely nothing happen to a member of the governor’s staff accused of raping another member of the governor’s staff – even after that Governor promised the woman making the rape accusation he was “on it.”

None of that sounds like New Jersey is any stronger or fairer.

In fact, it appears the only things to come out of the Legislative Select Oversight Committee Report is that (A) “the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy ‘mishandled’ an employee’s rape claim and suggested that top officials should be ‘embarrassed’ by their testimony,” (B) that it “rips Gov. Phil Murphy’s inner circle for failing Katie Brennan after she accused campaign worker turned transition staffer Al Alvarez of sexually assaulting her in April 2017” and (C) that the “committee’s report questioned the honesty of some officials.”

Mishandled? Embarrassed? They are the understatements of the year!

To add insult to injury, New Jersey Globe reported in part:

The Select Committee on Oversight won’t be making any criminal referrals following the issuance of a scathing report that said members of Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration failed state housing agency chief of staff Katie Brennan.

“The report is out there and any law enforcement agency that chooses to look at it can,” Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, a committee co-chair, said. “We’ve issued our report, period.”

“Period,” apparently Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg forgot the “full stop” part of one of Gov. Murphy’s favorite lines, “period, full stop.”

Is Weinberg serious? Any law enforcement agency that chooses to look at it can? She knows as well as we do no one from law enforcement is going to look at that report.

It’s obvious that in New Jersey #MeToo and #BelieveWomen only applies when folks like Murphy and Weinberg are attacking Republicans.

We have written repeatedly about Murphy’s hypocrisy when it comes to his treatment of women. More than 30 times, on this blog, we’ve mentioned the mistreatment of women on Murphy’s professional soccer team. We lost count how many times the mainstream press mentioned the lousy way Murphy handled the Katie Brennan situation. And, don’t forget there was the much less covered Allison Kopicki who said she was resigning from her position in the Murphy administration because she alleged she has faced retaliation from Murphy’s administration.

Basically, the recently released Legislative Select Oversight Committee Report proves only that for women is not one thing in New Jersey that is stronger and fairer under Governor Phil Murphy.