Arguably the best exchange during Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate (the first of two) came when Phil Murphy – who spent most of the night trying to deflect away from his record – tried to smack Jack Ciattarelli over January 6th.
“If you want to talk about disqualifiers: ‘If taxes are your issue, we’re probably not your state,'” Ciattarelli said, responding to Murphy’s oft-repeated allegation that the GOP nominee willingly participated in a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally. “Or saying that you wanted to make New Jersey the California of the East Coast? I consider those disqualifiers.’
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“The people died, Assemblyman! People died!” a straining Murphy shot back, referring to the Capitol Hill riot.
“You mean like the people in the nursing homes or Tropical Storm Ida?” Ciattarelli replied. And enthusiastic applause ensued…
Talk about "disqualifiers" for governor… @Jack4NJ points out exactly why @GovMurphy does not deserve a 2nd term. pic.twitter.com/vuAzm5ISNt
— Will Reinert (@willreinert) September 28, 2021
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If you remember how it went down? It’s no wonder that Murphy looked like he had swallowed sour milk after Jack hit him with that nursing home zinger.
Back on March 31, 2020, Murphy’s health department head (Judith Persichilli) issued a directive that ended up being a a death sentence for thousands of New Jersey’s most vulnerable residents. Persichilli cited Governor Murphy’s infamous Executive Order 103 to back up the following:
“No patient/resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the post-acute care setting solely based on a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Persons under investigation for COVID-19 who have undergone testing in the hospital shall not be discharged until results are available. Post-acute care facilities are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized patient/resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
In issuing this deadly directive, the Murphy Administration ignored CDC guidance (so much for “the science”) and nursing home adminstrators who warned Perischilli that it wouldn’t be possible to successfully segregate positive admissions from vulnerable residents.
“Patients will die,” one administrator warned Persichilli. “You understand that by asking us to take COVID patients, by demanding we take COVID patients, that patients will die in nursing homes that wouldn’t have otherwise died had we screened them out.”
The end result was predictable AND predicted.
By September 2020 (one year ago), New Jersey trailed only Massachusetts in per capita nursing home deaths. It’s a big part of the reason why New Jersey is currently #2 nationally for its overall Covid-19 death rate, far worse than Florida and some other red states that are frequently criticized by the “experts” and other talking heads.
It wasn’t an accident, folks. Murphy simply didn’t care. Letting the elderly die in droves was a calculation. This is what he said one week BEFORE Nurse Judy issued the directive during one of his marathon COVID-19 pressers:
“I think in fairness to the Woodbridge reality you mentioned, Judy, earlier in your remarks, in many cases those are end-of-life patients to begin with, so to your point you just raised, right?”
#PhilMurphy reiterating #JudyPersichilli comments that nursing home residents were at the end of their life anyway.#JerseyDeservesBetter pic.twitter.com/MnEqr0upPb
— Future Governor Of New Jersey Elect!! Alex Allis (@My3Alexandra) September 24, 2021
Ghoulish? Oh yeah, and if you’re not familiar with the St. Joseph’s facility sage (the Woodbridge “reality”) he was referring to, you need to brush up before you vote.
In case you missed it, the DOJ previously launched a multi-state probe into the handling of veteran’s homes specifically; the other investigations have since been closed, but New Jersey is the one state where the case remains open.
One more thing: Team Murphy will continue to pretend that it made reasonable decisions given the available facts. That’s horseshit. We thought COVID-19 was even more easy to spread back then than we do today! Remember wiping down groceries? Meanwhile, the Murphy Administration actually wanted nursing homes to PENALIZE employees for utilizing masks.
I don’t care what the polls say about it, Save Jerseyans.
When the WHOLE story is told to undecided voters? It’s a story that moves the needle. Murphy knew his decisions would kill thousands. He simply didn’t care. This is classic “Obamacare thinking.” Government – not patients working with their doctors – should get to decide who lives and who doesn’t.
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