New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy discusses the state’s efforts to mitigate its coronavirus infections and lower its death rate, the second-highest in the country.
Phil Murphy’s cellphone rang and rang. He ignored the first two calls. Then an aide told the New Jersey governor that the caller had tried to reach him through his family. It was President Donald Trump. Murphy had to take it.
The coronavirus pandemic has turned many of America’s governors into national figures. Andrew Cuomo’s daily group-therapy sessions have become must-watch TV. Gavin Newsom’s performance has persuaded even East Coast media to pay attention to California. Florida’s Ron DeSantis took a hands-off approach in the first weeks of the outbreak, and has since struggled to show that he has the situation in his state under control. Gretchen Whitmer’s handling of Michigan’s crisis has prompted talk that she could become Joe Biden’s running mate. Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, has led an effective, depoliticized response that’s won praise from members of both parties.
Then there’s Murphy. New Jersey has the second-highest COVID-19 death toll in the United States, and as Murphy pointed out this week, the virus has killed more people from the state than were lost in World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, both Gulf Wars, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, Superstorm Sandy, and the September 11 attacks—combined. But despite being a liberal Democrat who has for years railed against Trump, Murphy has kept both a lower profile and a better relationship with the White House than his neighbor in Albany has.
Murphy found out about New Jersey’s first confirmed case of the virus on March 4, when he was in the hospital himself, lying in bed in the recovery room after having a tumor removed from his kidney—so he’s high risk. Before he was governor, he made enough of a fortune working at Goldman Sachs to self-fund his 2017 campaign, and still has friends throughout the finance world either urging him to reopen the economy or warning him to keep people sheltering in place. He’s a former finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, and is feeling stressed about bringing people together for a delayed convention in August—or possibly canceling the event. And he’s a former ambassador to Germany, so he thinks often about the world order and how much it’s changing.
Murphy’s assessment of America’s response so far: “I mean, we just were not ready. I’m not sure I understand all the reasons why we weren’t ready, but I know we weren’t ready.”
We spoke for the latest episode of The Ticket podcast:
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This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Edward-Isaac Dovere: You’re high risk for infection. How does that perspective inform your thinking?
Phil Murphy: Each day we read out a few of the obituaries and memorialize some of the lives lost, [so] that it never becomes just a question of numbers, that it’s always about specific human beings and lives lived. So I don’t think it ever would have been abstract, but boy, I’ll tell you, having lived through a challenging health crisis myself and now going through this, it certainly made it even more real and more tangible than it otherwise would have been. It’s in the back of your mind. I don’t dwell on it. It’s just a reality that I accept.
Dovere: There have been protesters in New Jersey and other states demanding that the governments reopen businesses. What would you say to them, and others who say it’s time to reopen?
Murphy: I appreciate folks’ right to protest. I appreciate the fact that they may be fed up with cabin fever, all of that.
