New Jersey Governor Nowhere To Be Found As Powerful Storm Hammers His State

Matt Rourke for The Associated Press.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) was nowhere to be found as a powerful nor’easter slammed his state Sunday morning.

The storm forced Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way (D), now serving as acting governor, to declare a state of emergency Saturday night in anticipation of 60-mile-per-hour winds and coastal flooding.

“In preparation for this storm, I am issuing a State of Emergency for all 21 counties out of an abundance of caution, authorizing our state’s emergency services personnel to activate as necessary,” Acting Governor Way announced in a statement Saturday.

Local weather reports said the high winds and heavy rain triggered “thousands of power outages” across the state, with the worst of the storm expected to hit Sunday night into Monday morning.

Murphy’s X account showed one repost of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management Sunday and one from the New Jersey Transit Authority.

According to The New York Post, “Murphy’s office sent his public schedule in an Oct. 8 email to reporters announcing he would be traveling to Europe with his wife, Tammy on Oct. 9 and return to New Jersey on Oct. 14.”

The governor’s spokesperson told The Post, “Governor Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy are out of state this weekend to attend a close family friend’s wedding in Europe. The Governor has been in close communication with his team and emergency response officials regarding the nor’easter storm impacting the East Coast.”

“The term-limited Democrat, who is known for taking frequent vacations, often to his luxe Italian villa, made no public announcement about his travel plans,” the report said, and his spokesperson did not indicate whether he planned to return home early in light of the circumstances.

Murphy, who’s nearing the end of his second term, has been criticized in the past for his “jet-set ways,” The Post reported, including an extended trip to Costa Rica during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

This spring, then-Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba announced she was investigating Murphy and the state’s attorney general over their opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

Read The New York Post article here.

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