Jersey's top Republican on Gov. Murphy's handling of coronavirus

What does New Jersey's top Republican think of Governor Murphy's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has included New Jersey? What do you think?

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick came on my show to discuss just that, among other things about the novel coronavirus.

"I like Phil Murphy. I like the governor. I think that he's been just a little bit slow to react," Bramnick said when he came on my show on Monday. "I think he's now starting to move and realize how serious this threat is, because if you think about it, towns were shutting down bars, towns were closing schools, and only now has the state actually said the same thing."

Bramnick, who along with House Speaker Craig Coughin, worked on a series of bills to deal with the economic impact of COVID-19 and he talked to me about it:

"I don't like the fact that municipalities and counties took the lead on these issues followed by the state of New Jersey. We're now all on the same page but I think some of the towns and counties were ahead of the state," Bramnick said.

How long does Bramnick think this pandemic will last?

"I've spoken to infectious disease experts and homeland security experts," he said. "What they're hoping if they can see over the next two weeks that a leveling out of the number of new cases. They believe that then slowly over the next couple of weeks after that ... this virus will slowly dissipate, but I think we won't know for one month whether or not we have this under control."

Bramnick says we need to take this seriously:

"Let no one tell you that this is not a serious health threat," he said. "Unfortunately it is."

One final example from Bramnick:

"One doctor told me he never saw a 39-year-old healthy person have his or her lungs attacked and actually that virus causing them to be on a ventilator. That is a completely new virus. It is not the flu," he said.