An effort by Senator Gerald Cardinale (R-39) to address the incivility at all levels of American politics was ruled “out of order” by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee today.

“How is it ‘out of order’ to suggest that the New Jersey Senate as an institution should not be selective in its outrage at the growing incivility that has pervaded our nation’s political discourse?” asked Cardinale. “Through their actions today, New Jersey Democrats have shown that they don’t care about condemning racist and discriminatory comments unless it serves a partisan political purpose.”

Cardinale offered an amendment to a resolution (SR-155) proposed by Senate Democrats that condemns certain comments by President Trump during consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The amendment would have changed the resolution to address the problem of incivility in politics more broadly by condemning all racist and discriminatory comments directed at elected officials at any level of government.

The Democratic chairman of the committee would not allow Cardinale’s amendment to be considered or voted on, saying it was, “out of order.”

“From our town halls to the halls of Congress, we have to acknowledge that there is too much incivility in politics coming from both sides of the aisle,” said Cardinale. “Instead of addressing the problem broadly in a bipartisan manner, Democrats chose to use the New Jersey Legislature to conduct a partisan political attack on the President of the United States. Actions like these just make the problem worse.”

Cardinale highlighted several examples of religious discrimination perpetrated by Democrats that have not resulted in legislative condemnation by New Jersey Senate Democrats:

• Here in New Jersey, a member of Governor Murphy’s administration — who also served as President of the Passaic NAACP — was fired last month from both of those roles due to a long history of anti-Semitic and racist comments.
• In December of 2018, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) made anti-Catholic comments in their review of a federal judicial nominee, insinuating he would not be able to rule fairly and impartially because he was a member of the Knights of Columbus, a highly-respected Roman Catholic charitable organization. Harris is now among the Democratic candidates for President of the United States.
• Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Michigan) said, “there’s a kind of a calming feeling” she gets when she thinks of the Holocaust. Sen. Bob Singer has introduced a resolution (SR-145) condemning these comments that the Senate has yet to consider.
• Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) said that support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins” – a bigoted reference to Jews controlling the money.

“What Senate Democrats did today is intellectually dishonest, especially when they are unwilling to condemn in a similar manner the many inappropriate comments, including some that are blatantly anti-Semitic, that have been made by members of their own party,” added Cardinale. “I think we’ve shown clearly that what they did today is nothing but a big political sham.”