Justin Murphy turned the Justin Murphy Cory Booker Debate into a viral moment after telling President Donald Trump to “finish” the Iran war. Murphy, the New Jersey GOP Senate nominee, said the exchange was unscripted and drew surprise from Cory Booker.
Murphy said he has no speechwriter and no teleprompter, adding: “I don’t have a speechwriter. There’s no teleprompter — I shoot from the hip because I want people to see a very sincere, genuine and authentic Justin Murphy.” He said the reaction spread fast online: “This came up. And I had no idea it would become as viral or explode as it has on social media. It's what I felt. I meant what I said. I said what I meant. It wasn't planned to try to spark the reaction that we got … through social media.”
New Jersey GOP Senate
Murphy is a New Jersey attorney, former municipal official and Navy veteran who once served as deputy mayor of Tabernacle in the state’s Pine Barrens. He said the debate with Booker was cordial, but he also framed the race as a break from the past, saying: “Number one — it’s time for a change. We had a good cordial debate with [Cory Booker] but he’s been a senator for 13 years — he’s been [in Washington] longer than Donald Trump.”
That exchange is drawing attention because Clifford Case was the last Republican to represent the Garden State in the Senate, and he was last elected in 1972. Murphy’s own argument is that the moment can read as authenticity to Republican and independent voters, but he has also tied the campaign to concerns about the war’s effect on energy prices among voters in the Philadelphia metro area where he lives.
Clifford Case 1972
Murphy said that in his 60 years, he cannot remember a time when Iran’s support for terrorism and its “export” of assassination or killing of its own people was not part of the nightly news. He said President Donald Trump is breaking from the past and is no longer kicking the can down the road, while also saying, “I don't think he gets to blame Donald Trump for anything. He's part of the branch of government that passes our country's laws and writes our tax co.”
The comment has already given Murphy a sharper profile in the race, but his challenge is whether a viral line can do more than travel online. For now, the campaign’s next step is the same one it has been building toward all along: making that debate moment mean something to New Jersey voters who have not elected a Republican senator since Clifford Case.
