NYC NOW - July 17, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

The MTA says a 60-year-old piece of electronic equipment caused hours-long delays on the J and M trains Tuesday night after a transformer failure near the Delancey - Essex Street subway station. Meanwhile, Democratic voters in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District have selected Newark Council President LaMonica McIver to replace Representative Donald Payne, who died in April. She’ll run against Republican Carmen Bucco to decide who will serve until the November election. Finally, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was convicted Tuesday on all 16 counts in a federal corruption case, including bribery, acting as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice. WNYC’s Michael Hill speaks with reporter Nancy Solomon to learn what’s next for Menendez and the Democratic Party.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, July 17. Here's the midday news. For WNYC in New York, I'm Alec Hamilton. The MTA says a 60-year-old piece of electric equipment was to blame for hours-long delays on the J&M trains last night. MTA chair Jana Lieber says a transform. went out around the Delancey Essex Street subway station, which caused hours of delays and left

thousands of riders stuck on platforms. Lever says the Transformer was 30 years past its shelf life. He apologized to riders for the infrastructure failure. Yesterday was a tough day, and we are very much in debt to the customers who muscleed through. Lieber blames the system's aging infrastructure for the outage, not the summer heat. He also says 25% of all electric equipment in the transatlantic equipment in the Transatlormer. transit system is in poor condition. In the fall, the MTA will adopt a new capital program that aims to make investments into vital infrastructure that would replace much of the electric equipment. Democratic voters in New Jersey's 10th congressional district have selected Newark

Council President La Monica McIver to replace Representative Donald Payne, who died in April. McIver easily toppled a field of 11 candidates, with endorsements from party bosses and Governor Phil Murphy. She'll run against Republican Carmen Bucco and a special election in September, but a Republican hasn't won that seat since 1948. The winner of that race will serve for just a few months, but voters will decide who fills the next full term in another election this November. Party leaders haven't yet said who will replace pain on that ballot. 86 degrees now, partly cloudy, there's a heat advisory in effect until 8, and air quality

alert until 11 p.m. high near 94 today. It's WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Politics for Profit. That's how U.S. Attorney Damian Williams described the actions of New Jersey's senior senator Bob Menendez yesterday after a jury convicted Menendez of all 16 counts of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction of justice.

Joining us now, WNYC's Nancy Solomon, Nancy. The trial ended fairly quickly, some say, considering it was a nine-week trial that involved 18 different counts and three defendants. Jurors needed less than two full days to come to a guilty verdict on every single charge. Tell us about the evidence they heard during this trial, Nancy. Well, prosecutors started with a blow-by-blow description of the stacks of cash and gold bars that were stuffed into jackets, boots, and shopping bags in the Menendez home. You know, and Michael, I have to say, you know, if you've never seen a million dollars, half a million dollars, those photos make an impression. There was key testimony from one of the businessmen charged in the bribery scheme who pled guilty and testified that he bought a Mercedes-Benzheny for Nadine Menendez. She's the senator's wife and is also charged.

There was surveillance of a meeting with Egyptian officials who wanted help from Menendez to get U.S. weapon sales. in which Nadine said at this dinner, is there anything else the love of my life can do for you? And then Menendez helped write a letter from Egyptian officials to his fellow senators, and he sent it to Nadine to pass on to them that didn't go through his staff. The calls for Menendez to resign last fall

really kicked off what has been an extraordinary year in New Jersey politics. Walk us through that. Yeah, I mean, the word people most often often use is seismic. The governor's wife ran in the primary for the Menendez Senate seat. She faced fierce backlash, and we saw rank and file Democrats rise up against the party bosses, and eventually she was forced to drop out. Then a federal judge ordered a temporary injunction against the county line, which gives party bosses a lot of power to choose how candidates are placed on ballots. Then just last month, one of those party bosses, George Norcross, was indicted for racketeen

hearing and extortion in a case that really goes to the heart of how political power is leveraged here in New Jersey. And Menendez was a powerful political boss himself. So the verdict is coming at a time when there are significant challenges to bossism in the state. Tell us more about that. What do people mean when they say it's a reckoning? Yeah, because you've got all of these things happening at once. People are paying attention to corruption. They're paying attention to political reform like I've never seen, you know, in the 20 years that I've been covering New Jersey. There's so much attention on this that I think, you know, and I think the whole conversation about reform, also you have Andy Kim running for Senate, you have Sue Altman running for Congress. These are both people who

are talking about political reform all the time. So I think that's what folks mean when they talk about a reckoning. And now the governor said if Menendez does not resign, he should be expelled. What would happen then if that's the case? Well, Governor Phil Murphy would appoint another Democrat to fill out his term until January, but that opens up another can of worms. Will he appoint Congressman Andy Kim, the Democratic nominee on the ballot in November? Kim said yesterday he'd be happy to take the job early, but then there's a vacancy in the House, and the governor in that case can't appoint for that position. There would have to be a special election. So, and meanwhile, you know, there are questions about the relationship between the governor and Kim. I mean, you know, this was a Senate primary first lady

Tammy Murphy was expected to win, and the governor didn't endorse Kim, and that was even after the first lady dropped out of the race. So might we see Senator Tammy Murphy take the temporary seat? It would be a brazen move, considering all the pushback and charges of nepotism that happened the first time around, but, you know, stranger things have happened, especially in New Jersey. So, Nancy, I have to ask you, do you expect Menendez to resign as Corey Booker and others, the governor have called for him to resign? And so is Chuck Schumer. Yeah, it's hard to say, but I would say this. It's not in Menendez's constitution to back down. He faced a bribery trial in 2017 that ended in a hung jury. Afterwards, he stood on the steps of the courthouse and said, to those who were digging

my political grave so they could jump into my seat, I know who you are. And I would. won't forget you. Then last September after this indictment, the entire Democratic establishment in New Jersey called on him to resign, and he refused. So I think, you know, it's hard to say what's going to happen next. Okay. That's WNIC's Nancy. Solomon, Nancy, thank you for joining us. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.