You wonder what Phil Murphy was thinking sitting alongside the president today as Donald Trump launched into a riff about how badly Michael Flynn was treated by “nasty people.”

Flynn, briefly the president’s National Security Advisor, plead guilty more than two years ago to lying to the FBI, but is apparently trying to retract that plea in light of new information.

This was clearly a case of Washington politics intersecting with the crisis of the era -a pandemic that has killed more than 60,000 Americans, more than 7,200 of them from New Jersey.

The governor was at the White House seeking financial help – visiting with “hat-in-hand” as GOP Assemblyman Jay Webber rather snidely put it.

Things seemed to have turned out pretty well.

In a public appearance with Trump and later at his daily briefing back in Trenton, Murphy had only praise for the president, He said the feds have pledged to deliver 550,000 test kits and 750,000 swabs. In thanking the president, the governor offered a hometown touch, noting that Trump is familiar with New Jersey, as are aides Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, and Larry Kudlow, all Garden State natives.

“People over politics” is how Murphy put it.

Looking at the love-fest from afar, you wonder if this is the governor’s “Chris Christie-Barack Obama” moment.

Christie most famously, or infamously to some, welcomed Obama to the beach in Brigantine just before the 2012 election to inspect Sandy damage.

Some annoyed Republicans brought that up four years later when Christie ran for president. How dare he be nice to Obama?

So you wonder if some on the left will be equally horrified at Murphy for graciously thanking Trump for his help.

Even if they’re from different parties, there is nothing logical about criticizing a governor for seeking help from a president.

But a lot about partisan politics is not logical.

That’s something to watch in the future. A more immediate concern is what happens Saturday and Sunday when state and most county parks reopen, as do golf courses.

The governor called this a “crucial test” and for the second day in a row, warned that parks would be closed again if officials do not like what they see. Murphy wants people to wear masks and to practice
social distancing.

“Don’t let a few knuckleheads ruin it for the rest of us,” he said.

On Wednesday, Murphy acknowledged calls to reopen the parks from many, but quickly added that such sentiments meant nothing.

“We couldn’t frankly care,” is how the governor put it.

That didn’t sit well with the aforementioned Webber from District 26 in northern New Jersey. Soon after Murphy’s executive order closing parks in early April, Webber put together an online petition to reverse it. He said it got more than 13,000 signatures.

But judging from the governor’s comments on Wednesday, Webber shouldn’t have bothered. His petition meant nothing.

Maybe they can meet on a trail somewhere this weekend and talk about it – at six feet apart.