Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday he supports the state Senate's move to hold hearings to investigate hidden-camera videos appearing to show local leaders of New Jersey's top teachers union discussing protecting teachers accused of abusing students.

Murphy's comments came shortly after state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, announced the hearings, which have not yet been scheduled.

"I don't blame him," Murphy, a fellow Democrat, said at an unrelated news event in Trenton.

The videos are by Project Veritas, a controversial conservative nonprofit run by New Jersey native and Rutgers University graduate James O'Keefe.

The group has been heavily criticized for going undercover to record videos of liberal organizations and individuals and then editing them extensively.

Murphy said he has not yet seen the videos of presidents of local teachers unions in Hamilton (Mercer County) and Union City -- which are branches of the New Jersey Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state.

But Murphy -- who was endorsed by the NJEA in last year's election -- said he read what the leaders said in the clips.

"On the one hand, this guy's very famous for selective editing," Murphy said of O'Keefe. "I'd like to see the whole tape."

"On the other hand," the governor added, "if it's true, it's completely unforgivable and unacceptable, what was said."

Hamilton union president David Perry and Union City president Kathleen Valencia -- who have both been suspended -- are shown discussing how their unions hypothetically would help teachers who physically abused or threatened students.

Valencia mentions how a teacher who had sex with a teenage girl will not be fired because no charges were filed.

NJEA spokesman Steve Baker said in a statement Monday that the union "agrees with parents, education advocates and legislators that the safety and well being of students is the most important responsibility of every adult working in New Jersey's public schools."

The NJEA has announced it will conduct a review of how local officials handle suspected abuse of children.

"Based on that review, NJEA will undertake appropriate training to ensure that takes place in every local and in every instance," Baker said.

"NJEA welcomes the opportunity to discuss these important issues further with legislators in order to ensure that all public education advocates are working together to ensure the safety and wellbeing of New Jersey's students," he added.

The NJEA also criticized Project Veritas as "a political organization with a long history of releasing deceptively edited videos that later prove to have been dishonest and misleading."

Sweeney dismissed that.

"Those words were real, those actions were real, and they need to be dealt with," he told NJ Advance Media on Monday. "And the NJEA doing their own independent investigation is the fox watching the henhouse."

Sweeney and the NJEA have long clashed. The union spent millions to try to unseat him in last year's election. The race cost $18.7 million, making it the most expensive legislative campaign in American history.

Murphy campaigned for Sweeney, but he declined to take a side in the dispute. That, insiders say, is part of the reason Murphy and Sweeney -- the top two elected officials in New Jersey -- have had a rocky relationship so far.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.