NOW WHO’S DISHONEST, GOVERNOR?
Kat insists GOP untruthful on crime – despite dire stats
Gov. Hochul claimed during a TV interview Friday that Republicans were winning over voters by being “dishonest” about crime — even as the screen showed double-digit increases in virtually every category across the Big Apple.
On “CNN This Morning,” the Democratic incumbent was asked by co-host Don Lemon what her party wasn’t “getting about crime” and why the GOP was “winning on this issue” before the conversation turned to rescinding bail reform, which she dismissed as “simplistic.”
“Because they’re being dishonest about it,” Hochul said. “They are not having a conversation about real solutions.”
But a large chart that CNN displayed next to Hochul detailed the rates for serious crimes in New York City, with all except for murders up by between 11% and 40.6%, for an overall increase of 31% compared to last year.
Hochul’s appearance came as she’s locked in an unexpectedly tight race just four days before Tuesday’s election.
“One thing Zeldin said he would do is repeal the bail reform law. What would you do?” Lemon asked.
“That is such a simplistic approach,” Horechul sponded. “It’s about how we support law enforcement. I tripled money to police — Zeldin voted against that.”
But Hochul never actually offered a plan of her own, beyond touting the seizure of 8,000 “illegal guns” and saying that “no 18-year-old can get their hands on an AR-15.” Lemon didn’t confront Hochul about fellow Democrat Mayor Adams’ efforts to toughen the bail law, in part by giving judges the power to lock up dangerous defendants, as is the rule in all 49 other states and the federal court system. Lemon also didn’t bring up The Post’s exclusive interview with an upstate police chief who publicly pleaded with her to strengthen the state’s bail reform law in the wake of Buffalo mom Keaira Bennefield’s shocking murder last month. “My message to the governor would be: Please, show us some support in law enforcement,” Cheektowaga Police Chief Brian Gould said in remarks highlighted on Friday’s front page. Bennefield was algunned legedly down in front of her three kids by estranged husBenone band Adam nefield, day after a judge was forced to release him without bail in an earlier alleged assault on her due to the state’s controversial 2019 reform law.
On Wednesday, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told The Post Hochul hasn’t done enough to empower judges, saying, “From the very beginning, we have asked for changes to the bail reform law.”
Also during Friday’s CNN interview, co-host Poppy Harlow asked the governor — who’s pushed for an amendment that would add abortion rights to the state constitution — whether she thought that issue was galvanizing female voters against Zeldin, due to his anti-abortion record.
Hochul said women “are not a monolithic group” before ticking several other subjects she said were important to them — and taking aim at her Republican rival.
“I’m the governor, he’s not,” she said.
But following recent polls that led RealClearPolitics to call the race a toss-up and the Cook Political Report to change its rating from “solid” to “likely” in her favor, Hochul acknowledged that she needed heavy turnout from Democratic voters.
“We’re trying to get the vote out there. When Democrats vote, we win,” she said of New York, where Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 2-to-1.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both campaigned with Hochul in Manhattan on Thursday night. President Biden and former President Bill Clinton will also be in New York to stump for her in the final stretch.