Errol Louis (00:20): Good evening. Welcome to Spectrum News Debate in the race for governor. I am political anchor Errol Louis from New York One News.
Susan Arbetter (00:27): And I’m Spectrum News One anchor Susan Arbetter. We’re coming to you live from the Schimmel Theater at Pace University in lower Manhattan, seen all across our station statewide from the five boroughs up to Buffalo, and we’re streaming on the Spectrum News app and New York One dot com, ny1.com, without a paywall. It’s also being broadcast on WNYC radio in New York City and WAMC radio in the Albany area.
Errol Louis (00:52): In just four days early voting will begin across the state, with election day itself falling in exactly two weeks on November 8th. At the top of every ticket is the race for governor. Over the next hour, you’ll hear from the candidates who are running for the most powerful elected position in New York.
Susan Arbetter (01:08): Joining us tonight is Kathy Hochul, who became governor in August of last year after Andrew Cuomo resigned, and Lee Zeldin, who has represented parts of Eastern Long Island in Congress since 2015 and is seeking to be the first Republican to win statewide election since 2002. Here are the rules for tonight’s one hour long debate. Each candidate will have 60 seconds to respond to questions, and will also be given the opportunity to respond if he or she is directly addressed by his or her opponent. We will also have what we call a cross examination, where each candidate will be able to ask his or her opponent a question. And there will be a lightning round, where the answers have to be yes or no or very short response.
Errol Louis (01:51): You can see this full debate on the Spectrum News app at any time, along with a personalized voting guide, and that’s where you can also find our live blog of tonight’s debate with full analysis from our political team. And following the debate, we’ll bring you a special half hour program of analysis. For those of you at home, please join the conversation online using the hashtag #nydebates. We begin now with short opening statements. The order was determined by a random drawing this morning on live television. Lee Zeldin will go first. Good evening.
Lee Zeldin (02:22): I’m here for one reason: to save our state and deliver a safer, freer, better future for you and your family. New York is in crisis. We’ve experienced on so many levels attacks on our wallets, our safety, our freedom, your children’s education. You’re poorer and less safe because of Kathy Hochul and extreme policies. This is your opportunity to save New York. Over the course of this next hour, you’ll get to hear a clear contrast between the two of us as far as our vision for this state. If you’re tired of soaring crime, DAs that led violent criminals out on the street to roam free, crushing taxes, and skyrocketing costs, New Yorkers struggling to feed their families and heat their homes; the reality is, for you, you deserve better.
Errol Louis (03:15): Thank you. Next is Kathy Hochul.
Kathy Hochul (03:19): Well, nice to see you too as well, Lee, looking forward to this conversation. And thank you to Spectrum and Pace University for hosting this debate, this conversation. But it’s all about the people tuning in here tonight. I’ve been your governor, it’s the highest honor of my life, the last 14 months. Every single day I wake up, think about how I can fight harder for you and your families; to invest in education for your kids, give you more childcare opportunities so you can get back to your jobs, also keeping more money in your pockets with middle class tax cuts and property tax rebates, but very much focused on public safety and getting more and more illegal guns off the streets.(03:56)
But that’s not the only thing I have to protect, your safety, but also your fundamental rights. Your fundamental rights to be safe, but also to choose what you want done with your body. Particularly this message is for women. You will see a great contrast here tonight between myself and my record and someone who has been called one of Donald Trump’s strongest and most loyal supporters. He helped him on January 6th by supporting the overturning of an election. He sent text messages trying to orchestrate the big lie, and he opposes sensible gun safety laws, as well as opposing a woman’s right to choose. That’s what’s on the line here tonight.
Susan Arbetter (04:32): Thank you.
Kathy Hochul (04:32): I’m looking forward to the conversation.
Errol Louis (04:36): Okay. Thank you, candidates. Our first question is going to go to you, Mr. Zeldin, since you won our drawing this morning. Crime and public safety are one of the top issues in this race. You’ve promised if elected to invoke a state of emergency on crime and suspend several laws, including bail reform measures, in order to improve public safety. But our state’s division of criminal justice services, which tracks statistics, says that it’s too early to draw conclusions, pointing out that in 2019 prior to bail reform, the rate of re-arrests of people out on bail in New York City was roughly 19% and remains statistically the same at around 20% in 2021 after bail reform. DCJS, this division, of course maintains the DNA database, administers the sex offender registry, and the missing persons clearinghouse. My question is, if you become governor, would you make policy despite the agency’s findings?
Lee Zeldin (05:29): Well, listen. You ask the will of the people. They want to see reform. Even Mayor Adams says that judges should have discretion and weigh dangerousness. I don’t think that if you’re two Mexican cartel drug smugglers busted with $1.2 million worth of crystal meth that you should just be instantly released on cashless bail. Now, Kathy Hochul supports cashless bail. As soon as it got implemented, she was out there bragging about it. She chose the champion of the defund the police movement and the architect of cashless bail, Brian Benjamin; yeah, that guy who got arrested and had to resign; that was her first big decision to make him the lieutenant governor.(06:02)
We need to repeal cashless bail. We need to repeal the HALT Act. Amend raise the age and less is more. We need to make our streets safe again. I’m running to take back our streets and to support unapologetically our men and women in law enforcement. This is about all of us together, Republicans, Democrats, independents, as New Yorkers, to make sure our streets are safe again, to make sure our subways are safe again. This is our opportunity. Two weeks from tonight, we can continue with the status quo where they believe they haven’t passed enough pro-criminal laws or we can take control of our destiny and make sure law abiding New Yorkers are in charge of our streets again.
Errol Louis (06:38): Okay. I’ll give you a chance to respond, Mrs. Hochul.
Kathy Hochul (06:41): Oh, I’d be happy to. First of all, you can either work on keeping people scared or you can focus on keeping them safe. I have worked hard to have real policies that are making a difference. And as you mentioned, that data is still being collected, but I did focus on bail reform in our budget. That’s why the budget was nine days late, because I insisted on common sense changes. But there is no crime fighting plan if it doesn’t include guns, illegal guns, and you refuse to talk about how we can do so much more. You didn’t even show up for votes in Washington when a bipartisan group of enlightened legislators voted for an assault weapon ban. I mean, we lost another child and a teacher yesterday in St. Louis because people will not support what I was able to get done here in New York, and that is a ban on assault weapons for teenagers. You can’t even do that. It’s quite extraordinary. But it’s about getting the guns off the streets. That’s the first start. We have more to do, but I’m the one to do it.
Errol Louis (07:36): Did you want to respond?
Lee Zeldin (07:37): Yes. Yeah, of course. And unfortunately Kathy Hochul believes that the only crimes that are being committed are these crimes with guns, and you got people who are afraid of being pushed in front of oncoming subway cars. They’re being stabbed, beaten to death on the street with hammers. Go talk to the Asian American community and how it’s impacted them with the loss of lives. Jewish people targeted with raw, violent antisemitism on our streets. It just happened yet again. We need to be talking about all of these other crimes, but instead, Kathy Hochul’s too busy patting herself on the back, job well done. No, actually right now there should be a special session. The state legislature should come back and they should overhaul cashless bail and these other criminal laws with zero tolerance. But they’re saying, “Elect me.” She says, “Elect me, and then you’ll find out where maybe I’ll stand on this issue in January.”
Errol Louis (08:24): I want to follow up with you, Mr. Zeldin. You have vowed to remove the district attorney of the county where we’re in right now, Alvin Bragg of Manhattan, on day one if elected as governor. Of course, he is an elected official and the state constitution specifies that removing a DA is not simple and is not automatic. Removal requires specific charges of wrongdoing, not just the difference of opinion, and the official in question must have a chance to defend themselves formally. What specific conduct are you alleging the district attorney has engaged in?
Lee Zeldin (08:55): Absolutely. The first thing I’ll do right after I’m sworn into office is turning to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg to let him know that he’s being removed. And it’s from day one that he was a district attorney he said he was not going to enforce all different kinds of laws across the board, others he treats as lesser offenses.(09:12)
Look what happened to Jose Alba. He gets attacked, he’s defending himself. Alvin Bragg sends him to Rikers Island, slaps him with a murder charge. He had an open stab wound. Alvin Bragg asked for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail in this case, but doesn’t go after the person who stabbed Jose Alba. We reached the point where Jose Alba said that he needed to go back to the Dominican Republic because he didn’t feel safe here. Alvin Bragg is not doing his job. The message will absolutely be sent that if you’re the DA, it stands for district attorney, not defense attorney. Alvin Bragg can go be a defense attorney, but if he’s not going to do his job, I’m going to do my job and I’m going to remove him as soon as I can.
Errol Louis (09:51): Did you want to respond?
Kathy Hochul (09:52):I ’d be happy to. I’m not surprised, because in Lee Zeldin’s world, you overturn elections you don’t agree with. You can’t throw out someone who is duly elected. Yes, I’ve worked with all of our district attorneys and given them more power to do their jobs, but for someone who voted to overturn a presidential election, I’m not surprised he just thinks whenever he wants to do something, he can just undo the will of the people. That’s not the democracy we live in, but it’s the world that Lee Zeldin does.
Lee Zeldin (10:21): Now, listen, you’re a New York voter out there, you’re worried about security on our streets and our subways, a question gets posed about a Manhattan DA who refuses to enforce the law, and all that my opponent can come up with is talking about the last election? Think about that. Now, we don’t have recall elections in this state, but when they crafted the New York State Constitution, they gave the governor the authority to remove a district attorney when they refused to enforce the law, and I’m going to do what is not just my constitutional authority but my constitutional duty to keep the people of this city, of this state safe.
Errol Louis (10:51): And-
Kathy Hochul (10:52): I’ve got to say, he’s wrong about that, because there’s many facets. It’s not about governing by sound bites. I’m governing by sound policy. Yes, we have more illegal guns off our streets because I brought together people from nine states to work together hitting the gun traffickers. We also made sure that we did make those changes to our bail laws so we can have repeat offenders and people with gun offenses treated as they were under the previous law. That got done because I made it get done. But also, we have to talk about getting guns out of the hands of young people, background checks, and people who are severely mentally ill. What I have proposed to work with Mayor Adams was more cops, we’ll support them with our state resources; cameras in the subways; as well as care for the people who are severely, severely mentally ill and can have an episode that can cause harm. We’re taking care of this. Setting aside an election is something you want to do. I’m all about getting results, real results, not just more sound bites.
Errol Louis (11:47): Let me follow up with you, Mrs. Hochul. Overall crime in the subway is up by over 57% this year. There have been eight homicides in the subway so far in 2022, while in prior years going all the way back to 2008 there were never more than three murders in any given year in the subways. And as you mentioned, a few days ago you and Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan for an expanded police presence in the subways, along with more security cameras, 50 new treatment beds for the mentally ill. But given the mentions of the problem, what is your message to New Yorkers who are frightened for their safety and believe the latest initiative is too little, too late?
Kathy Hochul (12:23): No, I understand the fear. I walk the streets of New York City every day. I’ve taken the subways. This fear is real. There’s facts to talk about, statistics, which make a different case, but I’m also dealing with real human beings who are anxious about their kids getting on a subway or going to work. I understand that. (12:40) But that was not my first time teaming up with Mayor Adams. We were together literally January 6th, not that January 6th, but January 6th the following year, when Eric Adams was brand new as mayor. I said, “Let’s go to the subway together. Let’s work together.” You never heard that before, a governor and a mayor working in concert to support law enforcement. I tripled the amount of money to go to law enforcement, and Lee Zeldin when he was a member of Congress didn’t even bother to show up for a vote to fund our police officers. He didn’t show up to vote for sensible gun safety legislation. He walked off his job years ago to run for this one, and I feel for his constituents who’ve been not represented at all over the last year and a half.
Lee Zeldin (13:21): It’s amazing that we’re going to be able to go through the entire crime conversation of this debate and we’re still waiting for Kathy Hochul to talk about actually locking up criminals. I mean, people are at home waiting for action, to make sure that the handcuffs are going on criminals instead of law abiding New Yorkers, so that people can go walk the streets of Manhattan instead of having to call an Uber just to go two blocks because they’re afraid. People who have changed their behavior, they’re not riding the subway at the same hours. Maybe they’re Jewish, they take their yarmulka off because they’re afraid of being attacked. Maybe there is a woman, they tell me these stories of having to hug a pole or grab a guardrail because they’re afraid of being pushed in front of an oncoming subway car. There are criminals out there who need to pay the consequences for their action instead of the catch release policies that Kathy Hochul champions.
Kathy Hochul (14:06): It is a joke to talk about a crime policy that doesn’t include doing something about illegal guns. When you had the chance as a member of Congress to stand with other Republicans who finally said, “Enough is enough. No more school massacres by teenagers. Let’s have background checks. Let’s have safety checks. Let’s do it smart,” you were nowhere to be found, Lee. I mean, people need to know. You can’t talk about… All you have is rhetoric. I have a record of getting things done, and that’s what I’m happy to talk about. It doesn’t come down to you firing one person and you changing one law in bail. It’s a much more complicated situation.
Susan Arbetter (14:40): We’re going to move on.
Kathy Hochul (14:41): We have a backlog of two years of no jury trials.
Susan Arbetter (14:44): Governor-
Kathy Hochul (14:45): That has had an effect on our system as well.
Susan Arbetter (14:46): We’re going to move on to the economy, and we’re going to start with Mr. Zeldin. The economy has been shaky since the pandemic. It’s also one of New Yorkers’ top concerns according to multiple polls. Inflation has increased rapidly, reaching record highs, not only in the US but across the world. While the governor doesn’t control the levers of the worldwide economy, could you talk about specifically how you plan to provide relief to New York families?
Lee Zeldin (15:15): Sure. Well, we have to bring spending in this state under control. We’ve seen all these bailouts coming from the federal government and the state just decides that they’re just going to increase spending and that becomes a new baseline for the next year. Well, what we have to do is have a state spending cap. We need to bring down taxes across the board. We should reverse the state’s ban on the safe extraction of natural gas and pursue other opportunities to create more jobs and generate more revenue and revitalize communities. We should all be able to proudly say that we are living in the greatest state in the greatest country in the history of the world. It’s more difficult though when your state is leading the entire nation in population loss. So whether it’s industry, whether it… Like for example, the people in the southern tier desperate for being able to reverse the state’s ban on the safe extraction of natural gas, approving new pipeline applications and more. Generate revenue, bring spending under control in this state, bring down taxes. New York is going to be back open for business, baby, January 1st.
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