Sparring over crime, abortion and the lethal U.S. Capitol rebel took heart stage Tuesday as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confronted her Republican challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin, in the marketing campaign’s solely televised gubernatorial debate.
Hochul blasted Zeldin’s previous assist for abortion restrictions and for former President Donald Trump, whereas Zeldin vowed to repeal liberal prison justice reforms and criticized Hochul’s push to ship thousands and thousands to abortion suppliers to develop entry for a predicted surge in out-of-state sufferers.
Hochul labeled Zeldin an “election denier” and “climate change denier” as she tried to hyperlink him to Trump, who loved little assist in New York.
“In Lee Zeldin’s world, you overthrow the results of elections you don’t agree with,” Hochul stated.
Zeldin voted in opposition to certifying the 2020 presidential election outcomes in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Trump’s false claims of 2020 presidential election fraud remodeled into marching orders that summoned supporters to Washington, D.C., and so they then stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in search of to violently block Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
When requested by a debate moderator if he would vote in opposition to certifying the outcomes once more, Zeldin did not straight say sure or no. He as an alternative stated he wished to give attention to the long run, and battle to institute voter ID legal guidelines to guard election integrity.
Hochul additionally requested Zeldin: “Is Donald Trump a great president? Yes or no?”
Zeldin praised Trump’s document on insurance policies from Israel to the U.S.-border coverage to pandemic containment. And when a moderator requested Zeldin if he would settle for the outcomes of the election if he misplaced, Zeldin stated: “Well, first off, losing is not an option. Secondly, playing along with your hypothetical question, of course.”
Hochul, the state’s former lieutenant governor who took workplace after her successor resigned to keep away from a probable impeachment, has loved a robust lead over Zeldin in a lot of the polling this 12 months. However Zeldin stays a contender, having fun with assist in huge swaths of upstate New York. Some latest polling suggests the hole between the candidates might be narrowing.
There’s lower than 3 weeks till election day, and Republican candidate Lee Zeldin and Governor Kathy Hochul stay shut in the polls, Melissa Russo studies.
The Lengthy Island Republican has spent a lot of the 12 months railing in opposition to a streak of shootings and different violent crimes, together with a sequence of unprovoked assaults on New York Metropolis subways. Two youngsters had been additionally injured in a drive-by taking pictures exterior his house earlier this month.
“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,” Zeldin stated. “Or we can take control of our destiny and make sure law-abiding New Yorkers are in charge of our streets again.”
Zeldin on Tuesday charged Hochul with failing to take critically the considerations of New Yorkers about crimes on subways and hate crimes in opposition to Jewish and Asian-American communities. He additionally argued that liberal opposition to pure fuel extraction and new pipelines in New York is hurting the state’s financial system.
“You’re poorer and less safe because of Kathy Hochul and extreme policies,” Zeldin stated, not losing a minute throughout his solely probability to confront Hochul, including: “You deserve higher.”
New York was among the many first states to cut back using money bail for prison defendants beginning in 2020. Each earlier than and after the reforms, solely a small fraction of the folks launched whereas awaiting trial — lower than 1% — had been re-arrested for violent felonies.
“First of all, you can either work on keeping people scared, or you can work on keeping them safe…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,” Hochul stated.
NBC 4’s Melissa Russo sat down with Republican Candidate for New York Governor Lee Zeldin to debate matters of curiosity in the upcoming election.
Hochul has famous that different cities and states with out comparable money bail legal guidelines have seen spikes of crime since 2020. The governor additionally took purpose at Zeldin’s refusal to assist gun management measures in Congress.
“It is a joke to talk about a crime policy that doesn’t talk about doing something about illegal guns,” Hochul stated. “When you had the chance to say enough is enough, no more school massacres or teenagers, you were nowhere to be found, Lee.”
As for abortion, Zeldin used the talk to repeat his rigorously worded promise that he is not going to attempt to change the state’s abortion legal guidelines after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe. Wade in the Dobbs choice.
“The day after the Dobbs decision, the law in New York was exactly the same as it was the day before, and I’m not going to change that,” Zeldin stated.
Hochul warned New Yorkers to not belief that stance.
“Lee, you can’t run from your record,” she stated. “You know why nothing changed after the Dobbs decision? Because I’m the governor, and he’s not.”