Hochul questioned Zeldin’s “importance” for raising the issue of a crime.
Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, and Kathy Hochul, the current Democratic governor, sparred over crime and violence in New York during a televised discussion on Tuesday night.
At the outset of the discussion, Zeldin said that New York was “in a crisis” under Hochul’s leadership and lambasted the mayor’s policies, including cashless bail and soft-on-crime approaches, for adding to New Yorkers’ sense of insecurity.
“It’s imperative that public spaces be made secure once more. My unwavering support for law enforcement and my desire to reclaim our streets motivated me to seek political office.” The following is Zeldin’s response to a question concerning his stance on crime.
Later, Zeldin went back to this line of thinking, saying that Hochul didn’t perceive a “crime emergency” in the state because of it. Hochul asserted that Zeldin’s use of criminal justice and bail reform was a sham to gain political advantage.
“A person who breaks the law now, especially in light of the new bail regulations, will be held accountable in the future. Why this matters to you especially, I can’t say.” Hochul has speculated that stricter gun laws in the state may help bring about a reduction in crime.
Hochul claimed that she was “having an effect” on crime reduction and accused Zeldin of seeking to keep New Yorkers “scared.”
She highlighted the two deaths from Monday’s school massacre in St. Louis, rather than New York’s growing crime rate, to make her argument for stricter gun laws.
She said that Zeldin had rejected the idea of gun control in favor of a ban on “assault weapons for children,” claiming that “there is no crime combating plan if it does not involve firearms — illegal guns.”
When asked if criminal activity was restricted to the use of firearms, Zeldin responded no.
“Unfortunately, Kathy Hochul thinks that only crimes involving weapons actually occur. Some people are so afraid of being shoved in front of moving trains that they refuse to ride the subway at all. They are being stabbed and beaten to death out on the streets.” His entire point, he said, was that.
“The Jewish community is a frequent target of the raw, violent antisemitism that plagues our streets; if you’re curious about the impact on other communities, just ask members of the Asian-American community. This has happened once again, just today. Unfortunately, Kathy Hochul is too busy bragging about herself to acknowledge the many other catastrophes that have occurred.” Afterward, he continued with his remarks.
Zeldin then called for a special session of the state legislature to alter “pro-criminal regulations” such as cashless bail and other types of pre-trial release.
As the moderator, Errol Louis raised the alarming rises in crime and homicide on New York City’s subways, which he estimated to be 57% and 100% this year and last year, respectively.
Hochul sympathized with New Yorkers’ concerns about the current crime wave and called for more money to be spent on law enforcement, albeit she did not specifically address the issue that had been brought up.
Zeldin interrupted Hochul and said, “It’s fantastic that we’re going to be able to go through the entire crime discourse of this conversation, and we’re still waiting for Kathy Hochul to talk about truly locking up criminals.”