Governor Hochul Appears on Dan Mannarino Show

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on PIX 11’s “PIX on Politics Daily with Dan Mannarino.”

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11:  I spoke to Governor Kathy Hochul about that and many other topics in a wide ranging interview. The governor is going on the record. And, Governor Hochul is joining me now, great to have you here in person, Governor.

Governor Hochul: Thanks. Great to be back, Dan.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: It's been a busy week and I want to begin what we saw play out on Tuesday, a city comptroller, Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate, arrested, and he was there escorting this man Edgardo out of his court date trying to get this legal status. When you went down there, what was your encounter with both the ICE officials and Mr. Lander?

Governor Hochul: I went down there, literally had been in Little Haiti, visiting the community, a community that's under siege. I got the word of what happened and I just declared it as unacceptable in a different word, but I said it was very unacceptable. I went down there, and I went into the federal building, went up to the ninth floor, and they were holding him in this area behind a number of guards. I mean there was ICE agents there, and no one else was around. I just said, “I'm not leaving until Mr. Lander walks out with me.”

And I stood there, and I talked to people, and I brought in my Homeland Security team and others to be reinforcements and to find out what's going on. Eventually, they went and told him and he said he overheard them saying “the Governor's here, we'll let you go.” So I walked out with him, we went down to the street.

He was reacquainted with his wife, Meg, who I had seen on the street and gave her a hug because you don't know what's happening. Are they going to press some, made up, trumped up charges, literally trumped up charges or what, but they ended up saying yesterday there were no charges being brought. It's just to see someone like a Brad Lander, I mean, he knows he's got attention on his case.

He's got a Governor coming down there. He's got all the resources he needs, attorneys, and it just puts a spotlight on all the people who are not an elected official.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: For example, Edgardo.

Governor Hochul: Yes.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Where is he?

Governor Hochul: We don't know, I mean, we don't know and here's what I called out. It's so cruel. People are sitting ducks. They came here with legal status, temporary protected status seeking asylum. They came here during the Biden administration. You can agree or disagree with that policy, but they're here and they're following the rules. They're showing up to a court date that they're told to come for, go before a judge, and while they're in there their status is revoked. They walk out, and they're told they're criminals now, and ICE just grabs them.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So let me ask you this, is there anything that you or the state can do in a moment like this to protect those who are simply following the law? They get a court date, they show up. The city's guidance from Mayor Adams has been, go to your court cases, go to school, go to hospitals, and if anybody shows up from ICE, ask for a warrant, which is what Mr. Lander did, and now they’re saying that he didn't see the warrant.

Governor Hochul: That's right, that's exactly right. They're not even following the rules that are in play here, but we've provided legal services and funding, fifty million dollars. I increased it significantly in our budget knowing that this was happening. We have great coalitions, the Immigration Coalition and others that are stepping up and getting the money out to people, training people on what to do–but this is an unprecedented time in American history. It truly, truly is.

When people who are following the rules, following the laws, taking care of people as home healthcare aides. 160 Haitians losing their jobs because who's going to take care of the moms and dads and the grandma and grandpas who need this care. So they're not even looking at the impact of the loss of these people who are workers.

The loss to our tax base, the loss to our community, and so I will help every day of the week with criminals. I said that during eight hours of grueling hearing testimony in Congress, which was just a farce to even have to drag governors like myself down there, but we did it, we endured it, put up with a lot of crap.

But we said we do help with law enforcement when we want to remove criminals, people that are dangerous, and this is not what they're doing. They are removing law abiding people who literally walk on their own into a courthouse.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Let me ask you about that testimony, right you brought it up, you were there for hours and you were grilled by both Democrats and Republicans. I guess the question is have you spoken to President Trump about what you're talking about going after the worst of the worst. You were pressed on sanctuary city status, but the President had campaigned on going after the worst of the worst. What have those conversations been?

Governor Hochul: No, I had them with him before and I was actually going to reach out again, but he has been distracted with the situation in the Middle East, and so I waited, but I will have that conversation again. I had it in the Oval Office. I had Kristi Noem sitting next to me when I had this conversation. I said, “we, as part of our policies, we'll help you go after the criminals.” The ones not a crime of crossing the border. That's not what we're talking about. That can be enforced civilly.

You do your civil enforcement, that's not our job. I will help you if you've got evidence that someone's a member of a gang or human trafficking or running drugs or guns. We don't want them in our streets either. I've worked really hard for the last four years to make our streets safer, and we're seeing the results. So I'm here for that, but why are we being asked to divert our resources to help you do your job, which I don't even agree with.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: And speaking of resources, we're seeing what's going to play out in Los Angeles and California right now with the National Guard being brought in because of these issues of protesters are on the street right, and Mayor Adam said that he sent his deputy mayor and his chief of police, chief of department to meet with President Trump, play golf and persuade him not to send the National Guard here. The Mayor says he spoke to you about that. Were you okay with them meeting on a golf course to talk about this?

Governor Hochul: That's how they do their business. I'm not going to question it, that's not my decision, but I'm having the same conversations. I want them to know, first of all, I'm the commander in chief of the New York State National Guard, I am, and there are only extreme cases when the President can usurp that.

Those cases were not called for in Los Angeles. What I'm saying is I believe in our law enforcement, I support them. Our NYPD is 32,000 people strong. They're some of the best trained in the world, they can handle crowds. So you're basically saying, the Trump administration is saying, “We don't trust you law enforcement to do your jobs, so we're going to kind of bigfoot you and show our force.” It's unnecessary.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: But can you stop it?

Governor Hochul: I will not be cooperating in that effort. But I will demonstrate that first of all, we can peacefully assemble. That happened, with millions of people, last weekend. Let's put a spotlight on that and what we don't want, is to be baited into what Donald Trump wants. He wants nothing more than to see more police cars burning and turned upside down and violence in the streets.

Now, the concentration in Los Angeles was a smaller area. It was exaggerated. Most of the city was just fine, but he wants that in Chicago and New York. He basically said that. So we are ready for it, but no one should take the bait. Don't take the bait and give him what he wants.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: This is all playing out during a political season here in New York with the mayor's race, and they're all using this as part of their campaigns. Now, we just had a poll come out from Marist that shows Andrew Cuomo is upping the polls here. You served as his Lieutenant Governor and you'd potentially have to work with him as mayor. When's the last time you spoke to Mr. Cuomo?

Governor Hochul: A few months. But I'll tell you this, the voters will decide. I have such respect for the voters of New York City, that I will work with whomever they want me to, and if it's mutual, if the next mayor. Or the current mayor — whoever it is — wants to work with me and is willing to, they will see the benefits of what I showed Mayor Adams for four years and changing the whole dynamic between the conflict that was always there between Albany and New York City. It doesn't have to be that way.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: One of them is Zohran Mamdani — who says that he would need to work with Albany — and you — very closely, and his whole campaign is based on raising taxes, which he says that he can get you to be on board with. Would you be on board with that?

Governor Hochul: No, I'm not raising taxes on people at a time when affordability is the big issue. I'm actually cutting middle class taxes.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Even on the wealthy?

Governor Hochul: I don't want to lose any more people to go to Palm Beach. We've lost enough. We had a major out-migration when Republicans in Congress eliminated the state local tax deduction.

New Yorkers paid $72 billion more to the federal government over the last seven years because Republicans didn't stand up and they need a full restoration of this. So that was a driver. I don't want to give anyone else who's supporting our economy and their taxes are appreciated and their support for the philanthropies, etcetera. Driving them to Florida does not help us. So let's be smart about this.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: I want to talk about the other race, and that's the race for governor. Lieutenant Governor, your lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, has announced he's running against you. What does that mean? Is he tasked with anything right now by you as he now looks to take your job?

Governor Hochul: No, he decided to go in a different direction. But I'm not focused on that at all. I really —

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: But he's your Lieutenant Governor, so you don't give him any responsibilities?

Governor Hochul: No, he's determined to take another course. So he’s basically — he collects his paycheck.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Should he stand down?

Governor Hochul: A lot of people have said that. I will tell you — I will focus on campaigning when the time comes. I'm very competitive. It's my 16th election. I know how to win, and I will win. But right now, with so much going on, I have to focus on Washington. I have to focus on this big ugly bill, which is going to eviscerate health care institutions everywhere I've been visiting.

We just did a billion dollars to help SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, giving central Brooklyn the high quality health care they deserve. And what's happening at the same time we're doing this, the federal government stands to take $13.5 billion from our health care systems. I've got that fight. I've got a fight on tariffs, which are hurting our state tremendously, especially in the North Country and also what's happening with immigration. So I'm very busy doing my job.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: You're saying others are calling for him to step down, but you don't think — you're not saying it.

Governor Hochul: I'm not — I don't really care.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: I want to talk about the big issue right now in terms of the budget, right? Because it is budget season and there's so much to talk about. But I do want to talk about local issues and what it affects New Yorkers. And come next year, $13.5 million to enact a cell phone ban in schools. And my curiosity is how do you implement that, right? Because on paper, yes, you can say everyone's — but it's up to the individual schools to follow through. So how do you make it happen?

Governor Hochul: Oh, we are aggressively working on this to educate all the school districts, educate the parents. Law enforcement plays a role in this too, because they need to persuade the parents that the most dangerous thing, if there is an incident on the school grounds, a shooting, for example, that it's not safe for their kids to be reaching for their cell phone and videoing it.

So I'm really excited about this when I go around the city, more people have raised this is something they're really happy we did. We're the largest state in America to have a full ban morning until nighttime. Your little girl will grow up in a world where she never even knew you could have a cell phone.

And she'll be smarter and more — have better mental health outcomes because our kids today are under such stress. And as a mom, I'm making sure we're doing everything we can. This is going to be a game changer.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Yeah. But if a school says, “I don't want to do it.”

Governor Hochul: No, they have to do it.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: They have to do it.

Governor Hochul: It's the law. This is why it took me a year to get this done. There's a lot of opposition. And I said, “We need this done.” Every school has to comply with this. Make sure that parents know how to reach their kids during the day. Just like we did in the old days. We used to call the office and you have to have the phone away from the kids, not in their pockets.

Don't let them store it where they want. You have to have your own policy. I'm not going to dictate that. But from morning until school day ends, even during lunch and breaks, gym class because they need to start making friends again. They need to be kids again. We're giving them their childhood back.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Can we bring back snow days?

Governor Hochul: I'm from Buffalo. Don't tell me about that — we went to school during so many blizzards. They thought it was a sign of weakness if you took a snow day. No, we always went to school during blizzards.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Governor Kathy Hochul, I always appreciate you coming in. Good to see you.

Governor Hochul: Good to see you too, Dan.