Full 2026 New York Governor Debate — Kathy Hochul & Bruce Blakeman

[0:00] good evening welcome to the first and only debate in the race for governor of new york [0:05] i'm errol lewis political anchor at new york one coming to you live from our studios here in [0:10] manhattan and i'm spectrum news political anchor susan arbetter tonight's broadcast can be seen on [0:15] all of our stations across new york and we are also streaming live on the spectrum news app [0:20] and on our youtube channel election day is three weeks from tonight and early voting kicks off on [0:27] saturday october 24th new yorkers will be casting their ballots in key congressional legislative [0:33] and statewide races including the one that we're focused on tonight governor of new york so tonight's [0:38] debate is hosted under the auspices of new york state's public campaign finance board it's also [0:44] being broadcast in spanish by our colleagues at spectrum noticias over the course of the next hour [0:50] you'll hear from both candidates kathy hochel is the incumbent a democrat who has held the job since [0:56] 2021 her republican challenger is bruce blakeman who has served as nassau county executive since 2022. [1:04] the rules you see on your screen have been agreed to by both candidates they will each have 60 seconds [1:10] for an opening statement answers to our questions will generally be limited to 60 seconds with 30 seconds [1:16] to answer rebuttals or follow-ups at our discretion and there will be both a cross-examination round where [1:23] the candidates get to ask one question to their opponent and a lightning round where their answers [1:28] should be yes or no or very short we begin now with one minute opening statements the order was [1:34] determined by a random drawing earlier today on live television we'll start with you mr blakeman good [1:39] evening good evening governor and thank you to everybody out there that's watching this debate [1:45] it gives me an opportunity to speak directly to you and your families about issues that are important [1:51] here in new york state that affect you each and every day as i travel across the state and it's a [1:57] beautiful state everywhere i go people are telling me how they're struggling struggling to pay their [2:04] bills and they're worried about safety in their communities under governor hochel we are the highest tax [2:11] state in america our utility bills are 70 percent higher than the national average and because of [2:17] policies like cashless bail people feel unsafe in their own communities as governor i will cut taxes [2:25] i will cut your utility bills in half and i will create safer communities just like i did in my own [2:32] county in nassau county and let me say this kathy hochel has spent eight billion dollars of your money [2:40] on illegal migrants for free food free housing free transportation and a free cell phone that's your money [2:46] that she spent on people who aren't new yorkers i believe she's got her priorities upside down so [2:53] i'm going to ask you to vote for change what have you got to lose and vote for a better new york [3:00] and vote for blakeman for governor thank you next is miss hochel good evening thank you for hosting us [3:06] this evening and county executive good to see you this evening my parents started married life in a [3:11] trailer park near the bethlem steel plant i used to work long hours after school every day to raise money [3:17] for college at a pizzeria you know i never forgot where i came from and the struggles and that's why [3:24] as governor i have been laser focused on affordability and your family's safety and that's why we've [3:31] delivered the largest middle class rate cut in 70 years that's why we delivered over 10 billion dollars [3:38] in energy rebates and inflation rebates and rebates to help people pay their bills but also this new [3:47] new york state now has the lowest crime rates it's had in modern history now we're not done yet and [3:55] you're going to hear a lot of well a lot of different opinions here this evening and i want you to judge it [4:03] this way my opponent has said this he says that he's going to bring trump style leadership to albany he [4:13] says he's going to cut medicaid in half you heard him say that and he's going to let ice run rampant in [4:19] our streets so this is your choice new yorkers i'm not letting this happen working together with you [4:26] we will not because your family is my fight okay thank you candidates um we're going to begin tonight [4:33] by discussing an incident that is reigniting a national debate an ice agent last thursday shot a [4:39] dominican immigrant in the upper manhattan neighborhood of marble hill while his five-year-old [4:44] son was in the back seat of the car this took place on a busy street at a time many new yorkers [4:48] were making their way home from work or school federal government says the man drove towards [4:53] agents before they shot him i'm going to start with you mr blakeman multiple reports suggest that [4:58] ice has cut its training time lowered its hiring standards and deployed masked agents in cities [5:04] whose leaders don't want them there in this case with long guns in a crowded urban environment [5:10] and i guess the question is are you comfortable with that kathy hochel appealed to ice to let this [5:17] criminal out the question that new yorkers have to ask is what was this guy doing in new york in the [5:24] first place it's because kathy hochel has made us a sanctuary state think about it this guy came [5:30] into the country illegally he's been convicted of a crime he's got pending charges for drill for dealing [5:38] drugs poison to our children and he's a gangbanger this who this is who kathy hochel is defending i have [5:48] a cooperative agreement with ice until kathy head kathy hochel said we could no longer cooperate with [5:54] ice we got over 2 000 illegal migrants out of my county with criminal records ranging from rape [6:00] attempted murder robbery burglary drug dealing carjacking gang activity and that's because we [6:08] cooperated with ice and we didn't raid one school one hospital one daycare center or one church [6:15] if you cooperate with federal law enforcement it makes for a safer community that's what i did kathy [6:21] hochel has taken that ability away from us that's why things like this happen i had a question for you [6:26] miss hochel but i wanted to give you a chance to respond no thank you i think in his non-answer [6:30] he refused to condemn what ice did so he basically says in the state of new york he'd be fine [6:36] if ice agents shoot car shoot into cars shoot guns into vehicles not knowing who's inside and could have [6:45] killed a five-year-old child if that doesn't shock the conscience of everybody and it should shock his [6:51] conscience as well that he says that's okay that's how ice is supposed to do it i'll tell you what [6:57] i oversee over 500 policing agencies in the state of new york over half a million arrests every year [7:03] that's not how you conduct yourself ice is out of control it's out of control in nassau county [7:08] never would have happened but for your sanctuary policy you have invited criminals to come into [7:14] our state and prey on our on our communities and now you won't let local law enforcement cooperate [7:21] with ice in an orderly way like we did in my county we didn't have any incidents in my county [7:27] because we were allowed to cooperate with local law enforcement but you took that tool away the reason [7:32] why that happened is because of you kathy hochel and your immigration policies where you actually [7:38] invite people into our state give them free everything and you don't care whether they're [7:44] criminals or not that's a bad policy i have a right to answer this one because this is so absurd [7:51] i have said from the president on down i said new york is not a sanctuary for criminals [7:56] not a sanctuary for criminals full stop but to say nothing happened in nassau county [8:01] tell that to the man who on camera had his head rammed into a brick wall by ice agents was knocked [8:08] unconscious say that to the family of the man who died in your custody when he was in one of the [8:14] nassau county's jail and nothing bad happens we'll tell that to 11 year old norman who sobbed in my arms [8:21] when local police nassau police took his father when he was just going to a home depot for god's sakes [8:28] and his father was sitting for months and months in a detention center kathy how long was devastated [8:33] about the 230 year old women who were murdered by an illegal migrant in my county what do you what do [8:40] you say to their families what do you say to all those people who have had their children hooked on [8:46] drugs by illegal migrants bringing fentanyl cocaine and heroin into our communities we have an epidemic of [8:54] crime from these illegal migrants 16 000 detainers are out there for people who committed 52 000 crimes [9:01] in our state and you won't let local law enforcement cooperate with ice to pick them up and get out of [9:08] this state this never would have happened kathy if it wasn't for your policies you know his idea of law [9:14] enforcement because i've worked hard to drive down crime i spent four billion dollars of money to support [9:20] our men and women in blue they know i have their backs and i want to make sure that they're keeping [9:24] our communities safe not being deputized as ice agents which is what he did and maybe that's why [9:30] maybe that's why nassau county had a 10-year high in violent crimes under your watch maybe because [9:37] they're too distracted trying to be ice agents well i've talked to members of their police department they [9:41] just want to do their jobs and when i changed the law i got them back to local policing so they can stop [9:47] crimes and they can respond you haven't heard u.s news and world report says i have the safest county [9:53] in america so i back law enforcement and i back the laws of both our federal government our state [10:00] government and i give our law enforcement professionals the tools they need to keep us safe [10:05] but you say you spent four billion dollars on law enforcement well you spent eight billion dollars on [10:11] illegal migrants and gave them more benefits than new yorkers get how does that make any sense i can't [10:17] believe you just took credit for what the democratic predecessor in your county did oh she was the [10:22] county executive in 2020 it was under laura curran okay that the crime started going down [10:30] they called nassau wasn't that during covid that they called nassau one of the safest places in america [10:36] before you became county executive this local let me take credit for the sun rising in the morning [10:41] and setting at night we're gonna move on but before we do i wanted to ask you this miss hokal [10:45] does new york sanctuary policy amount to a cancellation at times of valid deportation orders [10:51] provided an immigrant lays low and doesn't commit a violent crime and are you comfortable with with [10:56] that reality even new york city has 170 crimes serious crimes where they will work with ice agents [11:03] to remove people that is a fact all across the state of new york we always work with law enforcement [11:08] remove people who are committing crimes and the other thing is when people commit a crime [11:13] i want them to go through our court system i want victims to have their day in court then we kick them [11:19] out of the country at the end of their prison term that's how it's always operated always work [11:24] successfully until you have rogue agents roaming the streets and county executives like him supporting [11:30] them okay thank you candidates thank you we're going to move on now to um voters pocketbooks and we're [11:37] going to start with kathy hokal um miss hokal new yorkers pay among the highest energy costs in the [11:43] nation with experts saying that older plants are being shut down at a faster pace than the state can [11:50] build new generation and you've acknowledged that problem by sending out energy rebate checks to many [11:56] new yorkers but the demand for energy continues and those prices continue to soar will these checks be [12:03] going out annually and beyond that what are you doing in the short term to lower utility costs you [12:09] know susan great question i understand the pain that so many people are going through energy prices [12:13] are high all over america and the issue is as you put out so perfectly is that we don't have enough [12:19] supply to meet the demand so i have an all the above approach i did do energy rebates just as a short [12:25] term solution but i'm trying to build more but you know what the real problem is i've got donald trump [12:31] standing in the way of my energy projects literally shut down a project kicking 1300 people off their [12:37] jobs that would have powered half a million homes in brooklyn i also want to do part of my all the [12:42] above i'm trying to do nuclear but the white house playing politics won't sign off on it so we're doing [12:48] the best we can but don't overlook the fact that is the war with iran that is driving up gasoline costs [12:54] and energy costs almost double of what they were in the past geet diesel is now double what it was [13:00] that is a real cost of energy that people are dealing with and it was so unnecessary and my [13:05] opponent supports exactly what donald trump did with that war will you raise income taxes many of [13:10] your progressive allies can i respond to that first sure i'd like to respond to the utility bill issue [13:16] because that's probably one of the most prevalent issues that we have here in new york uh kathy donald trump [13:23] didn't raise utility rates 48 times you did donald trump didn't increase our utility bills by 50 percent [13:32] since you've become governor you gave 150 back to people in a rebate in an election year right before [13:40] the election when you've raised the average bill four thousand dollars a year and your own energy [13:47] research department says your policies will raise it another four thousand dollars in the next five [13:53] years time it's out of control and it's because of you kathy you know it you know it drives up energy [13:58] prices in addition to donald trump's war that you support his vision for energy across the state of [14:06] new york now get this he supports the hyperscale data centers that consume enormous amounts of energy [14:12] his picture what he wants to see upstate he wants oil and gas rigs everywhere he wants fossil fuel [14:18] generating factories spewing smoke everywhere and he wants data centers using our private our rare [14:24] farmland that's his vision for how to create more energy new york is ought to hear that we're going [14:29] on for the hills you know that's a fiction that's not my policies but we are sitting on one of the [14:34] largest natural gas reserves in the world and you won't let us extract that natural gas in pennsylvania [14:41] a democrat governor josh shapiro allows it and that's why their energy costs are more than half of what ours [14:47] are they have prosperity on the pennsylvania side of the border people who are driving around in brand [14:52] new cadillac escalades and on the new york side of the border they're driving around in 25 year old [14:57] rusted out pickup trucks because of your policies and i'll talk about data centers later if you'd like [15:02] no let's talk about it now because you call you called my moratorium crazy donald trump says it's only [15:08] for dumb poor people would support that are you support what donald trump said there's well dumb poor [15:14] people you said that all the haters weren't sophisticated we are going to be getting [15:18] important decisions they are but they need to have support we are going to be getting to data [15:22] centers i need to ask you mr blakeman you've attacked the governor over energy policy but you haven't [15:28] provided any details of how you intend to cut utility bills in half how can that be achieved without [15:35] hurting reliability or blowing a hole in local government budgets that utility tax that tax utility [15:42] investments i've said it many times so i'll repeat it when you look at your energy bill get your energy [15:48] bill out tonight only about 30 percent of your payment actually goes for energy the rest goes for taxes [15:56] yes kathy hochel taxes your energy bill as well and excessive delivery costs that are merely trying to [16:04] masquerade rate hikes and her slush fund where she collects money every month from you billions of [16:13] dollars and invests in science projects like wind turbines in the middle of the ocean or solar farms [16:20] in upstate new york that are taking away our rich farmland which by the way are covered under snow [16:25] three months out of the year it's very expensive she's paying billions of dollars to foreign corporations [16:31] for these and guess what that's why we're in an energy crisis i would extract the natural gas from the [16:37] marcella shale we'll get rid of that green energy scam of kathy hochel and i will cut your utility bills [16:43] in half just like they did in pennsylvania actually just like donald trump said he would do on day one [16:48] so donald trump promises he promised to cut energy costs he promised to cut down grocery costs and you [16:55] know what everything has happened under your friend donald trump who you are the president of the of the fan [17:01] club for donald trump it's absurd how adoring you are of him my gosh well what he has done is raised [17:07] gasoline prices and energy prices and and the cost of terrorists have driven up everything in the [17:13] state you bought groceries lately my god the people are suffering and that didn't have to be the case [17:19] why are we at war with the rest of the world so you like to talk about donald trump all the time [17:24] because you don't want to talk about your record i'm talking about my record right now it's a record of [17:29] misery and failure candidate the highest taxes utility rates that are 70 percent higher than [17:34] the national average but let me say something about donald trump donald trump's my friend he's [17:39] endorsed me but so has bonnie lautenberg a liberal democrat whose husband frank served in the united [17:45] states senate and was a pillar of the democratic party actor deborah messing who's a liberal democrat [17:51] who supports because she trusts me to make safer communities improve the quality of life here in new [17:56] york you've got two votes good for you okay let's let's move on candidates i want to talk about [18:00] another kind of tax which is uh tariffs and i'll start with you mr blakeman the latest round of [18:05] tariffs on canada have increased costs for fertilizer steel and lumber the trump administration points [18:11] to a trade imbalance with canada but what would you say if elected to upstate farmers who are having [18:16] a tough time making ends meet and to upstate tourist attractions that have seen a 21 percent drop in [18:21] tourism from canada so what i would say to upstate farmers is the following every time i go upstate [18:29] and talk to farmers all they complain about is kathy hochel's over regulation her her rules her silly [18:37] rules that she has that doesn't apply to agriculture to one of the biggest businesses that we have in new [18:43] york state the fact of the matter is the reason why we're failing in new york state is not because of [18:48] donald trump and his tariffs it's because of governor hochel think about it we're number 50 out of 50 [18:55] states in economic outlook it doesn't get worse than that there's only 50 states in the country [19:00] donald trump wasn't responsible for that if that were the case every state would be number 50 but we're [19:06] dead last because people aren't investing in new york because they don't have confidence in the policies [19:12] of kathy hochel we're overtaxed our utility bills are too high we're over regulated and she puts [19:18] priorities on illegal migrants over the families here of new york state we have the fastest growing [19:25] economy in the united states of america here in new york fastest growing economy we are exploding but [19:32] you know one area that is being hurt so hard they're hard-working farmers they get up every single day [19:38] providing food security for all of us and you know what they're dealing with i've done a lot of round [19:43] tables they cannot believe that their president maybe they support him that one time and no longer [19:48] because the costs of tariffs have made life so impossible that they're ready to close shop [19:53] five generations have survived and under donald trump with the tariffs the cost of everything from [20:00] fertilizers to as you mentioned aluminum the wood shavings that go in the stalls for the animals [20:05] before before that was it didn't have to happen before president trump even put the tariffs in [20:12] place farmers have been complaining about your policies that make it harder for agriculture in [20:20] our state no they're actually over regulated and let me ask you a question then how come they're [20:26] complaining why is it that every place i go in upstate new york they're telling me that it's harder [20:32] and harder to do business why are they putting solar farms on their precious agricultural property rich [20:40] farmland because they can't afford to do business in new york they started doing that before president [20:46] trump became president it's because of your policies that are ruining agriculture i brought the [20:52] largest dairy processing facility in north america the dairy farmers are thrilled talk to a dairy farmer [20:58] they were struggling so hard and i brought that we've helped chobani expand we are using so much of our [21:05] our our one of our greatest commodities milk and i've made life easier for them because they know i [21:09] not they now have an outlet for their products but what has made life so hard is the fact that the [21:15] raids on the farms taking away their workers in fact talk to mr old mcdonald's farm a big republican [21:21] in the north country who called me looking for help when ice raid the farm at 6 a.m on a saturday [21:28] and took a third grader and her mother and her son took them away threw them in detention a third [21:35] grader you know where the father was he was out milking cows because that's what you do on a farm [21:39] people are struggling from the cars the immigration policies yeah if you're doing so well for the dairy [21:45] farms how come it's a dollar more for a gallon of milk in new york's candidate let me let me just ask [21:50] one uh brief question for you um miss hochel and then we're going to move on uh canadian provinces have [21:56] been aggressively limiting u.s dairy imports including dairy from new york farmers if tariffs [22:02] aren't the answer what would be they're at war with us right now they cannot believe that their best [22:09] friend they cannot believe the best friend they've ever had the united states of america that always [22:13] had their back has now said they want to make them the 51st state the canadians are so insulted that [22:19] they're not buying our products they won't buy anything they're not buying the wine from our wineries [22:24] been up to an upstate winery lately talked to a farmer there talked to a grower that were they've [22:29] lost their their marketplace and it's all because of donald trump declaring war on one of our most loyal [22:36] allies who does that and we're all suffering because of that so that's what exactly what's going on the [22:41] tariffs if you would only end this tariffs tomorrow we could start seeing grocery prices start going [22:46] and the war with iran gas prices start coming down none of this has to be the way and you support [22:52] every single thing that donald trump does people should know that when they go in to vote on november [22:56] 3rd okay we're going to move on i have very significant policy differences with president trump [23:03] he's pro-life we actually choice we have to move on i believe in a guest worker program folks for [23:09] immigrants we have so many questions he hasn't killed the bill that would have provided i want to go to [23:15] a story that's been getting national news and we're going to start with um miss hochel the alleged gang [23:20] rape of a student at cornell university state attorney general letitia james is being criticized for [23:26] having made statements that suggest she's already prejudged the case you have also made statements that [23:32] sound like you have prejudged the case including saying quote this woman this young woman had already [23:37] endured something that is utterly unspeakable what do you say to legal experts who say james's statements [23:45] could jeopardize the investigation as appearing impartial is that for me yes listen i'm a mom i've [23:53] dropped a daughter off at a college campus there should not be a culture that allows for a young [23:59] woman to be so brutally attacked and on a fraternity and then literally have the courage to go ask for [24:05] help from law enforcement you know how difficult it is for a victim to have to tell her story to strangers [24:11] but she did it and also the evidence seemed very clear and i'm not i'm not prosecuting this case [24:16] seemed very clear that the the boys in the fraternity were trying to cover up what they had done a lot [24:21] of acknowledgements a lot of texts that were coming up so i said this i want there to be an independent [24:25] investigation that's underway but also when it became clear to me that the district attorney had [24:31] already denied that the opportunity to interview this young woman i come from a family of prosecutors [24:37] you should know enough to interview a victim of a crime and not just dismiss it that's why the law [24:42] says the governor may have shall appoint the governor shall appoint the attorney general in cases of [24:48] special prosecutions the attorney general can speak for herself on her tweet time thank you so so [24:54] mr blakeman i i want to just can i just respond to that for a moment my question is basically uh letting [24:59] you follow up and that is a put there is a push to expand the voluntary intoxication standard in the law [25:05] do you support closing that law and and how would you have approached this case if you were governor [25:12] so first of all i absolutely do support that as a father as a grandfather first of all if someone [25:22] is intoxicated maybe they're not unconscious but if they're slurring their words and they're stumbling [25:29] you shouldn't engage in relations because i'm not sure that person has the capacity to consent so i am [25:37] for closing that loophole i want to make it harder and more stringent our laws about guys who would date [25:45] rape women by giving them roofies in bars i think we need to strengthen those laws kathy hochel has already [25:51] preached judge this case but what i have to say to you kathy is as follows where were you what did you do [25:59] you were the trustee of cornell university you were the governor of the state you fund cornell [26:04] university to the tune of 150 million dollars a year they're a partner of the state of new york [26:10] and as a trustee and as governor you didn't call for an independent investigation when you found out [26:16] that the district attorney was dropping the case thank you shame on you i did you know that's pretty [26:21] pathetic to blame me for what happened in a fraternity my gosh no i'm blaming you for the investigation [26:27] afterwards you deny that you were a trustee there the university failed that young woman [26:34] are you a member of the board we're gonna we're gonna move on to our cross examination and then [26:39] lightning round we have so many so it is time for the cross examination that's when each of you gets [26:43] to ask your adversary one question and then listen to the answer uh we'll let you go first mr blakeman so [26:51] governor holcomb under your sanctuary policies a 14 year old girl was raped recently here in new york [27:01] state by an illegal migrant four irondequat residents were killed recently by an illegal migrant two of [27:10] those victims were children under the age of five two nassau county women in their 30s were killed by an [27:19] illegal migrant because of your sanctuary policies will you apologize to that 14 year old girl whose [27:27] life is forever changed and her family and the families of those who were killed the ones that'll never [27:34] get to sit in another thanksgiving dinner never be able to open their presence on their christmas tree [27:40] will you apologize to them and will you please return sheridan gorman's parents calls to talk to you [27:47] about your sanctuary policy you know any crime is heartbreaking there's a family left with a huge [27:59] hole in their heart and i abhor all crimes regardless of the perpetrator victims deserve our sympathy they [28:07] deserve our compassion and that's why i've laser focused on making new york so much more safer than it [28:13] had been before i have spent four billion dollars to help law enforcement do their jobs we have driven down [28:20] crime to historic lows especially violent crimes like shootings and murders and that didn't come [28:26] easy that took a lot of work i've had to change laws i've had to allocate more money but when you're [28:32] talking about ice what i find so shocking is that when an american mother was murdered by ice agents you [28:42] said that her killing was justified the killing of renee good was justified and when asked about alex [28:50] pretty another american citizen killed by ice whether that was justified you couldn't even answer [28:57] the question so i find those answers just reprehensible so you won't apologize i apologize for [29:06] any pain that has happened to anyone you won't call sheridan gorman's parents that's the question and [29:13] that's the answer and now um miss hochel you have a question for bruce blakeman yes i do just four [29:21] four days ago you stood on a stage screaming at the top of your lungs we love donald trump you've also [29:29] said he's the greatest president of your lifetime now which is it that makes him so great is it the [29:34] high utility costs the high grocery costs the high gas costs is it his unfettered use of ice terrorizing [29:43] our neighborhoods is it is throwing millions of new yorkers off of health care which is it that makes him [29:49] the greatest president in your opinion which you have said so many times yeah well at a rally um as [29:55] you know it's a cheering section and you say things to get the crowd worked up and i think donald [30:01] trump deserves accolades for many of the things that he's done obviously there are some disagreements [30:08] in new york state with some of his policies but i've differed with donald trump on various [30:14] policies policies as i said he's pro-life i'm pro-choice that's a big difference in the republican [30:20] party i stood up for what i believed in immigration policy i believe that if you are an immigrant and [30:26] you've been in this state seven eight nine ten years you haven't gotten in trouble you're gainfully [30:32] employed we should have a guest worker permit for you i believe in a guest worker permit program but you [30:41] know there's two like two years left in donald trump's uh tenure in office and um i hope to see [30:49] great things like stopping iran from getting a nuclear weapon that threatens new york and all new [30:54] yorkers and i also look forward to the fact that hopefully we will get gas prices down but you created [31:03] the economic issues that have made us last in economic outlook kathy hochel not donald trump okay [31:09] kind of agrees that donald trump is the greatest president's lifetime i didn't hear anything [31:12] disputing well you know what let me let me say this in retrospect i would say that dwight d eisenhower [31:18] was the greatest president but donald trump has two more years so let's see where it goes terms not over [31:23] well heaven help us we're gonna go to a lightning round now yeah okay um will you reopen indian point [31:30] nuclear power plant gathy oakland i'm bringing nuclear to new york state at a scale this country has not seen [31:35] in 30 years bruce blakeman i'm just waiting for approval and i can do it i have eight communities [31:40] that want it i have eight communities that want to host it i'm ready to go i'm just waiting for [31:44] washington to green light it yes or no or short answer bruce blakeman will you reopen indian point [31:49] i believe we should open indian point i believe we should open up the other power plants that kathy [31:55] hochel is closed i believe we should extract natural gas from the marcellus shale more energy [32:00] increases the supply and lowers your costs mr blakeman have you ever used a mail-in ballot [32:06] not to my knowledge this local i don't remember uh absentee when i was out of the area but i don't [32:16] think it was melon i like to go in person i really like to exercise my right to vote in person miss [32:21] hochel should the state label at least one bathroom in the capital complex as gender neutral yes bruce [32:30] blakeman well first of all i don't believe that biological males should use women's bathrooms and [32:37] locker rooms so that i believe that biological males should not be competing in women's sports [32:42] we have to protect the integrity of women's sports and the safety of women's sports mr blakeman if you [32:47] could reverse one action that you've taken as an elected official what would it be one action that [32:53] i've taken you know it's hard to say right now but you know nobody's perfect and hindsight's always [33:02] 2020. i'm sure i've made a mistake here and there throughout the years um i rely on good people [33:09] for advice and okay when it's time to make the decision i make the decision hopefully it's right [33:14] i do it in the best interest of the people of my county let me help you raising taxes not once but [33:20] twice in your county of the highest taxes oh my god we're going to talk about 1998 kathy let's talk [33:25] about history kathy you were pro nra now you're against guns you wanted to give illegal migrants [33:32] you didn't want to give illegal migrants driver's licenses i think we should move on the county clerk [33:36] now you're giving it to them highest property tax you're going to talk about something i did 28 years [33:40] ago i will admit i made a mistake kathy hokal won't but i'll admit i made a mistake almost the highest in [33:47] the country for as mayor as county clerk as member of congress as lieutenant governor if you could reverse [33:52] one action you've taken as an elected official as governor what would it be i would say this i wish [33:57] i had not uh i wish i had fought harder to get more housing built in my first year i had to come [34:03] back the next year it was difficult i overcame a lot of opposition but when you find out that bruce [34:09] blakeman's county nassau county is listed as the lowest number of housing units almost in america being [34:15] built no wonder he brags about the fact that the average housing price or the median housing price is [34:21] nine hundred thousand dollars talk about lack of affordability so my property taxes can't afford [34:25] to buy money can i respond to that i reject i wish i had been able to fight i would love to respond to [34:31] that go so you're faulting me if you bought a house four years ago in nassau county for six hundred [34:37] thousand dollars it's now worth eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars because of my policies [34:42] i have created a quarter of million dollars in wealth for you and your families kathy hokal wants to [34:48] take that away with taxes i'm proud of the fact that i created that wealth for your family okay [34:53] family trying to get a home in nassau county i guess if you don't have nine hundred thousand dollars [34:57] you're out of luck candidates we're going to move on the rise of artificial intelligence is [35:00] transforming the global economy it has galvanized an international debate over how to use the technology [35:06] who will benefit and who will pay the cost i'll start with you ms hokal you were the first to issue a [35:12] moratorium on data center facilities with other governors from both parties following suit [35:17] lawmakers are now urging you to take it a step further and sign a moratorium bill that would [35:21] impact existing data centers the question is will you sign that legislation why or why not you know [35:27] my policy i know you try nice try i don't say what i'm going to do before i have a chance to evaluate [35:32] the bills i get over 800 bills on my desk but i am proud that we are first in the nation with the [35:37] moratorium for one year on data centers i am going to make sure that if they come here and the host [35:43] community wants them that number one that community gets substantial benefits billions of dollars that [35:50] they should get for every megawatt of power used and they have to bring their own power they also have [35:56] to find ways to reduce the noise and and manage the water situation so if they do come and it's up to [36:01] the localities i wanted them to have a community framework but we didn't have enough power we have 30 [36:07] applications in front of us right now if we approved all of them we wouldn't be able to turn on the lights [36:12] in new york and so i'm trying to have a smart policy we are pro technology pro innovation that's why more [36:19] tech companies have come to new york state than in recent history than they ever have we actually [36:25] surpassed silicon valley in san francisco for the most number of tech jobs so we know how to embrace [36:30] technology take a strong look at the impact of those who are going to be displaced by technology i [36:36] have a commission studying how we can help people with my free community college be able to have new [36:41] jobs but also saying data centers no and also brookhaven tana brookhaven and islip okay they have [36:49] moratoriums now let's let yeah respond you can respond first of all when you say you don't say what [36:54] you're going to do before you do it you say what you're going to do and then you don't do it you said [36:59] we weren't going to have congestion pricing then we had congestion pricing so uh you did a complete u-turn [37:05] there that's just the tax on the middle class but let me talk about data centers you put a ban in [37:10] because you said that you needed time to figure it out what have you been doing for the last four [37:14] years this is the fastest growing industry in the world water supply is an issue energy is an issue [37:20] tax stabilization is an issue why didn't you get all the the stakeholders in the same room and figure it [37:26] out instead of saying no to the fastest growing industry in the world that's why we're number 50 in [37:31] economic outlook that's why thousands of people are leaving our state that's why thousands of jobs are [37:36] leaving our state each and every day i want all of you out there to hear this he said that my one [37:45] year pause my moratorium on data centers was crazy he supports donald trump who said only poor dumb [37:53] people support posing that opposing this i want to say i've traveled all of new york state there's a high [37:59] level of anxiety about what these hyperscale massive data centers will do i know it fits into your vision [38:04] for upstate new york because you also want oil rigs and and gas rigs all over new york to drill your [38:11] oil that's complete your gas you want to see data centers there you want smoke kathy that's [38:16] smoke stacks everywhere i've seen that world we don't want to go back with respect with respect to upstate [38:23] people you took their right away to make decisions about data centers you took that right away with the [38:29] ban and then you said that upstaters weren't sophisticated enough to make important choices [38:36] let me tell you something about upstaters because i've been traveling all around upstate and you [38:41] forgot where you came from they have something you don't have common sense and good judgment mr blakeman [38:46] though let me ask not all counties are as large or as well funded as nassau what about some of the [38:53] smaller counties that need to negotiate with some of these multi-billion dollar tech giants well i'll tell [38:59] you i've spoken to a lot of upstate local officials and i can tell you and i can assure you that they [39:06] are pretty sharp look don't minimize what new yorkers are capable of doing just because they come from [39:14] a small town i think that's a bias just like kathy hochel said the black kids in the bronx don't know [39:20] what a computer is do you even know that in your schools kathy hochel that you fund that in sixth grade [39:27] they get computers in the classroom they know more about computers than you'll ever know let let's [39:32] let's uh i've got another ai related question for both of you uh artificial intelligence is being used [39:38] in this campaign especially by you mr blakeman in political ads should there be stricter regulation of [39:44] how ai is used in ads in order to ensure that they're not misleading i'll start with you mr blake [39:50] well we do have a disclaimer on our ads that said we use ai and look ai is just another tool i mean i [39:59] guess you know we can go back to using a buggy whip and drive it around and you know horse-drawn [40:04] buggies and get rid of cars although kathy hochel wants to get rid of gas cars and make everybody drive [40:09] electric cars but the fact of the matter is that as far as i'm concerned i believe in the ingenuity of [40:16] new yorkers my trust is in new yorkers to make those important decisions um miss hopeful do we [40:25] need additional regulation on how ai is used in ads yes uh just look at what he did this summer he has so [40:34] little to say about me on my record that he literally has to go to an ai generated ad to say [40:40] something bad about me and he's trying to mislead the voters and i think this is so pathetic it is so [40:46] trump trumpian in fact let's let's let's well you're the one who says he's the greatest president [40:51] you love him so you those are you blame him for everything that you've done in the state to make us [40:56] number 15 economic outlook the highest i'm sorry to interrupt go ahead back to the question that we were [41:02] asked my apology no we should not have ai generated as i had a bill in in the legislature that said within [41:09] 90 days of an election that you should not even just have your tiny little disclaimer that nobody sees [41:15] you should just not use it i'm going to revisit that because i believe in election integrity i don't [41:21] believe we should be having stolen elections or paling around with q anon conspiracy theorists or [41:28] election deniers and white supremacist me like my opponent does he pals around with all these people [41:33] that's why he's no trouble lying in ads shame on you calling me palling around with white supremacist [41:38] oh i never went around with white supremacist okay i'm offended by that okay let's let's talk about [41:46] your record i'll give you what you said of black about black kids in the bronx you know what candidate [41:50] that was reprehensible wait we're going to move on to to something we we definitely need to talk about [41:54] which is public safety by multiple measures crime in our state has fallen to the lowest level in decades [41:59] new york city recently experienced its safest summer on record for shooting incidents shooting victims and [42:05] murders of course other forms of crime and disorder including auto theft assaults and hate crimes have [42:10] remained stubbornly high what's the solution what do you think uh is working and what isn't working [42:17] and let's start with you mr blakeman well first of all she'll never give donald trump any any accolades [42:24] for sealing our borders maybe that's why the shootings are down maybe that's why all the fentanyl deaths [42:30] are down not by anything that you did but let me say this about crime if you walk into any cvs or [42:38] walgreens and you want to buy a bottle of shampoo in kathy hochel's world you got to ring a buzzer [42:45] a store clerk has to come out unlock a glass door for you to buy a bottle of shampoo in new york state [42:53] it's because we have a revolving door of criminality cashless bail raise the age the whole deck [42:58] and you talk about militias you're the only one on this stage that has a militia you have two the [43:03] national guard and the state guard and you have the national guard at the cost of a billion dollars [43:08] a year to the taxpayers because you fired corrections officers who said these prisons now are not only [43:15] safe for corrections officers they're not safe for the prisoners and you fired them and put the national [43:20] guard in there you're the one that used the militia not me do people know that his crime fighting [43:26] strategy for nassau county is his own personal mega militia which has family members his republican [43:35] donors and some people are crazy enough that they literally bring a loaded gun to jfk airport and he [43:42] also doesn't fight for himself he doesn't stand to donald trump ever you'll never see that because [43:47] donald trump took away a million dollars in public safety money intended to go for police and fire [43:53] and you didn't say a word about it you didn't criticize donald trump i stood up i was able to [43:58] fight with donald trump as i had many times a lot of wins i had to get a hundred million [44:03] dollars back to help fund our police and our fire you don't even have the spine to stand up to [44:08] donald trump so they're taking money from your own county i do not have a militia only you have [44:14] a militia and by the way they're good people they don't want to be in the jails they don't want [44:18] to be in the prisons they're not trained to do that but when you talk about donald trump donald trump [44:23] donald trump that's all you can talk about because you have a record of failure and misery [44:29] for the people who live in this state let me let me i did not wrap myself in the shroud of donald [44:33] trump the way you did no you wrap it in zoran mandami who donald trump actually thinks is a great [44:39] mayor let's get miss hochel on the the question on the table which is uh we have so i do consider [44:43] going down some that are not what what do you think is working what's not working what can people [44:48] expect if you are elected you know we have gotten 26 000 guns off the streets whenever [44:53] became governor was gun crime that was skyrocketing so we tackled that uh retail theft i passed i gave [44:59] millions of dollars to our district attorneys to change the laws and give them what they need to be [45:04] able to reduce those crimes those crimes are going down auto theft was going up as well as the stage car [45:10] crashes i literally just changed the laws taking on some really difficult interests in albany and i came [45:16] out on top because i said there's no reason why new yorkers should pay the highest auto insurance [45:21] premiums in the nation our drivers aren't any worse so what i did was i stood up i changed the law and [45:27] you'll start to see a large number of cases being brought by prosecutors that were funding stopping [45:33] those stage car crashes that are driving up costs well whatever the issue is when it pops up we go at [45:38] it i'm not done with solving crime it's never going to be solved i've made a huge difference though going [45:43] from a from a time when we had the highest crime rates the escalation was off the charts to some of the [45:50] the lowest crime rates we've had in modern history and i'm proud of that we're going to move on to [45:54] prison safety i think i'm sorry mr blakeman we're going to talk about that prison say let me just [45:58] let me just respond since thousands of correctional monitor that's pretty bad for one minute we we don't [46:04] have time she said she said a lot of 19 months since thousands of correction officers returned to work [46:10] after a three-week illegal strike despite an ongoing recruitment campaign there are fewer corrections [46:16] officers that at this time one year ago that's a 56 percent vacancy rate among prison workers meanwhile [46:23] there are national guard troops working in our prisons costing taxpayers a billion dollars since the [46:28] strike what do you say to explain this failure to attract workers and was it a mistake to fire the [46:35] striking workers when someone who's charged and took an oath of office to protect people inside a [46:43] facility engages in a wildcat illegal strike and walks off the job leaving other guards other health [46:54] care workers and people in the kitchen and the incarcerated population leaving them alone literally [47:00] jeopardizing the safety of an entire community they walked out the door and shut it what do you want [47:06] me to do i sure as hell will fire them i would say you violated the law shame on you and we can resolve [47:12] all the problems that you have but i think a lot of it had to do with the fact that there have been a lot [47:17] of public outcry and attention the fact that that very week that very day that they walked out there [47:22] were supposed to be indictments on a number of them for the murder of an incarcerated individual [47:27] they were trying to deflect and yes there are challenges and we're trying hard to recruit more [47:32] people i've changed the age i've i've launched an aggressive program to make it easier to take the test [47:39] to go into our communities going to churches time and all over the state trying to get more people [47:43] to do it but in the meantime i will make you leave our populations unprotected the way he would do it [47:49] i have the same question for her as well you took an oath as well to support the constitution of the [47:55] united states and you violated federal laws on and on again you are paying illegal migrants with our [48:02] taxpayer money eight billion dollars for free food free housing free transportation a free cell phone [48:08] they get more than we do and think about this if you get out of work if you're laid off if you're [48:14] fired and you want to get unemployment you get less benefits as a new yorker than the eighty one [48:21] thousand dollars of your taxpayer money that kathy hochel spends so each year on illegal migrants [48:27] in our state i will end our sanctuary state status on day one as governor the topic on the table is [48:33] prisons and how would you handle an illegal strike on your watch and and how would you bolster [48:38] recruitment well first of all there never would have been a strike had i been governor everybody [48:45] strikes under kathy hochel the nurses strike the railroad workers strike because she won't sit at [48:50] the table and talk about issues that are important to the workers here in new york state [48:55] she is the most anti-union governor in the history of the state of new york she brought in nurses from [49:02] out of state our nurses our new york nurses were saying that there wasn't enough coverage to take care [49:09] of the patients so they went on strike you bought in out of state workers to break that strike line [49:16] the long island railroad they went on strike time and time again you have failed to engage the [49:25] people that work for you this corrections officer strike never should have happened you should have [49:32] listened to them and by the way it's not just the corrections officers the prisoners are complaining [49:37] now that it's unsafe under your policies of having violent criminals engaged with people in the general [49:44] population 30 seconds for hopeful and then we're moving on i have the most pro-labor record of any [49:50] governor in decades and they know that that's why i have the endorsements of all the major unions [49:56] they know i stand up and fight like hell for them to make sure they have the conditions they deserve and [50:01] they and the benefits they deserve and they know i have their back as someone who's worked with union [50:06] workers my entire life when you bring up something like the nurses i stay with the nurses i know how [50:11] hard they work but you would say that's better when nurses are striking out front as they're allowed [50:16] legally to do that i shouldn't make sure that there's someone standing at the bed of someone who's [50:21] sick and dying that i should just leave them alone i had no choice i'll always stand up with new [50:27] yorkers if i had to bring someone from somewhere else i'm sorry i did not want to do that but i said [50:32] i cannot jeopardize the safety governor and the health of our residents as governor i would [50:37] have gotten actively engaged in the negotiations to make sure there was no strike that's what [50:43] leaders do we're going to be threatened to fire 10 000 people on christmas eve in your county [50:48] have great relations with your county i never made such a threat mr blakeman audio obtained by the [50:53] new york times check my social media my instagram page we will document that that never happened [50:58] audio obtained by the new york times shows you mr blakeman told attendees at a hasidic event [51:04] that quote if there is rioting here if they're burning down yeshivas in your shuls [51:09] and burning down your house and raping your women you think zoron mom donnie is going to stop them [51:15] first of all who exactly were you referring to the they and do you stand by those remarks so first of [51:22] all they are the professional protesters that took over columbia university that blocked our bridges [51:29] and our roadways with the lawlessness that took place while kathy hochel wouldn't protect jewish [51:34] students at columbia university jews who are being attacked all around our state zoran mandami is [51:41] an anti-semite the first thing he did as mayor with all the issues that face new york city the first [51:48] thing he did was sign an executive order to water down the definition of anti-semitism shame on you [51:55] mayor you are campaigning around the state with a guy who doesn't believe in american values he talks [52:02] about collectivism that means you take personal property rights away you take other people's property [52:08] rights this is a guy that's anti-christian couldn't find an hour out of his day to attend the installation [52:15] of a new archbishop here in new york city the biggest religion in the city of new york look if [52:21] you want to campaign with him that's fine but i will tell you right now i think zoran mandami is an [52:26] anti-semite i believe he's anti-christian and i don't think he has american values i'm actually [52:31] going to answer your question since you asked about the conversation he had at a secret meeting [52:37] where he basically said that nypd on the leadership of jessica tish would not respond to this neighborhood [52:46] if there were women being raped and people being murdered and riots in the streets he didn't said [52:51] he would not trust them to show up i stand with the men and women in blue every day of the week [52:56] i know how hard they work they put their lives on the line and i support the leadership of jessica tish [53:01] but for you to say that they would stand down is just insulting all those men and women first of [53:06] all let's put it let's call it the way it is i'm talking about political leaders getting involved [53:12] in law enforcement when they shouldn't be like what happened under david dinkins when he waited three [53:18] days before he stopped the rioting in crown heights i have a lot of confidence in jessica tish [53:24] as a matter of fact if there's a compliment i could give to zoran mandami it's in keeping her [53:30] as the police commissioner but let's be clear let's move on anti-semitism is on the rise and [53:35] it's occurred under your watch and zoran mandami is fueling it okay candidates we're coming down the [53:41] home stretch just a few minutes left i wanted to ask this to both of you medicaid makes up about a [53:46] third of the state budget under the five budgets enacted since you became governor miss hochel the [53:52] state's share of medicaid has grown by about 21 billion dollars which is four times the rate of [53:56] inflation with no major expansion of benefits uh it seems unsustainable but the question is if uh if [54:04] we're not if we're going to continue down this road what will you cut what will how will we make that [54:10] budget work no i've already had to look at this and much of it is set by formula we find out the [54:16] beginning of the year what we're required to do with that being said i went after and found a program [54:21] where i cut out the first year one billion dollars worst of abuse uh that was being ignored for many [54:30] people before my time and we fought back and now those savings are up to two billion dollars but i'll [54:35] tell you what i would not do i'll continue focusing on this but my opponent said he'll cut medicaid in [54:41] half now to do that i want to know which hospitals you're shutting down which nursing homes you're going [54:47] going to shut down and where grandma's going to go when she has nowhere to stay and you're going to [54:51] throw more people off of health insurance that's your vision for new york it is certainly not mine [54:57] we'll manage our costs we've been able to do this without having to raise any income taxes i'm that's [55:02] called good fiscal stewardship the fact that i can do all this find out some fraud and waste we've [55:08] eliminated it we have more to go but also by not raising taxes is something that we're going to continue [55:14] doing let me be clear i never said that i would cut medicaid in half what i did say is that the [55:22] medicaid costs to the taxpayers of new york state are more than texas and florida combined there are [55:31] five million people who are eligible for medicaid and deserve it and deserve better services and more [55:38] quality services but eight million people three million more are getting benefits how do you explain [55:44] the fact that five million people are eligible and eight million people are getting benefits that's [55:50] why our costs are out of control okay candidates um we have time for a short lightning round before [55:56] we conclude and um i'll start with you mr blakeman should the dangers of artificial intelligence be [56:02] treated like any other form of product liability well i think yes i think basically if any kind of injury [56:11] to the public occurs and it's because of the negligence or the hazards of a business doing business that [56:19] people have a right to be compensated for that as it is with any other industry okay miss hochel we have [56:26] passed one of the strongest laws in the nation called the rays act to deal with uh critical incidences [56:33] that could occur because of ai going unfettered or out of control so we are nation leading once again i'm [56:39] proud of that but this technology is evolving so quickly that we have to be laser focused which is [56:44] why i set up an entire office and hired the best in the nation to staff this to make sure that we we [56:50] manage this the best way we can but there have to be consequences that's why those companies are on [56:55] notice you operate in new york state we have laws to protect our children and our residents so would you [57:02] are you going to raise income taxes governor hochel no i'm going to cut income taxes our state budget is [57:10] twice the size of the state of florida and there's four million more people in florida short question [57:15] that's because of the fraud waste and abuse under the hochel administration thank you i will cut your [57:21] taxes i've cut middle class tax rates the lowest it's been in 70 years going up eight billion dollars [57:26] i've cut the little class tax rates the lowest it's been in 70 years mr blakeman going up eight billion [57:32] dollars since you've been governor mr blakeman new york one is going to my social media i have the [57:37] facts and the documents to back that up mayor mumdani and the city council mr blakeman have reached a [57:42] deal to ban new york city's horse carriage industry after a series of safety incidents is that the right [57:47] move well you know i'm nostalgic for the horse-drawn carriages in in new york but i understand the issues [57:56] and we have to protect animal rights here in our state i'm a big supporter of that i've enacted laws for [58:01] animal rights but at the same time we also have to think of the consequences of the people who may [58:05] lose their jobs yes or no did you uh i i will look into it it just happened today but i'll look into [58:11] it but i think we have to have a balanced approach to it miss uncle you better let john sanderson know [58:16] your position and i support what they did okay all right candidates thanks very much that's going to [58:21] do it for tonight's debate i'd like to thank both candidates for joining us tonight and to all of you [58:26] at home for watching we'd also like to thank the new york state public campaign finance board for helping [58:30] ensure that this debate happened if you missed any part of tonight's broadcast or any of our [58:35] previous debates for state attorney general or state controller you can see them in their entirety [58:40] on our website and on our youtube channel and remember election day is three weeks from today [58:45] for the results that night we're going to bring you statewide coverage all night long and early [58:50] voting is set to begin across new york on saturday october 24th on behalf of spectrum news thank you so [58:56] much for watching and have a good night and welcome to spectrum news special statewide post-debate [59:37] coverage i'm your host bobby kusa we just watched governor kathy hochel and her republican [59:42] challenger nassau county executive bruce blakeman face off in their only televised debate in this race [59:49] and over the next half hour we will bring you some expert analysis and reaction and just in just a few [59:55] minutes we will hear directly from our debate moderators errol lewis and susan arbetter from [1:00:01] inside the studio where things just wrapped up but first we are going to check in with a couple [1:00:08] of our in-house experts state house reporter bernadette hogan is with me as is upstate political [1:00:14] reporter jack arpy joining me from albany and let's start with bernadette bernadette what stood out to [1:00:22] you most from tonight's debate well first of all bobby governor kathy hochel brought up pretty much at [1:00:29] every opportunity president donald trump continuing to tie bruce blakeman the republican candidate [1:00:35] to president trump and frankly everything that she sees is a big issue in the united states and [1:00:41] specifically for new yorkers from energy price pricing to ice involved the ice involved shooting [1:00:47] in marble hill just last week and she said that one of the reasons is because of bruce blakeman [1:00:53] blakeman's alliance and blakeman uh she criticized for refusing to also criticize the president but [1:00:59] also surprisingly it took almost 45 minutes for new york city mayors are on mom donnie's name to come [1:01:05] up of course that has been the continued criticism from blakeman and other republicans of governor [1:01:11] hochel that she has allied herself with uh the policies of the democratic socialist wing of the [1:01:17] democratic party but blakeman really didn't lay into her at all about that association up until the [1:01:23] very end as hochel continued to bring up the blakeman trump association finally blakeman said well listen [1:01:28] you are allied with mom donnie and you're trying to follow in his footsteps so bernadette let me ask you [1:01:35] about more about the the trump question because you know kathy hochel really continually uh really hammered [1:01:43] home that point talking about the close relationship between bruce blakeman and donald trump and then [1:01:49] his response to that is well you keep talking about donald trump because uh because of your failing [1:01:56] record uh but in some ways he also tried to create a little bit of distance with trump he said that they [1:02:02] have some very clear policy differences including the fact uh that he bruce blakeman is pro-choice while trump [1:02:09] is pro-life and he brought up a couple of other examples so uh there was some real push and pull [1:02:14] when it came to donald trump which kathy ochl obviously wants to make a centerpiece of this race [1:02:21] sure not just the governor but also democrats throughout the state and nationally uh the president [1:02:27] did appear on stage with blakeman in syracuse just last week and the president said listen i want all [1:02:32] my supporters to think that i'm on the ballot so they come out for republicans so there's a tact here as [1:02:37] well uh with not just midterm turnout but this gubernatorial debate blakeman tried to create [1:02:43] difference he mentioned that he is pro-life uh and excuse me he's pro-choice the president is pro-life [1:02:49] and he also said that there's still two years left in the president's term and he's waiting to give the [1:02:55] president a final grade now of course the governor in one of the lightning round questions or the q a [1:03:02] portion asked bruce blakeman whether or not he thinks certain policies by the president are favorable [1:03:09] and she of course couched it in a way where she says listen energy prices are up gas prices are up [1:03:15] ice's intervention not just in new york state but all across the nation do you agree with those [1:03:20] and blakeman of course ended up turning it out and said to her listen you don't want to talk about [1:03:25] your record that's why you continue to bring up president trump however bobby as you pointed out [1:03:30] uh you know there is definitely an association between trump and blakeman in new yorkers mind [1:03:36] but perhaps blakeman is trying to appeal to some independents who are not yet sold on the governor [1:03:42] and her record and trying to pick them off but again there's an overwhelming democratic uh enrollment [1:03:49] advantage that that party sees compared to republicans and the president's uh figures in other polls [1:03:56] previous or before this debate uh show him underwater in new york all right we're gonna check in with [1:04:01] our upstate political reporter jack arpey jack they covered a lot of ground today i mean everything [1:04:07] from uh from ice to energy prices agriculture upstate they talked about the uh alleged gang rape at [1:04:14] cornell university they talked about ai and crime uh a lot to talk about but what were your big [1:04:21] takeaways from the debate well i think it's hard for anybody's takeaway not to be as bernadette mentioned [1:04:27] the continuous uh mention of president donald trump midway through the debate it got to the point [1:04:32] where if you're keeping count for any reason it became very conspicuous that the governor [1:04:36] kept going back to that and to your point about all of the issues that were on the table one thing [1:04:40] that's very interesting about watching this governor is that she does have you know an interesting way [1:04:44] about of going about things she picks interesting fights and you know she does get things done you have [1:04:49] to wonder if there were certain things that she could have spent some of that time talking about to maybe [1:04:54] sway people by going into some of the the unusual fights that she may have picked with the democratic [1:04:59] legislature when it comes to crime or or things like that so much time ended up being spent talking [1:05:06] about president trump and not some of those other things and you know obviously uh a debate is meant [1:05:11] to be big picture it's meant to be punchy and so maybe people don't want to talk about the things [1:05:16] that are going on right here uh in the capitol halls that we see that might you know be a little bit [1:05:20] uh boring compared to some of uh the other things that that could be talked about but i do think [1:05:25] that so much of the governor's energy went into that trump conversation and not necessarily talking [1:05:31] about uh some of the things specifically that she's done of course she got into uh some of her [1:05:36] accomplishments especially when it comes to to crime towards the end but you know i was expecting [1:05:40] to hear a few more specifics from the governor i know you've done a lot of reporting uh on prisons [1:05:47] upstate there was obviously that strike by corrections officers and that came up tonight [1:05:52] uh it seemed like kathy hogan really doubled down on the decision uh to fire some of those workers [1:05:58] and then you heard bruce blakeman say that strike never would have happened uh if he was on the job [1:06:03] which kind of uh struck me as similar to some of the arguments that you heard from donald trump when [1:06:08] he was running for president saying uh you know some of these overseas conflicts wouldn't have [1:06:11] happened if he was in office uh what about that uh the debate over prisons what was your take on that [1:06:21] well one thing that's important to note is the governor did ultimately end up hiring back some of [1:06:24] those correction officers through a grievance process again probably not something uh that would [1:06:29] necessarily come up on the debate stage but aside from that aside from those reports around the uh [1:06:34] the machinations of actually going through that process the governor has stood very firm that that [1:06:38] was the correct direction to take this in to bring in the national guard to not bring back those [1:06:43] striking officers her point being that they put public safety at risk obviously blakeman's point [1:06:47] being and many other people that uh these national guard troops are not trained correction officers this [1:06:52] is not an appropriate role for them to be holding so certainly uh the governor has stood by that pretty [1:06:59] much the entire time but when it comes to blakeman's point it that's obviously easy to say when you're in a [1:07:03] debate running for governor and and not actually running the state's department of corrections [1:07:08] but it is true that uh new york state's prisons have been in crisis for a very long time and you [1:07:13] know the few months leading up to that strike and you know even governor kathy hochel's tenure [1:07:17] is not when that decline started and so it is you know very conceivable that a republican governor [1:07:22] could have uh faced a similar situation he was actually asked a few weeks ago uh here in albany if [1:07:28] you would support uh changing the taylor law which was uh you know what made that strike illegal and he said [1:07:34] that is something that he would consider but nevertheless it's hard when you look at new york's prison [1:07:39] system the broad degree of challenges that are that uh are being faced here that you know you can just [1:07:45] say that it wouldn't happen on his watch all right jack stand by we are going to check in with you again [1:07:51] later on in the show but right now i want to go to our spectrum news political director bob hart [1:07:56] who joins me now bob you have been through a lot of these debates been involved with directly and [1:08:02] watched a lot of these debates over the years what stood out to you from this one here tonight well [1:08:07] one of the things that jumped out at me was that i thought like like we heard about donald trump so [1:08:12] early on in the debate from kathy hochel that we were going to hear about zoran mamdani from bruce [1:08:18] blakeman and that took about 40 so or so minutes into the debate before he was he's sort of the [1:08:23] boogeyman in some republican circles but it wasn't it wasn't with the same force that we heard kathy [1:08:28] hochel talking about trump so much so that at one point bruce blakeman said trump trump trump like [1:08:33] almost like out of a sitcom so that was in terms of like political strategy the one thing that i was [1:08:38] surprised about um and then hochel really didn't speak in defense of the mayor she spoke out in defense [1:08:43] of of the mayor's police commissioner jessica tisch so those those are the two little things that jumped [1:08:48] out in terms of political attacks and counter attacks to me i mean they were just on the polar [1:08:53] opposite ends of so many issues i mean anybody tuning into the governor's race for the first [1:08:58] time tonight i think really got a sense for the divergent views of these two candidates i mean even [1:09:05] right off the top when uh when the moderators asked about ice uh and that incident of course last week [1:09:11] that shooting here in new york city uh where a dominican immigrant was shot while his five-year-old [1:09:17] sat in the back seat of the car you know bruce blakeman he didn't condemn uh the shooting but [1:09:24] he tried to turn it around on kathy hochel and said uh it's sanctuary uh sanctuary state policies [1:09:31] that sort of got us into this type of situation in the first place and he defended the fact that in [1:09:36] nassau county they have actually cooperated with ice so right from the top you saw the differences [1:09:43] between these two candidates yeah blakeman didn't really address address the nuts and bolts of that [1:09:47] case last week at all and wanted to make the the topic broader and talk about the whole issue like you [1:09:53] pointed out whereas the governor did want to talk about the issue and pointed out uh hey there was a [1:09:58] five-year-old kid in the car and and this isn't the way policing should be done so i they were talking [1:10:04] past each other on this issue and to your earlier point i agree with you that when you hear people say [1:10:09] oh politicians are the same i'd say watch this debate right there are two very different visions [1:10:13] of new york state that you heard from the two candidates and uh at times i almost felt like they [1:10:19] were two trains running on two different tracks once in a while they'd be interacting but it was almost [1:10:24] like two monologues and that's because when you're preparing for a debate you have your stock lines and [1:10:28] your stock responses but there was great interaction with them uh and at times it was very fiery so much [1:10:33] so that susan and errol had to cut them off repeatedly yeah uh all right we are going to have to take a [1:10:38] quick break we will have a lot more analysis on the debate and we will check in with the debate [1:10:43] moderators errol lewis and susan are better in just two minutes stay with us the story at mornings on [1:11:17] one we're dedicated to bringing you the stories that matter most to start your day with in-depth [1:11:23] coverage of the day's news i'm pat kernan here are the stories we're following and weather updates [1:11:27] every 10 minutes tomorrow's the morning sunshine possible clouds take over it's our responsibility to get [1:11:33] you the information you need before you head out the door mornings on one weekdays starting at six [1:11:39] on the spectrum news app free for spectrum and xfinity customers spectrum business delivers commitment [1:11:45] with every connection now offering fast reliable internet for 50 a month in austin this gym saves big [1:11:52] with award-winning service and at this stem class in rochester this deal fuels big ideas with internet 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[1:13:26] back you just heard uh some an exchange from tonight's debate between kathy hokal and bruce blakeman [1:13:32] that took place right here at new york one studios in new york city and joining me now to tell us [1:13:36] how things felt from inside the studio are our debate moderators errol lewis and susan are better and [1:13:43] errol i'll start with you how did things feel having a front row seat it seemed like it was uh contentious [1:13:50] but not necessarily uh too personal or nasty that's right it was contentious but these are both [1:13:57] professional uh politicians both of them have served in a number of different positions before [1:14:04] he became nassau county executive bruce blakeman was a member of the board of the port authority but [1:14:09] he had been a county legislator for a long long time out in nassau county and of course uh governor [1:14:15] hochel had been lieutenant governor and had been a member of congress and had been the erie county [1:14:19] clerk and had been a mayor of a town called hamburg uh this is her i think 16th election so uh they [1:14:25] they debated the way we often like to see candidates debate which is we give them the rules and the rules [1:14:31] are sort of a framework but if they really want to go at it you know we'll we'll let them as long as they [1:14:36] do it in a way that everyone can be heard sometimes they did talk over each other a little bit and [1:14:41] that's usually where we would try and step in or if the issue had basically exhausted itself and susan it [1:14:49] certainly seemed like bruce blakeman came prepared with all of his attack lines i mean almost on every [1:14:55] topic that you guys raised he managed to try to turn it around and attack kathy hochel was that your [1:15:02] impression as well yeah i think both of them came very very prepared in fact you know you asked errol [1:15:08] uh you you basically um observed that they were having a good time and and they really were they [1:15:15] i think they both relished this debate it wasn't personal it was something that they both they shook [1:15:20] their hands uh right after the debate was over and it was uh i think a really good debate in terms of [1:15:28] both of them knowing the issues and getting their zingers out when they needed to so yeah i think [1:15:35] that uh bruce blakeman definitely got some uppercuts in there but so did hochel um they they were pretty [1:15:41] equally matched i think and errol one issue we haven't really talked about so far uh in this post in this [1:15:48] post debate program is the cornell university case uh and that was something you guys brought up obviously [1:15:54] kathy hochel uh just appointed a special prosecutor the state attorney general letitia james [1:16:01] and uh even on that bruce blakeman attacked her i mean he made it sound as though she had some [1:16:07] culpability because of the fact that she's actually a board member of cornell university yeah i mean i i um [1:16:14] you know we often forget but uh cornell has kind of a dual uh nature to it meaning there's the private ivy [1:16:21] league university that people know about there's also a unit of suny mostly dealing with agricultural [1:16:27] and a couple of other schools uh that are up there so to that extent yes the governor is an ex-officio [1:16:33] member of the board of cornell obviously not uh involved enough that she would be dealing with [1:16:38] things like sexual harassment policy or how to punish people who misbehave at fraternities [1:16:43] on the other hand it's a valid it's a valid point to bring up and that's partly why uh bruce blakeman [1:16:49] brought it up they had a very contentious i think we have a clip of it the the exchange between them [1:16:53] over a lot of that issue and as a trustee and as governor you didn't call for an independent [1:17:00] investigation when you found out that the district attorney was dropping the case thank you shame on [1:17:04] you i did you know that's pretty pathetic to blame me for what happened in a fraternity my gosh no i'm [1:17:11] blaming you for the investigation afterwards you deny that you were a trustee there the university [1:17:19] failed that young woman you know again a valid point but you know um uh bruce blakeman himself [1:17:27] is you know i mean he's he's probably an ex-officio member of nasa county medical center and other [1:17:33] institutions that have had uh their own sets of problems but um this is like i said this is a [1:17:40] political experience showing itself that he his uh his team gave him a file and it said you know what [1:17:46] she has a vulnerability here um and so that's what you do in a limited televised debate you exploit that [1:17:53] vulnerability let me play another soundbite from you for you guys this was from a little bit deeper [1:18:00] into the debate when uh they were asked about the correction officers strike upstate uh and here again [1:18:07] blakeman sought to turn this on kathy hillclone again saying that this is something that never would [1:18:12] have taken place if he'd been on the job and you have the national guard at the cost of a billion [1:18:18] dollars a year to the taxpayers because you fired corrections officers who said these prisons now are [1:18:24] not only safe for corrections officers they're not safe for the prisoners and you fired them and put the [1:18:30] national guard in there you're the one that used the militia not me when someone who's charged and [1:18:36] took an oath of office to protect people inside a facility engages in a wildcat illegal strike and walks [1:18:45] off the job leaving other guards other health care workers and people in the kitchen and the [1:18:54] incarcerated population leaving them alone literally jeopardizing the safety of an entire community [1:18:59] they walked out the door and shut it what do you want me to do i sure as hell will fire them i'll say [1:19:05] you violated the law shame on you susan i know you guys have spent a lot of time upstate uh reporting [1:19:12] on that strike it seems like kathy hillclone really really forcefully defended her actions there yeah [1:19:17] and i think that we should just back up and remember that there was a reason for the strike and that [1:19:22] reason was that there aren't enough prison guards there weren't before the strike there weren't enough [1:19:27] prison guards and that was one of the reasons for the strike um also another issue is the halt act which is [1:19:34] uh uh a law that the legislature put into place that uh limits solitary confinement and creates some [1:19:42] programs for incarcerated individuals but uh that didn't come up but the the fact that it's such you know [1:19:50] what being a corrections officer is probably one of the toughest jobs out there and it's very difficult to [1:19:56] find people to do this job and if it was easy to uh hire enough people we wouldn't have had the strike to [1:20:04] begin with and on the on the issue of public safety generally you know in many respects crime is on the [1:20:11] decline here in new york city and across new york state so you know in that sense in that sense kathy [1:20:16] hillclone seemed to be coming from a place of strength but again blakeman still tried to go after her [1:20:23] talking about crimes that had been committed by migrants uh and he also talked about things like [1:20:28] the the revolving door uh in the justice system so there again he found ways to try to go on the [1:20:36] attack well yes if you don't have statistics on your side and crime really is at all-time lows in many of [1:20:43] the the the most prominent uh categories well you can always bring up the exception to the rule you can [1:20:49] bring up the the terrible anecdote about um a a person or a family and both both of both candidates [1:20:56] did that uh bringing up the names of people who have been abused uh either by ice or by local police [1:21:03] or by some tragedy that involved either a migrant or some other kind of criminal and so uh yeah that it's [1:21:11] you know it's up to us to try and help sort of straighten out the conversation by framing it in [1:21:15] terms of okay this is the big picture what would you do how do you see this how would you move forward [1:21:21] if you get elected all right we're gonna pause right there errol and susan thank you so much for [1:21:27] spending some time with us excellent job as always moderating that debate tonight uh coming up after the [1:21:33] break we're gonna go back to our state house reporter bernadette hogan and upstate political reporter [1:21:38] jack arpy with some more analysis of tonight's debate stay with us nothing quite like the feeling of going to [1:22:09] the theater on stage celebrates that excitement every week by taking you behind the scenes with the [1:22:15] latest news and in-depth interviews of the hottest shows on and off broadway so grab a seat because [1:22:21] this is a show you won't want to miss join us every saturday and sunday at 7 30 pm for on stage [1:22:28] on stage is presented by your tri-state cadillac dealers discover which cadillac is right for you [1:22:34] and elevate your journey spectrum is here to say hi say hi hi hi cypher hi hi long texter say hi to a [1:22:48] smarter way to mobile hi carson hi hey superfan sorry say hi to a smarter way to stream tv [1:23:04] get more with spectrum from my time growing up in queens watching new york one to my time reporting [1:23:11] here i've seen how quickly a story can change at news all day we bring you the news as it's happening [1:23:17] from around the boroughs to local government to your neighborhood because our city never stops moving [1:23:24] hi i'm shannon ferry with the days developing stories but first stay up to date and informed with news all [1:23:32] day weekdays from noon to four we are back with more coverage of new york one's gubernatorial debate [1:24:02] tonight the candidates for governor democrat kathy hochel and republican bruce blakeman faced off right [1:24:07] here on spectrum news and joining me again for analysis are state house reporters jack arpy joining [1:24:12] us from albany and bernadette hogan jack let me ask you about the energy issue this is something that was [1:24:19] front and center uh in tonight's debate and in this race bruce blakeman has talked about high utility [1:24:25] bills as one of the failings of kathy hochel's time in office she meanwhile pointed [1:24:32] to president trump's war in iran and that impact on energy prices as a reason that new yorkers are [1:24:40] suffering and they really had a lot of back and forth on that tonight that's right well it's [1:24:45] certainly a factor i'm sure that a lot of new yorkers would have liked to have heard uh you know [1:24:49] specific plans and that's one thing that has kind of been elusive the governor's talked about some of [1:24:53] the things that she has done here such as the utility rebate checks she didn't talk a lot about uh the [1:24:57] changes that she made to the climate law this year which is you know unsurprising given some of the [1:25:01] the voters that she's uh probably trying to court but uh one of the things that blakeman has said is [1:25:06] that he's going to cut utility bills in half and once again that's an easy thing to say when you're [1:25:09] campaigning it's a much more difficult uh thing to do when you're actually out there and he's of course [1:25:14] going to have to face a democrat legislature so those types of things that the governor are that [1:25:19] a governor blakeman would do probably take with a little bit of a grain of salt uh given the obstacles [1:25:24] he would face in albany and bernadette let me ask you about another issue that they touched on tonight [1:25:30] and that was the issue of artificial intelligence and related to that data centers right governor [1:25:35] hochel has enacted a uh basically a one-year moratorium on data centers which she touted tonight [1:25:43] she talked about the fact that bruce blakeman uh is not opposed to data centers and he sort of [1:25:48] doubled down on that as well and talked about the fact uh that we shouldn't be slowing artificial [1:25:54] intelligence and the growth of something that is really the gross fast uh fastest growing industry [1:25:59] on the globe yeah and this is an issue that the governor maybe predictably was going to be [1:26:05] leaning into considering that people overwhelmingly are anti-data center construction the governor was [1:26:10] just in upstate new york talking to residents in fishkill just below or around poughkeepsie new york [1:26:16] in the hudson valley where people don't want the construction of a data center they say it will harm [1:26:21] residents from everything with their utility bills having them go up even higher to draining on their [1:26:27] natural resources and she criticized bruce blakeman for failing as she described to stand up to the [1:26:33] trump administration uh their push as she describes to allow ai companies to do pretty much whatever [1:26:41] they want they're two related but not completely the same issues and again on ai blakeman does use [1:26:48] ai in his campaign ads he has been criticized for that he defended that move of course saying that he has a [1:26:54] disclaimer but both candidates will continue to be talking about this issue yeah and kathy hochel [1:26:59] said that that disclaimer uh is too small for voters to really read and that that is inadequate in [1:27:07] serving the public all right that is gonna have to do it for our coverage of tonight's gubernatorial [1:27:12] debate right here on new york one if you missed any part of tonight's broadcast or any of our previous [1:27:17] debates including for state attorney general and for state comptroller you can watch them in their [1:27:22] entirety on our website and on our youtube channel thanks for watching tonight everybody stay tuned [1:27:28] for more news after the break with cheryl wills on new york tonight my time at new york one has shown [1:28:01] me that in the city that never sleeps the news never stops so as the day winds down turn to the rush [1:28:09] hour to catch up on the stories that matter across the five boroughs with in-depth interviews from the [1:28:16] city's newsmakers plus the latest forecast catching you up with today preparing you for tomorrow right [1:28:23] here on the rush hour weekdays from 4 to 7 pm spectrum is here to say hi high speed daters hi say hi to a [1:28:32] mobile service you'll love well hello hi carson hi goodbye say hi to a mobile that runs on america's [1:28:40] most reliable 5g network hey bargain hunters say hi to a year of free mobile service i love that and this [1:28:49] and this i drone pilot what stay connected wherever you go say hi to a smarter way to mobile get more with [1:28:57] spectrum at spectrum noticias we recognize that our new york city community is vibrant and diverse [1:29:04] spectrum noticias delivers balanced coverage of the stories that matters in our communities and across [1:29:10] the country our journalists are based in the neighborhoods we cover ensuring you get in-depth [1:29:15] reporting on what's happening and the places we call home so join us at spectrum noticias we're always on [1:29:22] always there for you now available on your tv check your local listings also available on the spectrum news app [1:29:28] this is new york one here's what we're covering this hour you saw it live right here on spectrum news [1:29:49] the two candidates for governor go head to head and their only debate democrat kathy hochel and republican [1:29:55] bruce blakeman face to face a recap of the high-stakes showdown just weeks before election day plus [1:30:02] developing news this hour the vatican confirms pope leo has lung cancer what we know about his surgery in [1:30:09] rome and it looks like a deal is in place to ban horse carriages in new york city lewis finley in [1:30:16] central park standing by those stories and more happening now on new york one hey thanks for being [1:30:31] here with us on this tuesday night i'm cheryl wills and we begin this hour with the only televised [1:30:36] debate in the race for governor and you saw it live right here on spectrum news democrat kathy [1:30:43] hochel and republican bruce blakeman sharing their very different visions for the future of new york [1:30:49] state and they're doing it less than one month before the election political director bob hart is [1:30:55] here now with a recap boy bob they came out swinging right out the gate i thought last week's a debate [1:31:00] for state attorney general was going to be heated and this was like they turned it up to eleven as [1:31:04] they say on spinal tap yeah right from the outset they often were talking over each other luckily susan [1:31:09] our veteran errol lewis did a good job cutting them off at times when they had to be cut off [1:31:13] but when people say all politicians are the same i'd say did you see that debate because they were very [1:31:18] different people tonight they were very different and the hot topic right off the bat was the ice [1:31:23] shooting in upper manhattan the immigration crisis explain how they differed on that well i think the [1:31:29] big difference was one of them the governor wanted to talk about the specific incident and said hey [1:31:33] the ice agents shot at this guy with a five-year-old in the car bruce blakeman wanted to talk about [1:31:39] the overall issue and also talk about other crimes involving migrants who shouldn't have been here in [1:31:44] the first place so they were talking around each other hochel wanting to talk specifics and blakeman [1:31:50] wanting to talk about the general issue overall okay let's watch a recap i have a cooperative agreement [1:31:59] with ice until kathy head kathy hochel said we could no longer cooperate with ice we got over 2 000 [1:32:05] illegal migrants out of my county with criminal records ranging from rape attempted murder robbery [1:32:11] burglary drug dealing carjacking gang activity and that's because we cooperated with ice and we [1:32:19] didn't raid one school one hospital one daycare center or one church we always work with law enforcement [1:32:25] remove people who are committing crimes and the other thing is when people commit a crime i want them to [1:32:31] go through our court system i want victims to have their day in court then we kick them out of the [1:32:36] country at the end of their prison term that's how it's always operated always works successfully [1:32:42] until you have rogue agents roaming the streets and county executives like him supporting them [1:32:48] in addition bob to the immigration crisis and the ice shooting they also talked about data centers which [1:32:55] is on the minds of many new yorkers both downstate and upstate right kathy hochel is the first governor [1:33:01] in the united states to call for a moratorium and create a moratorium on the additional uh data [1:33:06] centers in the state blakeman has said this is does not make good economic sense for new york because [1:33:12] this is a burgeoning industry and to put a pause on it could make new york lag behind so they mixed it [1:33:18] up on that issue as well but polls have shown that kathy hochel's position is popular and so that's what [1:33:25] blakeman was having to deal with is that a lot of new yorkers are suspicious about ai and data centers as [1:33:31] well okay it was a very informative one hour debate congrats to the entire political team seen only on [1:33:37] new york one political director bob hart and if you missed the debate we invite you to watch our [1:33:44] website or the spectrum news app to see it in its entirety