Kathy Hochul talks public safety on ‘The View’

Gov. Kathy Hochul joined the co-hosts of the daytime talk show “The View” Wednesday, where she spoke about public safety as it relates to transportation, congestion pricing and immigration. 

Notably, Hochul doubled-down on her decision last week to deploy 1,000 state-level law enforcement personnel – including 750 National Guard troops and 250 New York State Police officers – to the city to assist the New York City Police Department in conducting bag checks at “heavily trafficked locations.” 

The initiative received criticism from elected officials at all levels of government – from New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and the City Council’s Progressive Caucus to congressional representatives like Republican Anthony D’Esposito. “I’m not buying it,” she said in response to co-host Sunny Hostin’s comment about the backlash. Recent instances of high-profile crimes throughout the system demanded her strong approach, Hochul reasoned, even if overall crime levels remain low. 

“What happened is, I needed to do something dramatic and quickly to send a message that you will not get away with committing crimes in our subways,” she said to the group. “You cannot slash the throat of a conductor; you cannot push someone onto the track.” 

That conversation led co-host Joy Behar to question the governor about bail reform laws. Behar specifically alluded to comments made by MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber in the past about his agency’s struggle to keep repeat-criminal offenders out of the system. Mayor Eric Adams has said those repeat offenders are the main drivers of crime in the city’s transit system. 

In response, Hochul touted her own efforts to successfully stall budget negotiations in 2023 in order to amend the bail reforms. Her “rollbacks” resulted in judges having more discretion to set bail in eligible cases. In other words, the law’s new language no longer requires judges to impose the least restrictive conditions necessary to ensure a defendant’s return to court. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed through rollbacks on the same laws in 2020, and Hochul did so as well in 2022. 

“I inherited, from my predecessor and the Legislature before, they took the bail laws and watered them down and made it impossible for judges to look at the whole picture of the crime and the person and what they’re doing,” she said. 

She likened proposals for new congestion pricing to a matter of public safety, saying that traffic prevents emergency response teams from responding to health crises quickly as an example. 

Hochul’s guest spot on the popular ABC show arrives at a time when she is  increasingly seen as a national surrogate for President Joe Biden. She attended Biden’s “State of the Union” last week, which is an unusual feat for a state governor. On “The View,” she repeated his often-used talking point about congressional Republicans holding up bipartisan legislation related to immigration and border control. She went a step further, stating that she needs border control agents for New York’s border with Canada. 

There were also a few lighter conversations between the co-hosts and the governor, like how she does her makeup every morning while on FaceTime with her 2-year-old granddaughter. She also mentioned that she “found out with the rest of the nation” that she would replace Cuomo as New York’s top official in 2022, though her memory of the scenario conflicts greatly with his former Secretary Melissa DeRosa’s own account, which she documented in her memoir “What’s Left Unsaid.”