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News 12 Staff

openingstatementsny1

Good evening, Governor, and thank you to everybody out there that's watching this debate. It gives me an opportunity to speak directly to you and your families about issues that are important here in New York State that affect you each and every day. As I travel across the state, and it's a beautiful state, everywhere I go, people are telling me how they're struggling, struggling to pay their bills, and they're worried about safety in their communities. Under Governor Hokel, we are the highest taxed state in America. Our utility bills are 70% higher than the national average, and because of policies like cashless bail, people feel unsafe in their own communities. As governor, I will cut taxes. I will cut your utility bills in half, and I will create safer communities just like I did in my own county in Nassau County. And let me say this. Kathy Hochle has spent $8 billion of your money on illegal migrants for free food, free housing, free transportation, and a free cell phone. That's your money that she spent on people who aren't New Yorkers. I believe she's got her priorities upside down. So I'm gonna ask you to vote for change. What have you got to lose? And vote for a better New York and vote for Blakeman for governor. Thank you. Next is Ms. Hochel. Good evening. Well, thank you for hosting us this evening and county executive. Good to see you this evening. Um, my parents started married life in a trailer park near the Bethlehem Steel plant. I used to work long hours after school every day to raise money for college at a pizzeria. You know, I never forgot where I came from and the struggles, and that's why as governor I have been laser focused on affordability and your family's safety, and that's why we've delivered the largest middle class rate cut in 70 years. That's why we've delivered over $10 billion in energy rebates and inflation rebates and rebates to help people pay their bills. And also this New York State now has the lowest crime rates it's had in modern history. Now we're not done yet and you're going to hear a lot of Well, a lot of Different opinions here this evening. And I want you to judge it this way. My opponent has said this. He says that he's going to bring Trump-style leadership to Albany. He says he's going to cut Medicaid in half. You heard him say that. And he's going to let ICE run rampant in our streets. So this is your choice, New Yorkers. I'm not letting this happen. Working together with you, we will not, because your family is my fight.

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iceconcernsny1CM

We're going to begin tonight by discussing an incident that is reigniting a national debate. An ICE agent last Thursday shot a Dominican immigrant in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Marble Hill while his five year old son was in the back seat of the car. This took place on a busy street at a time many New Yorkers were making their way home from work or school. The federal government says the man drove towards agents before they shot him. I'm going to start with you, Mr. Blakeman. Multiple reports suggest that ICE has cut its training time, lowered its hiring standards, and deployed masked agents in cities whose leaders don't want them there, in this case with long guns in a crowded urban environment. And I guess the question is, are you comfortable with that? Kathy Hochle appealed. To ICE to let this criminal out. The question that New Yorkers have to ask is what was this guy doing in New York in the first place? It's because Kathy Hochle has made us a sanctuary state. Think about it. This guy came into the country illegally. He's been convicted of a crime. He's got pending charges for for dealing drugs, poison to our children. And he's a gangbanger. This is who, this is who Kathy Hochle is defending. I have, I have a cooperative agreement with ICE until Kathy, Kathy Hochle said we could no longer cooperate with ICE. We got over 2000 illegal migrants out of my county with criminal records ranging from rape, attempted murder, robbery, burglary, drug dealing, carjacking, gang activity. And that's because we cooperated with ICE and we didn't raid one school, one hospital, one daycare center, or one church. If you cooperate with federal law enforcement, it makes for a safer community. That's what I did. Kathy Hochle has taken that ability away from us. That's why things like this happen. I had a question for you, Ms. Hochel, but I wanted to give you a chance to respond. No, thank you. I think in his non-answer he refused to condemn what ICE did, so he basically says in the state of New York he'd be fine if ICE agents shoot car shoot into cars, shoot guns into vehicles, not knowing who's inside, and could have killed a five year old child. If that doesn't shock the conscience of everybody, and it should shock his conscience as well. And he says that's OK. That's how ICE is supposed to do it. I'll tell you what, I oversee over 500 policing agencies in the state of New York. Over half a million arrests every year. That's not how you conduct yourself. ICE is out of control. It's out of control in Nassau County. Never would have happened but for your sanctuary policy. You have invited criminals to come into our state and prey on our com on our communities, and now you won't let local law enforcement cooperate with ICE in. Orderly way like we did in my county. We didn't have any incidents in my county because we were allowed to cooperate with local law enforcement, but you took that tool away. The reason why that happened is because of you, Kathy Hochle, and your immigration policies where you actually invite people into our state, give them free everything, and you don't care whether they're criminals or not. That's a bad policy. I have a right to answer this one because this is so absurd. I have said from the president on down I said New York is not a sanctuary for criminals, not a sanctuary for criminals, full stop. But to say nothing happened in Nassau County, tell that to the man who on camera. Had his head rammed into a brick wall by ICE agents, was knocked unconscious. Say that to the family of the man who died in your custody. When he was in one of the Nassau County's jail and nothing bad happens, we'll tell that to 11-year-old Norman, who sobbed in my arms when local police, Nassau police took his father when he was just going to a Home Depot, for God's sakes, and his father was sitting for months and months in a detention center. Cathy, Norman was devastated. How about the 2 30-year-old women who were murdered by an illegal migrant in my county? What do you, what do you say to their families? What do you say to all those people who have had their children hooked on drugs by illegal migrants bringing fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin into our communities? We have an epidemic of crime from these illegal migrants. 16,000 detainers are out there for people who committed 52,000 crimes in our state. And you won't let local law enforcement cooperate with ICE to pick them up and get out of this state. This never would have happened, Kathy, if it wasn't for your policies. You know, his idea of law enforcement, because I have worked hard to drive down crime. I spent $4 billion of money to support our men and women in blue. They know I have their backs, and I want to make sure that they're keeping our community safe, not being deputized as ICE agents, which is what he did. And maybe

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utlitycostsny1CM

Voters' pocketbooks and we're going to start with Kathy Hochul. Ms. Hochul, New Yorkers pay among the highest energy costs in the nation, with experts saying that older plants are being shut down at a faster pace than the state can build new generation. And you've acknowledged that problem by sending out energy rebate checks to many New Yorkers, but the demand for energy continues and those prices continue to soar. Will these checks be going out annually and beyond that, what are you doing in the short term to lower utility costs? You know, Susan, great question. I understand the pain that so many people are going through. Energy prices are high all over America. And the issue is, as you've put out so perfectly, is that we don't have enough supply to meet the demand. So I have an all the above approach. I did do energy rebates just as a short term solution, but I'm trying to build more. But you know what the real problem is? I've got Donald Trump standing in the way of my energy projects, literally shut down a project, taking 1300 people off their jobs that would have powered half a million homes in Brooklyn. I also want to do. Part of my all of the above. I'm trying to do nuclear, but the White House playing politics won't sign off on it. So we're doing the best we can, but don't overlook the fact that it is the war with Iran that is driving up gasoline costs and energy costs, almost double of what they were in the past. Diesel is now double what it was. That is a real cost of energy that people are dealing with, and it was so unnecessary, and my opponent supports exactly what Donald Trump did. That war, will you raise income taxes? Many of your progressive allies are saying respond to that first? Sure, I'd like to respond to the, uh, utility bill issue because that's probably one of the most prevalent issues that we have here in New York. Uh, Kathy, Donald Trump didn't raise utility rates 48 times. You did. Donald Trump didn't increase our utility bills by 50% since you've become governor. You gave $150 back to people in a rebate in an election year right before the election when you've raised the average bill $4000 a year and your own energy research department says your policies will raise it another $4000 in the next five years. It's out of control and it's because of you, Kathy. You know what? You know what drives up energy prices in addition to Donald Trump's war that you support. His vision for energy across the state of New York. Now get this, he supports the hyper scale data centers that consume enormous amounts of energy. His picture what he wants to see upstate. He wants oil and gas rigs everywhere. He wants fossil fuel generating factories spewing smoke everywhere, and he wants data centers using our pri our, our rare farmland. His vision for how to create more energy. New Yorkers ought to hear that. We're going to run for the hill. You know that's a fiction. That's not my policies, but we are sitting on one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, and you won't let us extract that natural gas. In Pennsylvania, a Democrat governor, Josh Shapiro, allows it, and that's why their energy costs are more than half of what. Cars are they have prosperity on the Pennsylvania side of the border. People are driving around in brand new Cadillac Escalades, and on the New York side of the border, they're driving around in 25 year old rusted out pickup trucks because of your policies. And I'll talk about data centers later if you'd like. No, let's talk about it now because you called, you called my moratorium crazy. Donald Trump says it's only for. Dumb poor people would support that. Are you support what Donald Trump said there as well? Dumb poor people don't don't wanna have skaters weren't sophisticated. We are gonna be getting to they are, but they need to have some support negotiating.

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utilitycosts2ny1CM

I need to ask you, Mr. Blakeman, you've attacked the governor over energy policy, but you haven't provided any details of how you intend to cut utility bills in half. How can that be achieved without hurting reliability or blowing a hole in local government budgets that utility tax, that tax utility investments? I've said it many times, so I'll repeat it. When you look at your energy bill, get your energy bill out tonight. Only about 30% of your payment actually goes for energy. The rest goes for taxes. Yes, Kathy Hochle taxes your energy bill as well, and Excessive delivery costs that are merely trying to masquerade rate hikes and her slush fund where she collects money every month from you, billions of dollars, and invests in science projects like wind. Turbines in the middle of the ocean or solar farms in upstate New York that are taking away our rich farmland, which by the way, are covered under snow 3 months out of the year. It's very expensive. She's paying billions of dollars to foreign corporations for these and guess what? That's why we're in an energy crisis. I would extract the natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. We'll get rid of that green energy scam of Kathy Hochul, and I will cut utility bills in half just like they did in Pennsylvania. No, actually just like Donald Trump said he would do on day one. So Donald Trump promises, he promised to cut energy costs. He promised to cut down grocery costs, and you know what, everything has happened under your friend Donald Trump, who you are the President of the of the fan club for Donald Trump, it's absurd how adoring you are of him. My gosh. Well, what he has done is raised gasoline prices and energy prices, and, and the costs of tariffs have driven up everything in the state. Have you bought groceries lately? My God, the people are suffering, and that didn't have to be the case. Why are we at war with the rest of the world and like to talk about Donald Trump all the time. Because you don't want to talk about your record because it's a record. It's a record of misery and failure. The highest taxes, utility rates, they're 70% higher than the national average. But let me say something about Donald Trump. Donald Trump's my friend. He's endorsed me, but so has Bonnie Lautenberg, a liberal Democrat whose husband Frank served in the United States Senate and was a pillar of the Democratic Party. Actor Deborah Messing, who's a liberal Democrat who supports me because she trusts me to make safer communities and improve the quality of life here in New York.

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tariffsny1CM

Advisors to, as you mentioned, aluminum, the wood shavings that go in the stalls for the animals. Governor, before, before that was, it didn't have to happen, before President Trump even put the tariffs in place, farmers have been complaining about your policies that make it harder for agriculture in our state, that they're overregulated. And let me ask you a question then. How come they're complaining? Why is it? That every place I go in upstate New York, they're telling me that it's harder and harder to do business. Why are they putting solar farms on their precious agricultural property, rich farmland, because they can't afford to do business in New York. They started doing that before President Trump became president. It's because of your policies that are ruining agriculture. I brought the largest dairy processing facility in North America. The dairy farmers are thrilled. Talk to a dairy farmer. They were struggling so hard, and I brought that. We've helped Chobani expand. We are using so much of our, our one of our greatest commodities, milk, and I've made life easier for them because they know I now, they now have an outlet for their products. But what has made life so hard is the fact that the raids on the farms, taking away their workers. In fact, talk to Mister Old McDonald's farm, a big Republican in the North Country who called. Me looking for help when ICE raided the farm at 6 a.m. on a Saturday and took a 3rd grader and her mother and her son, took them away, threw them in detention. A 3rd grader, you know where the father was? He was out milking cows because that's what you do on a farm. People are struggling from the tariffs, the immigration policies. If you're doing so well for the dairy farms, how come it's $1 more for a gallon of milk in New York State? Candidates, let me, let me.

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tariffs2ny1CM

Uh, Canadian provinces have been aggressively limiting US dairy imports, including dairy from New York farmers. If tariffs aren't the answer, what would be? They, they're at war with us right now. They cannot believe that their best friend, they cannot believe the best friend they've ever had, the United States of America, that always had their back, has now said they want to make them the fifty-first state. The Canadians are so insulted that they're not buying our products. They won't buy anything. They're not buying the wine from our wineries. Been up to an upstate winery lately. Talked to a farmer there. Talked to a grower. That we're, they've lost their their marketplace and it's all because of Donald Trump declaring war on one of our most loyal allies. Who does that? And we're all suffering because of that. So that's what exactly what's going on the tariffs. If he would only end the tariffs tomorrow, we could start seeing grocery prices start going, end the war with Iran, gas prices start coming down. None of this has to be the way, and you support every single thing that Donald Trump does. People should know that when they go in to vote on November 3rd.

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cornellrapeinvestigationny1CM

A story that's been getting national news and we're going to start with Ms. Hochel, the alleged gang rape of a student at Cornell University. State Attorney General Letitia James is being criticized for having made statements that suggest she's already prejudged the case. You have also made statements that sound like You have prejudged the case, including saying, quote, this woman, this young woman had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable. What do you say to legal experts who say James's statements could jeopardize the investigation as appearing impartial? Is that for me? Yes. Listen, I'm a mom. I've dropped a daughter off at a college campus. There should not be a culture that allows for a young woman to be so brutally attacked. And on a fraternity and then literally have the courage to go ask for help from law enforcement. You know how difficult it is for a victim to have to tell her story to strangers, but she did it. And also the evidence seemed very clear, and I'm not, I'm not prosecuting this case, seemed very clear that the, the boys in the fraternity were trying to cover up what they had done. There were a lot of acknowledgments, a lot of texts that were coming out. So I said this, I want there to be an independent investigation that's underway. But also when it became clear to me that the district attorney had already denied the opportunity to interview this young woman. I come from a family of prosecutors. You should know enough to interview a victim of a crime and not just dismiss it. That's why the law says the governor may shall appoint the governor shall appoint the attorney general in cases of special prosecutions. The attorney general can speak for herself on her tweet. Time. Thank you. So Mr. Blakeman, I wanted to just, can I just respond to that for a moment? My question is basically letting you follow up, and that is there is a push to expand the voluntary intoxication standard in the law. Do you support closing that law and how would you have approached this case if you were governor? So first of all, I absolutely do support that as a father, as a grandfather, first of all, if someone is intoxicated, maybe they're not unconscious, but if they're slurring their words and they're stumbling, you shouldn't engage in relations because I'm not sure that person has the capacity to consent. So I am for closing that loophole. I want to make it harder. And more stringent are laws about guys who would date rape women by giving them roofies in bars. I think we need to strengthen those laws. Kathy Hochle has already prejudged this case, but what I have to say to you, Kathy, is as follows. Where were you? What did you do? You are the trustee of Cornell University. You are the governor of the state. You fund Cornell University to the tune of $150 million a year. They're a partner of the state of New York, and as a trustee and as governor, you didn't call for an independent investigation when you found out that the district attorney was dropping the case. Shame on you. I did, you know. That's pretty pathetic to blame me for what happened in a fraternity. My gosh, no, I'm blaming you for the investigation afterwards. You deny that you were a trustee there. The university failed that young woman. Are you a member of the board? We're going to, we're going.

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crossexaminationny1CM

It, it is time for the cross-examination. That's when each of you gets to ask your adversary one question and then listen to the answer. uh, we'll let you go first, Mr. Blakeman. So Governor Holcomb. Under your sanctuary policies. A 14 year old girl was raped recently here in New York State by an illegal migrant. 4 Arondaquat residents were killed recently by an illegal migrant. 2 of those victims were children under the age of 5. Two Nassau County women in their thirties were killed by an illegal migrant because of your sanctuary policies. Will you apologize to that 14-year-old girl whose life is forever changed and her family and the families of those who were killed. The ones that'll never get to sit in another Thanksgiving dinner, never be able to open their presents, presents on their Christmas tree. Will you apologize to them and will you please return Sheridan Gorman's parents' calls to talk to you about your sanctuary policy? You know, any crime. It is heartbreaking. There's a family left. Within a huge hole in their heart. And I abhor all crimes regardless of the perpetrator. Victims deserve our sympathy. They deserve our compassion. And that's why I've laser focused on making New York so much more safer than it had been before. I have spent $4 billion to help law enforcement do their jobs. We have driven down crime to historic lows, especially violent crimes like shootings and murders, and that didn't come easy. That took a lot of work. I've had to change laws. I've had to allocate more money. But when you're talking about ICE, what I find so shocking is that when an American mother was murdered by ICE agents, you said. That her killing was justified. The killing of Renee Good was justified. And when asked about Alex Peretti, another American citizen killed by ICE, whether that was justified, you couldn't even answer the question. So I find those answers. Just reprehensible. So you won't apologize. I apologize for any pain that has happened to anyone. This is just the cross-examination. You won't call Sheridan Gorman's parents. That's the question and that's the answer. And now, um, Ms. Hochel, you have a question for Bruce Blakeman. Yes, I do. Just 4 days ago you stood on a stage screaming at the top of your lungs, we love Donald Trump. You've also said he's the greatest president of your lifetime. Now which is it that makes him so great? Is it the high utility costs, the high grocery costs, the high gas costs? Is it his unfettered use of ICE terrorizing our neighborhoods? Is it his throwing millions of New Yorkers off of healthcare? Which is it that makes him the greatest president in your opinion, which you have said so many times? Yeah, well, at a rally, um, as you know, it's a cheering section, and you say things to get the crowd worked up, and I think Donald Trump deserves. Accolades for many of the things that he's done. Obviously there are some disagreements in New York State with some of his policies, but I've differed with Donald Trump on various policies, policies. As I said, he's pro-life. I'm pro-choice. That's a big difference in the Republican Party. I stood up for what I believed in. Immigration policy. I believe that if you are an immigrant, and you've been in this state 789, 10 years, you haven't gotten in trouble, you're gainfully employed, we should have a guest worker permit for you. I believe in a guest worker permit program. But, you know, there's 22 years left in Donald Trump's, uh, tenure in office. And, um, I hope to see great things like stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon that threatens New York and all New Yorkers. And I also look forward to the fact that hopefully, we will get gas prices down, but you created the economic issues that have made. Last in economic outlook, Kathy Hochle, not Donald Trump. agrees that Donald Trump is the greatest president in his lifetime. I didn't hear anything disputing. Well, you know what, let me, let me say this in retrospect, I would say that Dwight D. Eisenhower was the greatest president, but Donald Trump has 2 more years. So let's see where it goes. Term's not over.

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Hochul and Blakeman are expected to discuss affordability, taxes and public safety, among other major topics.

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