NBC Affiliate Fact-Checks Kathy Hochul on Repeat Offenders Claim

Vice President Kamala Harris (L), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (C), and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) hold up their hands at the conclusion of a New York Women “Get Out The Vote” rally at Barnard College in New York on Nov. 3, 2022. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A local NBC affiliate issued a rare fact-check of Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul as she campaigns for the gubernatorial seat against Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday.

Zeldin, who himself was assaulted during a campaign stop earlier this year, has made addressing New York’s violent crime rate and tacking the state’s controversial bail-reform laws a priority. Zeldin said that if he’s elected, he'll declare an emergency over crime in the state.

Hochul, formerly the lieutenant governor who took the governor’s chair last year following former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, has asserted that crime isn’t a problem. She recently said during a CNN interview that cashless bail does not impact crime and added that if “you’re going to just change one part of the system,” it “shows a naiveté that is not going to be a real solution.”

In a separate interview with NBC4, Hochul appeared to take a different tone on cashless bail, saying she’s changed rules around bail in the state.

“Not that long ago in New York, in our city, crime was down, incarceration was down, stop and frisk was down. How is it okay that we’re now seeing people who commit a dozen burglaries face zero consequences?” an NBC4 reporter asked Hochul. “That’s not okay. It’s not okay. That’s why I need the system to work with the laws we put in place. We changed the laws. Repeat offenders need to be held,” the governor replied.

But her claim drew a fact-check from the local broadcaster, which later stated that “despite Hochul’s changes, repeat offenders are still being released because New York’s new laws still require judges to use the least restrictive bail.”

“Meaning, even when bail is set, it’s set low,” the New York City-based NBC station said.

New York Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) appear at a “Get Out the Vote Rally” in Thornwood, Westchester, N.Y., on Oct. 31, 2022. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

Several top current and former Democrats visited New York this weekend in a bid to boost Hochul. Recent polls have revealed an unexpectedly tight race between her and Zeldin in New York, which hasn’t seen a Republican elected as governor in two decades.

Former President Bill Clinton made an appearance in Brooklyn to back Hochul on Saturday, coming two days after Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared alongside the incumbent governor. President Joe Biden is slated to touch down in Westchester County for another rally ahead of the midterms on Tuesday.

“We’ve got a close election; there are close elections all around this country,” New York Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs acknowledged to Politico. “In the House of Representatives, the Senate, and, yes, right here in the state of New York.”

Last week, Zeldin said his internal polling shows the race to be neck-and-neck. “We’ve just felt growing momentum every day since. We’re going to win this race on Tuesday as long as we get our supporters out,” he stated.

New Yorkers, he said, are “greatly concerned about safety on our streets, on our subways. Republicans and Democrats and independents have decided that enough is enough.”

“They are tired of the pro-criminal laws that have been passed up in Albany,” Zeldin asserted. “You have weak district attorneys who are refusing to enforce the law, and they want to support our men and women in law enforcement.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Hochul’s campaign for comment.