Governor Hochul is a Guest on Fox 5’s “Politics Unusual”

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on FOX 5’s “Politics Unusual” with Morgan McKay.

AUDIO: The Governor's interview is available in audio form here.

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

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: So welcome back to the show, Governor. Really appreciate you being here.

Governor Hochul: Thank you.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: So we're going to start out with, you released your 2026 State of the State this week, and you said, this is the last time we're going to see this picture, but we have to show it one more time. You're going to see the guns here and you are announcing a proposal for new restrictions for AI-generated content, especially for candidates 90 days before an election. How would the state enforce these rules?

Governor Hochul: Yeah, let's talk about how sinister this is. People need to be able to trust what they see and what they hear. Especially in elections, and that is no longer the case because we have candidates who are creating these images or the voices of their opponents and trying to win elections based on fraudulent grounds. So our Board of Elections will be involved in enforcement. We'll have to put out regulations on this, but every candidate running for office will know once this is in place that you cannot lie your way to election victory. We're going to stop that here in the State of New York.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Now, a part of your State of the State was focused on ICE, and you're proposing to allow New Yorkers to — one, sue ICE agents if they violate their civil rights. And two, you're proposing a bill, which would require ICE agents to have a signed judicial warrant to enter schools, hospitals and churches. Do you expect these bills to be challenged to court?

Governor Hochul: Whether they are or not, I think every American, regardless of your party affiliation, would have to say enough is enough. And the images that went around the world of a mother murdered in Minneapolis, that was just beyond the pale. And for people to say, “This is okay. We're going to ignore this and sweep it under the rug.” I want New Yorkers — if this ever happened here, or what's happening here already — we have members of the media being beaten up and knocked around when they're trying to cover a story by ICE. We have business owners whose businesses are losing money, like the factory owner Upstate who had to shut down his power borrow manufacturing facility when they took most of his employees away and took away people who are here legally. So there's people losing money, they're being injured and literally losing their lives, and I want New Yorkers to have a right of private right of action where they can at least go to court and have their day and have their grievance heard. That's the American way.

And the other one about these sensitive locations. Now I was just at a childcare center in Queens, the most diverse place on the planet. And those children, their parents, when they're dropping them off, or the workers, they have to know that we children will not be left alone because there’s a raid. And they take away the people running this facility or the parents on their way out the door. That's what's happening. So I want to protect houses of worship. I want to protect our schools, our hospitals, our childcare centers, and say, “If you have a warrant, a judicial order for someone who's committed a crime, I want you to take away criminals.” We always have — take away people who have committed serious or violent crimes, remove them. But the vast majority are here trying to live a better life than they had back where they came from. Just like my immigrant grandparents. And we're saying, you have to have a judge say what you're doing is in pursuit of solving a crime, apprehending a criminal. And so that's the difference.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Now, are you concerned about how these bills might play in swing districts? Let's say for some of these Democrats who are facing midterm elections this year.

Governor Hochul: Everything I'm doing is moderate and common sense. This is not an extreme one way or the other. It is standing up for New Yorkers, and my job as Governor is to do just that. People should lean into this, say, “Yes, we cooperate with law enforcement to solve crimes and prevent crimes.” Of course, we'll do that. I funded law enforcement at higher levels than anyone in history. I support law enforcement, but I don't want to have state resources diverted to doing what ICE does. The federal government has a lot more money than we do. You support your own operations. We don't have to. We're not going to do that.

So I was just trying to inject a person's view that is just common sense — what they want to see in our country. We want to go back to the way it used to be. Go back to the way we were one year ago. We just need to calm this all down.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: You already said that you don't think the state has the power to require ICE agents to unmask themselves, but there's another bill called New York For All, which would basically expand sanctuary city protections across the state and prohibit law enforcement from collaborating with ICE. Where do you stand on this proposal?

Governor Hochul: First of all, it hasn't passed in the legislature. It needs to pass both houses and I will not comment on bills that are not before me. I usually get 800 or a thousand bills I'll have to deal with next year. But that being said, I have said our policy continues to be: We'll assist when there's a crime that's been committed — a crime. But the civil offense of crossing the border by itself is civil enforcement, and we don't cooperate with that. Because guess what? I want our law enforcement to focus on keeping our streets safe from real criminals. Protect our subway. Don't be diverted to do civil enforcement. I want you to focus on keeping New Yorkers safer. That's the difference.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Now, some Democrats are even going a step further and calling to abolish ICE. What are your thoughts? Do you think ICE should be defunded?

Governor Hochul: Listen, I would say, I'm told a year ago, ICE had much more higher favorabilities in people's minds in both parties, and the abuse of power has been so blatant. And Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are driving this. They're the ones putting pressure on them to hit quotas — regardless of whether or not these are the serious offenders. You remember when Donald Trump said, “I'm going after the baddest of the bad. The worst of the worst.” The ones who were in, who were imprisoned and let loose to come here, he created this scenario, which, of course, you'd say, “Yeah, get rid of them.” I get it. But okay. You’ve been at this a year, I presume you gone after the worst of the worst. But an analyst who works for City Hall, who is apprehended following the law and going for their court appearance, who has legal status right now to be apprehended by ICE? I think he would say it has gone too far.

It has been an overreach and what that does is hurts people's confidence in all law enforcement. This undermines the NYPD and our State Police and others who are just doing their jobs and putting themselves on the line every day. So we have an organization that is — in my judgment — many times abusing their powers, going after innocent people, including citizens. And we just have to say, “Put on the brakes, dial it back, stop the chaos.” Let us go back to the America we were before last January 20th.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: So you disagree with how they're being deployed, but do you agree with them staying funded?

Governor Hochul: There has been the use of ICE in the past. I mean, they help with border patrols. We don't want criminals crossing into our borders, right? They have an important way — we have a large border with Canada. After 9/11, there were people who came through that border into Buffalo. My husband prosecuted the cases. The first Al-Qaeda terrorism case prosecuted after 9/11 was done by my husband in Buffalo as a federal prosecutor. So we have to make sure our borders are safe. Of course we do, and the federal government has a responsibility for that. But what they have taken this title to be is far more abusive than anyone could have imagined. So again, let's go back to the way it used to be.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Now, President Donald Trump is threatening to pull federal funding from New York and New York City for being a sanctuary city by February 1st. Have you heard more from the President on this?

Governor Hochul: We've not heard more, but, just stop threatening us. I mean, we just had to win another lawsuit. Last week you took away $3.8 billion for childcare and for social service network programs. Just today we had to find out we won in court. The company won in court to turn back on offshore wind. I cannot tell you how many times we've had to go to court wasting state resources, our time and energy to stop what judges and — many times judges appointed by Donald Trump — and even the Supreme Court said when he went too far when he allowed the deployment of National Guard in other cities like the Supreme Court are mostly conservative. They know he's gone too far. So, it's frustrating, it's time consuming. It's something we have to deal with, but I want to keep my focus on making life more affordable and safer for New Yorkers. And that was the whole genesis of what we talked about in our State of State just a few days ago.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Now, Mayor Mamdani said that he's been texting back and forth with the President on this issue and other issues. Just wondering, do you text the President? Do you call him? What's your relationship like with him?

Governor Hochul: We speak on the phone when I need to call. I called a few weeks ago, right before Christmas and said, “I need the funding restored for the Gateway Tunnel because if we don't build a new tunnel and the one we have collapses the Northeastern economy collapses.” And there's 10,000 jobs that you shut down overnight by just trying to punish us for being a Democratic state. So I am in communication. I had to call him and ask him to restore almost $200 million of money for law enforcement that was supposed to be grants for law enforcement and first responders that they took away from us.

I said, “You're defunding the police, Mr. President, not a good look.” And it was restored a few days later. So my communication has mostly been, “Can you stop doing that to us? We're fine here. We don't need the National Guard. We don't need a surge. We're doing fine. The city is doing very well.”

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Now on childcare, you said the state is committed to funding a rollout of free childcare for a select number of two-year-olds in the city. And you said you have the money for in the Budget right now, but is it a risk to not have the funding for this tied yet to a recurring, reliable revenue stream?

Governor Hochul: Now what I would say is this: There are countless initiatives that we launch, making a commitment into the future, and this is one of them. So whether it is major infrastructure projects that take 10 years to complete, we always — once that commitment is made, we back it up with the next budgets.

It's just not our practice to say, “Oh, I'm putting this much this year.” I have to deal with the winds of change. And right now I have not had this, the need to or desire to raise taxes on New Yorkers. What is really good is that we have revenues coming in higher than expected. The city is doing very well. Revenues are up, and we've been doing a great job managing our resources so I can increase support for healthcare and for education and childcare without having to raise taxes.

In fact, we actually cut taxes. Middle class tax rates are the lowest they've been in 70 years, so that's good stewardship of the public dollar because these are not my dollars. These are the public's dollars. These are our taxpayer dollars. And I take that responsibility very seriously.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: As you know Mayor Mamdani has been continuing to push to increase taxes on the one percent in corporations. You said, especially this week, you're really ruling out that increase on the one percent, that increase on taxes on the one percent. But what about a corporate tax?

Governor Hochul: I don't believe in raising taxes for the sake of raising taxes. And what is served by that? We have high taxes already predating my time. We have enough revenues to do what we want to do and what we need to do to support our state. So beyond that, I don't see a justification.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: So you're saying no new taxes this year, whether it be corporate tax, income tax, a tax on someone's second home, no taxes.

Governor Hochul: The caveat has to be what Donald Trump does to New York. We really do get a substantial amount of our revenues. Our Budget is based on probably – 30, 45 — high numbers of money coming in from Washington. And like I said, when they cut it off, we sue, we win. And for some reason they cut off a massive amount of money and he'd be responsible for this. And I'd make sure the Republicans in New York who supported this are aware that they own this. Then the calculation would have to change, but we're not there. And so I'm managing our spending within the tax revenues we bring in now. And that's good news for New Yorkers.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is challenging in the Governor's race. He called your State of the State unbelievable and compared it to a Saturday Night Live skit. What's your response?

Governor Hochul: Clearly has no sense of humor. Listen, I'm going to have a little fun once in a while, but in a serious matter, I have been governing this state with strengths. I have leaned hard into the issues that New Yorkers care deeply about, and even something like childcare or let's talk about another big driver of expense. If you own a car, you're paying the highest insurance premiums in the nation. Why? Because we have a system that rewards bad behavior. A drunk driver crashes into somebody and walks away, maybe they don't even have a license, but if they get injured, the insurance company's going to have to pay them out.

This is absurd. So I'm taking on entrenched interests on behalf of the people of New York, and so that is just one example of what I've done for four years, and what I'll continue to do for the next four years. And Bruce Blakeman does not have anywhere near the record I have, but also Donald Trump saying he's 100 percent MAGA. Pretty much the kiss of death here in New York.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: In your State of the State, you also pledge to continue to fund the NYPD over time, patrolling the subways. Mamdani has said he wants to cut NYPD overtime. Has he pushed back at all on your commitment?

Governor Hochul: No, and we'll do it because the NYPD protects and serves the city, but also the subway system. I have State Police. I brought in the National Guard when I needed to. I have MTA police, but to the extent that I can make the subway system even safer, at a time a few years ago when people were scared to go on the subway, the crime rates were up.

Our efforts have paid off in ways that are quite extraordinary. The number of crimes being committed has gone down to a fraction of what they used to be, the safest years we've had in decades. But I will keep that commitment because people feel better. When they see police officers, especially on the overnight, I want New Yorkers to feel safe.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: And I asked the Mayor last week, why he hasn't endorsed you yet. He said he's waiting for you to ask him. Are you going to ask him?

Governor Hochul: Stay tuned. Stay tuned.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Thank you. And last question for you: Buffalo Bills headed potentially to the Super Bowl. If they do make it to the Super Bowl, will you jump on a table like the fans do? I guess at Buffalo Bills games, I'm not a huge sports fan, but I know you are.

Governor Hochul: Yeah. I'm a huge sports fan. And I appreciate all the New Yorkers rooting for Buffalo. This particular weekend and beyond. They make the Super Bowl, I’ll jump on a table. Hell yes. Go bills.

Morgan McKay, FOX 5: Thank you so much, Governor. Appreciate it.

Governor Hochul: Alright, thank you.